The neglected third
Kickoffs, punts, field goals and the returns attached to them make up a genuine share of the snaps in an NFL game, and they receive a tiny fraction of the analysis given to offence and defence. Commentary treats these plays as connective tissue between the parts that matter, when they are frequently the parts that decide the margin.
This is not a complaint about kickers being underappreciated for its own sake. It is a complaint about a blind spot: a unit that swings field position by twenty or thirty yards on a single play is being watched less carefully than a three-yard rush on first down.
Where the games are actually lost
A blocked punt, a long return allowed, a missed field goal from makeable range — these are exactly as decisive as a turnover, and they are discussed with a fraction of the seriousness. Part of the reason is structural: special teams units rotate specialists who are otherwise invisible, so there is no ongoing narrative attached to them the way there is to a starting quarterback.
But the box score does not care about narrative. A team that consistently loses the field-position battle on special teams is fighting from behind before its offence or defence has done anything, and that disadvantage compounds over four quarters exactly like any other.
A modest request
I am not asking for punter profiles to dominate the pregame show. I am asking that when a close game turns on a special teams play, it gets named as clearly as a turnover or a fourth-down stop would be, instead of being folded into a vague sense that the game was close.
Watch one unit closely for a full game and the habit becomes hard to unlearn — you start seeing field position build or collapse in real time. Arena's NFL rules guide covers the mechanics of the kicking game if you want the vocabulary for it.