Placekickers used to be a source of amusement for the real men of the NFL — never truly one of the guys. They were regarded more often than not as an unathletic loner immune to the violence and physical demands of the game, accepted only when asked to fulfill his one and only responsibility: kicking the ball through the uprights so his gladiator teammates don’t feel that all their blood, sweat and tears was not wasted and their broken bones were for naught.
No more. That perception has sailed wide right, gone with the wind. Placekickers are people too, and important people.
Justin Tucker was summoned by John Harbaugh to boot a 61-yard field goal to beat the Lions and save the Ravens’ season, and it’s goooooood!
Only eight days earlier, Matt Prater sent a record-setting 64-yard field goal into the Mile High air — the same Prater who owns the best field-goal percentage from 50 or more yards (20-26, .769) in league history of kickers who started their careers after 1970 (minimum 20 kicks).
What we have here is a veritable Invasion of the Legatrons.
In the 1960s, placekickers made just 13.1 percent of their field goals from 50 yards or more. Since 2000, that percentage has soared to over 53 percent.
There are 27 NFL kickers who have field-goal percentages of 80 percent or greater this season, and 13 of them are at 90 percent or higher. Consider that Pete Gogolak, the first of the soccer-style kickers, made 58.8 percent of his field goals from 1964-74. Forever young George Blanda finished at 52.4 percent from 1949-75. Lou “The Toe” Groza left with a 54.9 percentage from 1946-67. Jan Stenerud, the first “pure” field goal kicker to enter the Hall of Fame, made 66.8 percent of his tries from 1967-85.
“The biggest difference is the kicks from beyond 40 yards,” Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL’s Competition Committee, told the Washington Post two years ago. “That’s where the improvement really is. That was the impetus behind us wanting to change the overtime format for the postseason [eliminating the possibility of a team winning with a field goal on the opening possession of overtime] because the accuracy has become so good.”
With the help of former Jets-Dolphins special teams guru Mike Westhoff and former Giants placekicker Matt Bahr, Serby Says details why we are witnessing the foot is back in football in a big way:
The kicker himself:
An Adam Vinatieri can keep going strong after 40, and no one wonders whether he knows Brian McNamee or Tony Bosch.
“If you looked at Matt Bahr, you saw a little soccer player,” Westhoff said. “You don’t see that today. These guys are big, strong athletes. Just like a golfer, the good ones don’t have a lot of moving parts. Their technique is concise and precise.”
Bahr, no Garo Yepremian, said “size has nothing to do with it.” But maybe year-round training and working on your craft does.
“My offseason was spent skiing and playing soccer,” Bahr said.
The operation:
“It used to be if the snap got back there, you were happy,” Westhoff said. “The average get-off time from the snap to a kick was 1.33, 1.32 seconds. Now it’s a 1.23.”
The long-snapper:
“The position has benefited from the rule changes that essentially have classified the snapper as a defenseless player.
“It used to be when we allowed the guy on the center, you needed a certain type guy,” Westhoff said. “These snappers today, they’re a true specialist. It may not be the biggest guy. Some of these guys are 5-11, 240. They’re excellent snappers. When Tanner Purdum came to the Jets, I was a wreck, because we had James Dearth, who was this big, physical guy. The year he took over, you weren’t allowed to cover the center.”
Bahr recalled being amazed by long-snapper Steve DeOssie.
“Eight, nine times out of 10, the ball would come back laces up,” Bahr said. “I didn’t believe him when he said that.”
The holder:
The punter, with much more free time on his hands and leg, has replaced the backup quarterback.
“The holding technique is so precise,” Westhoff said. “That placement of the ball is right on the money.”
Bahr: “I always preferred the quarterback. They brought the ball in with soft hands. And you have the ability to run fakes.”
Bahr noted the kicking game is practiced more during the week. Add it all up, and it’s more difficult nowadays to block a field goal.
“You’ve got three guys working together every day,” Westhoff said. “They’re like clockwork.”
Better stadiums, surfaces, better footing:
“MetLife is much better than Meadowlands Stadium,” Westhoff said. “You don’t have the wind problems we used to have. The new Field Turf is much better than the old AstroTurf. Look at the surface of grass fields today compared to what they used to be.”
The K ball:
Footballs used to be doctored like this: an inflated football would be put in water for a short period of time, then put in an industrial dryer with some towels, then placed in a sauna, then removed from the sauna and buffed on a table with a piece of AstroTurf.
“As soon as the ball got to the quarterback, it was a big balloon ball, and quarterbacks hated it,” Westhoff said.
“Instead of performance-enhancing drugs, you had performance-enhancing balls.”
The NFL put a stop to the cheating, but the K Ball seems to serve the same purpose. Today a representative from both teams meets with the referee before games and the K Ball is removed from a sealed box and rubbed up a little bit by each team representative.
“It’s a fair but more friendly ball,” Westhoff said.
“I have been told by people that I respect that the K Ball goes a little further,” Bahr added.
Kickers on their toes:
“There are a lot more good kickers out there,” Bahr said. “If a guy’s having a couple of bad days, I don’t think the powers that be will hesitate to pull the trigger.”
Bahr, one of the clutch kickers of his time, is impressed with how well these guys are hitting the ball, but added, “It’s not the long field goal that keeps you in the league. It’s making all the 40-yarders and in, and kicking under the heat.”
It’s still a quarterback-driven league, however.
“If a kicker’s the most important player to your team,” Bahr said, “your team probably stinks, all right?”