The Pressure on Place Kickers

[LeonardRachiele]

Many years ago a sportswriter asked the Lou Groza from the Cleveland Browns how  rough it was to place kick and play offensive tackle.  Let's remember that for ten years Groza was one of the NFL top lineman.   LG thought it was great.  If Groza missed a kick, he had to play all the better in both pass and run blocking.  This was a tremendous incentive and his play got even better than the coaches expected.   Sadly this is not the case today.  A place kicker has not been at another position for almost 40 years.  Huge crowds are cheering and the pressure is often unbearable.  One bad game or even one bad kick  and team releases him.  Fred Ackers, until the 2011, did very well and could stand the tension.  The story is just  is a state of mind.

Let's look at  Paul McFadden, whom the Philadelphia Eagles drafted for the 1984 season.  McFadden set an Eagles single season scoring record and was the the NFL Rookie of the year.    His excellent placekicking  continued with one notable exception in 1985.  The dud was at Veterans Stadium against the New York Giants.  With the score tied at 10 late in the game,  Paul McFadden missed a 42 yard field goal attempt.  The Eagles lost 16 to 10 in overtime.  In 1986 came a real downturn.  McFadden missed short fields at home in the following losses:

17 to 14-New York Giants

17 to 14-Dallas Cowboys

21 to 14-Washington Redskins

I will discuss the last game later.  By 1987, McFadden's kicks were going all over the place and the Eagles released him after the season.  The only thing comparable to a place kicker in football is a pinch hitter in baseball.  The pinch hitter has not played in the game.  His timing may be off and it is in a situation where the team really needs a hit. Pressure though is the key problem with place kickers.  The story of Paul McFadden gets repeated many times

[Cali_Eagle]

Paul McFadden went to my high school. He was a SOCCER player, recruited by the coach to kick for the football team. He went on to Youngstown State as a PK. He scored more than double the NFL points that famed RB Robert Smith did (also from Euclid High School)

[Gary Najman]

Paul McFadden went to my high school. He was a SOCCER player, recruited by the coach to kick for the football team. He went on to Youngstown State as a PK. He scored more than double the points that famed RB Robert Smith did (also from Euclid High School)

Did he also played soccer barefoot? (I'm kidding).

[Cali_Eagle]

Paul McFadden went to my high school. He was a SOCCER player, recruited by the coach to kick for the football team. He went on to Youngstown State as a PK. He scored more than double the points that famed RB Robert Smith did (also from Euclid High School)

Did he also play soccer barefoot? (I'm kidding).

LOL!! Good one! I would doubt it considerably lol, which begs the question, how did any of those barefoot kickers get started doing that? Makes no sense to me.

Another question... aside from Doug Flutie 1/1/2006 dropkick... who was the last straight on kicker to play regularly in the NFL? Also, (again aside from Flutie) when were the last true straight on extra point & field goal kicks both attempted and made?

This isn't trivia, I am curious to know the answers if someone knows them.

[RichardBak]

The last toe-kickers were teammates on the Redskins in the '80s: Mark Moseley and Steve Cox. Moseley retired after the '86 season, but Cox holds the distinction of nailing the last straight-on FG, kicking a 40-yarder (and 3 XP) against Phila. in the season opener on Sept. 13, 1987. He was the back-up place-kicker for Jess Atkinson, who'd sprained his ankle earlier in the game. Every FG since that day has been made by a sidewinder.

Cox is an interesting case. He handled punts and kickoffs during his career with Cleveland and Washington, but he was occasionally used on long-distance FG tries. In fact, he had the league's longest FG in 3 different seasons: a 58-yarder in '83, a 60-yarder in '84, and a 57-yarder in '86. Damn remarkable when you consider he only kicked 6 FG in (in 15 attempts) overall!

Aside from Tom Dempsey's famous 63-yarder, Cox's 60-yarder is the longest ever by a straight-on kicker.

[rhickok1109]

Paul McFadden went to my high school. He was a SOCCER player, recruited by the coach to kick for the football team. He went on to Youngstown State as a PK. He scored more than double the points that famed RB Robert Smith did (also from Euclid High School)

Did he also play soccer barefoot? (I'm kidding).

LOL!! Good one! I would doubt it considerably lol, which begs the question, how did any of those barefoot kickers get started doing that? Makes no sense to me.

I remember that Tony Franklin, the NFL's first barefoot kicker, grew up kicking barefoot because he just never wore shoes as a kid.

