[Bette]

Through the first five weeks of this NFL season, more than a quarter of the league's games were decided by three points or less.
And with kickers, like Jason Hanson of the Lions, connecting at better than 80 percent for the second straight season, maybe it's time to separate the myth from the reality.
There's no arguing this point, either: In this era of parity in the NFL, the kickers rule.
"Hey, we didn't invent the game. I think everybody knows that," said Hanson, "But kickers win games and they lose games. That's just the way it is. And it's a big deal."
Too big a deal? Perhaps, though rule changes designed to limit the kickers' influence haven't done much to slow the trend. Over the last three decades, the NFL has pushed the goal posts back, effectively penalized teams for missed kicks and forced the kickers to use brand-new balls.
And yet, field-goal accuracy has risen steadily. Consider that Jan Stenerud, the only kicker in the Hall of Fame, retired with a career accuracy rate of 66.8 percent. Today, that wouldn't be good enough to make an NFL roster. In 1974, the year the uprights were moved from the goal line to the back of the end zone, NFL kickers made just four field goals of 50-plus yards. Last week, Houston's Kris Brown made three in one game.
"Everybody's just gotten better," Hanson said.
Kicking is king