Adam Vinatieri not a fan of narrow goal posts

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The NFL experimented with extra points in Sunday night's Pro Bowl, and one veteran kicker did not like the changes.

The league narrowed the goal posts from 18.6 feet to 14 for its all-star event. In addition, the NFL made kickers attempt extra points from the 15-yard line for a 33-yard try instead of the normal 20-yard attempt, something the league tried in the preseason, as well.

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The Colts' Adam Vinatieri struggled with the new changes, as he missed two extra points and a field goal during the game. He was 50-for-50 on extra points and only missed one of 31 field goal attempts in the regular season. 

Following the game, he expressed his thoughts on the changes.

"Ask a receiver, can we take his gloves off because he's catching the ball too well?" Vinatieri said. "Nobody is going to be overly happy about that. But I understand the wheels of change are in motion and people want to change stuff, but I feel bad for the young bucks that will have to deal with it their whole career."

The whole idea of changing extra points and field goals came a year ago when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with Rich Eisen and proposed getting rid of the extra point all together.

"The extra point is almost automatic. I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd (attempts). So it's a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play," Goodell said. "There's one proposal in particular that I've heard about. It's automatic that you get seven points when you score a touchdown, but you could potentially go for an eighth point, either by running or passing the ball, so if you fail, you go back to six."

As for the narrower goal posts, Vinatieri hopes the NFL doesn't consider making the perminant switch. But if it does, he says it will change how teams operate once they get into enemy territory.

"Yeah, I mean obviously," he said. "I don't know, there was an 83 or 84 percent field goal accuracy this past year, I think this would knock it down to ... I don't know. I do know one thing, I doubt there would be as many 50-yarders attempted because the percentage would go way down."

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Jordan Heck is a social media producer at Sporting News