No Room for error: behind the drama of being an NFL kicker AND a look at Stephan Gostkowski

You can't play football unless you can bench press a linebacker and take a bone breaking hit without, you know, breaking bones. But there is an exception: the kicker. They rarely boast the body definition of their fellow teammates and rarely possess the toughness that it takes to be wrecked by 325 pound Vince Wilfork. But nevertheless, each and every week, they get no appreciation. When they succeed they are ignored but when they fail, it’s a different story. 

They come to the tee play with the game on the line. Their team's passing and running offence has stalled out but like I said, the game is on the line. 1 possession in a game as close as just a few points, the contest can be won by one single kick. The backup QB takes to the huddle grabbing the snap and spinning the football’s laces towards the kickers sprinting foot. Now it is time, in a burst of reaction and stellar coordination, he drives the ball, lifting it over the heads and hands of an opponent's kick blockers and hopefully sliding through the ridged yellow arms of the field goal.

Now more often than not, those kicks ARE made. But in the some 20% of attempts that are not, legacies are tarnished, fans are enraged and the remembrance of guys like Billy Cundiff turns from one of pro bowl appearances and wonderful accuracy to one imprinted with the pain of that famed moment when, with the chance to go to the Super Bowl on the line, Cundiff screwed up the field goal attempt and lost the AFC Championship. 

Fact is, there is no position player in all of sports that endures a greater sense of pressure than the kicker. Yet even with all that they endure, any and all kickers are an almost forgotten part of the NFL. Well that is, until they are needed. But as with nearly everything on earth, there is an exception. Back in 2006 when the Baltimore Ravens number one place kicker was Matt Stover, his coaches would periodically force some sympathy out of Stover's teammates by ordering a linebacker, a quarterback and so on to attempt a 25 yard field goal. 

They would almost always miss.

"I love it," Stover said. "You line up for a 20-yard field goal and say, 'Aw, this is a chip shot.' But when you have to go out there and there is maybe 100 bucks on the line -- I hope that's not a salary-cap issue -- they have to try to perform that kick. There is no snap. There is no rush. There is nothing. They have got all the time in the world to line up and try to kick it through -- and more times than not, they miss it.

If you're lining up a 52-yard, game-winning kick, they look at you and go, 'Man, I am glad I'm not Matt Stover today.' That is when you gain the respect from your fellow teammates." 

"Mental toughness is extremely important," Stover also said moving into a slightly more serious tone and subject. "You've got to have coping skills because we're going to be in situations that are distasteful. Imagine delivering parcels, closing a sales deal or teaching a class of seventh-graders with 70,000 watching intently over your shoulder."

But no matter how much a coach can do, no matter how many mechanisms you can employ, those 70,000 '7th graders' are still there.  And no matter how much sympathy they try to draw, fact is, no one can and will ever be able to appreciate the fear and anticipation that a kicker lives with. One miss and you’re done. One miss and your fans hate you while the rest of the NFL makes fun of your failure. One miss and well, good things do not happen. 

We learned that with Billy Cundiff back in 2012.  

On January 22^ndof that year, the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens were knotted in an intense 20 to 23 4th quarter Patriots lead. But there was an added facet of intensity bubbling under this crucial score. This was the AFC title game and who ever won was headed to Indy to compete for a Super Bowl championship.

But as said before, Baltimore was down by 3 with 15 seconds to go in the game. The Ravens were sitting at 4th and 1, firmly situated at the Patriots 20 yard line. The game could easily have been over by now as mere seconds earlier, QB Joe Flacco belted a near touchdown pass to the end-zone that was stripped away at the last second via a Sterling Moore swat. At 4th and 1, Ravens kicker Billy Cunduff was called onto the field and asked to complete a near chip shot 32 yard field goal. This was not a difficult kick. 

But nevertheless, no matter the difficulty, New England got lucky and in the blink of an eye, Cundiff had missed the kick, slinging it wide left and sinking the ship on an insane 2012 Ravens playoff run. 

