Doug Robinson: Please kick any coach who tries to ice a kicker

Nick Stamms of STATS, Inc., produced another study that examined every pressure kick (those in the final two minutes of the game) from 1991 to 2005. It showed a 71.7 percent success rate for non-iced kicks versus 72 percent for iced kicks. (Coaches seeing this will say — to borrow a Jim Carrey line — "So you're telling me I've got a chance!")

According to a 2010 report in the Wall Street Journal, from 2000 to 2010 NFL kickers converted 77.3 percent of their field goal attempts in the final two minutes or in overtime when no timeout was called. When a timeout was called, kickers converted 79.7 percent.

Personally, I think the icing practice is bush league and bad form, and referees should ignore timeouts that come too late to stop the play. Imagine a baseball manager calling timeout a split second before Justin Verlander releases a fastball for a called third strike or a home run or whatever.

Imagine calling a timeout a split second before Kobe Bryant releases a free throw with the game on the line? Well, fortunately, basketball has a rule against that. Once the ball is handed to the player no timeouts should be called.

A similar rule is long overdue in the NFL. One solution: No timeouts can be called once the play clock reaches 15 seconds or 10 seconds.

For now, when a kicker is on the field and the game is on the line, nobody is sure what they are seeing.

email: drob@desnews.com