[JohnTurney]

Cox is an interesting case... Damn remarkable when you consider he only kicked 6 FG in (in 15 attempts) overall!

average attempt = 53.9 yards - longest average in NFL history (per PFR) for anyone with more than one attempt.

Cox was a good college kicker, saw him a lot at Arkansas--better punter, IMO, than kicker.
But never could translate to NFL-level, really. average punters at best.

Another guy like him a "long range specialist" was Lee Johnson. 53.0 avg attempt but only tried 7.

even strongest leg kickers average around 40 - so many short ones...

makes me miss Rupert - all this FG talk

[Cali_Eagle]

The last toe-kickers were teammates on the Redskins in the '80s: Mark Moseley and Steve Cox. Moseley retired after the '86 season, but Cox holds the distinction of nailing the last straight-on FG, kicking a 40-yarder (and 3 XP) against Phila. in the season opener on Sept. 13, 1987. He was the back-up place-kicker for Jess Atkinson, who'd sprained his ankle earlier in the game. Every FG since that day has been made by a sidewinder.

Cox is an interesting case. He handled punts and kickoffs during his career with Cleveland and Washington, but he was occasionally used on long-distance FG tries. In fact, he had the league's longest FG in 3 different seasons: a 58-yarder in '83, a 60-yarder in '84, and a 57-yarder in '86. Damn remarkable when you consider he only kicked 6 FG in (in 15 attempts) overall!

Aside from Tom Dempsey's famous 63-yarder, Cox's 60-yarder is the longest ever by a straight-on kicker.

Interesting answer. Thanx for sharing this. I am (I must be a subconscious masochist) a Cleveland Browns fan. I knew of Steve Cox, I believe his 60-yarder is a Browns record for the original team, prior to the Baltimore Ravens transition. (I refuse in my mind to combine the original Browns team record book with that of the "new" Browns. As an aside, they should have called the new team "The Bulldogs" after the 1924 NFL Championship team. & changed the colors to red, black & white, those of the Canton McKinley HS Bulldogs. Another nod or two to Canton. & also had separate record books.) I recall when he was our "long kicker specialist for kickoffs & long field goals. Didn't realize he was the "last of the breed". I suspected the fulltime kicker might have been Moseley but wasn't sure... was also thinking of Rick Danmeier of Minnesota but I see Moseley lasted longer than Danmeier did.

Your statement about Tom Dempsey was an eye-opener to me. He did it straight on, which will prob be the all-time NFL distance record for that style. He also may have done it from below sea level. or close to it. Most NFL distance kicks have come in Denver. Then we have Jim O'Brien who will probably be the last straight on kicker to kick a game winning Super Bowl FG.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

LOL!! Good one! I would doubt it considerably lol, which begs the question, how did any of those barefoot kickers get started doing that? Makes no sense to me.

I remember that Tony Franklin, the NFL's first barefoot kicker, grew up kicking barefoot because he just never wore shoes as a kid.

I've gotten to know Tony Franklin a little bit through the years, and I've been lucky enough to hear him tell the story of why he started kicking barefoot a couple of times. It was because the athletic shoes had really thick soles that didn't flex when kicking. So in high school, he tried kicking the ball without a shoe and started hitting field goals from 50 yards at age 15. He also played safety in high school. Mark Moseley was a QB in HS, played some QB in college, and was third on Washington's depth chart. Even today, a lot of these guys played other positions and are now kickers in the pros. Justin Tucker played receiver on a team that Nick Foles was the QB at Westlake HS in Austin.

Guys like Lou Groza, Gino Cappeletti, Bob Waterfield and Paul Hornung are just incredible to me. Jerry Kramer kicked for GB as well in the 62 Championship. Bert Richichar, I could go on for days. But especially amazing are guys like Cappeletti or Hornung who might score a 50 yard TD and then kick the extra point right afterward.

Also amazing are guys like Sammy Baugh and Yale Lary on the punting end of things.

I'm not sure if McFadden's issues might not have been much different than a hitting slump in baseball. It's just a lot more visible in the NFL when so much hangs on kicks in close games. These guys have to make a lot of kicks to get to the NFL. Plus, there are always weather factors - cold weather can be especially difficult I've heard.

[shig]

Awesome thread. I'm a huge fan of kickers and special teams in general . Love the stuff I just learned reading this. I too am curious about the barefoot kicking style. As a Broncos fan I grew up watching Rich Karlis do it. My cousins and I used to try it when we were kids. Couple broken toes and sprained ankles were the result of many , many attempts.