"There's no excuse for it, it just didn't go through." Cundiff said, sullen faced and obviously angry. But when you think about it, there might be an excuse after all.

Logistically seeking, when you look back at the replays of that crushing kick, Cundiff's holder did not spin the ball correctly and had the laces pointed AWAY from Cundiff at the time of the kick. That change in aerodynamic profile MIGHT have been enough to at least contribute to the missed kick. In addition to the holder's mistake, Cundiff could also at least partially attribute the miss to a score board 'malfunction'.

In the time leading up to the kick, the Gillette Stadium score board falsely reported that Patriots coach Bill Belicheck had called a time out. In an attempt to prevent himself from being "iced" a tactic employed by opposing coaches all the time, Cundiff continued to warm on the sideline a fact that meant by the time he realized he needed to be on the field he was forced to sprint to the line, depriving him of his normal pre kick routine.  

These things were out of Cundiff’s control but in the end once HE missed the kick, HE was the one who felt the wrath. In the end, HE was the one who was dropped from the Ravens and HE was the one who inspired countless internet jests, the most popular of which being a caption picture reading: "I don't always miss field goals...but when I do, I make sure that they are the most important ones of the season."  

But for NFL place kickers, the FEELINGS of those around them regarding a missed kick are sometimes not their only worries. You see, in the world of sports there is no position where performance is more closely effecting of a player’s salary than a kicker. Unlike Tom Brady esque quarterbacks, even the best kickers rarely get handed anything more than 1 year, 1 million dollar deals, and even that is subject to change. For Cundiff in particular, the year of his missed kick, he hauled in 1.2 million dollars. 1 season later and after bouncing around 3 different teams, Cundiff's salary has dropped off nearly $400,000. Fact is, when you miss big, you lose big. 

"A lot of guys can kick a 45-yard field goal, but not a lot of guys can do it under the pressure of a game-winning situation," Giants kicker Jake Feely said. "Pressure to me is coming home and answering to my wife why I missed that kick."

By now you may ask, how this all relates to Boston.   

As it stands, the Patriots are now widely involved in their preseason competitions and as it stands a lot has changed in this short off-season. Whether it be Hernandez getting arrested, Welker going to Denver or Rob Gronkowski's continuing recovery, the Patriots and in turn Tom Brady are all at a loss for many of their prime receiving roster members from a year ago. With that in mind, one comes to wonder how are the Patriots going to score in 2013? Now while it is true that yes Stephan Ridly will undoubtedly need to step up and become the Pro Bowl running back that he has the ability to be, New England does have some additional hope. 

After he was drafted in 2008, Stephan Gostkowski soon began to draw a look from Pats fans as almost immediately he began to look like the Adam Vinatieri New England had just lost a few seasons ago. For Vinatari, his first season saw him put up a field goals made percentile of 77.1. Stephan Gostkowski notched a near identical 76.9 in HIS first season. As time went on, the comparisons continued as by 2008, just his 3rd year in the league, Gostkowski was making 90% of his kicks.

Now in the 5 years since then, Gostkowski has tailed off just a bit but coming into this 2013-2014 season, he is poised for greatness. Just yesterday, he was named Sports Illustrated's number one fantasy football kicker and according to NFL network he is projected to nail a career high 38 field goals this season. Stephan Goskowski could easily become the Patriots key to a Super Bowl as in a season where defense will be key and touch downs might be at a premium, Goskowski's excellence will be all but mandatory in New England.

But nevertheless, looking back to the wider genera of ALL of the NFL's kickers, Gostkowski is one of them and his feeling about the position are most likely along the same lines of those of Matt Stover's back in 2006 when ESPN's Greg Garber conducted an interview with him.  

"The way I look at a kicker is that we are the sniper." Stover said  "We are the guy that sits out there in the brush for three, four days waiting for his opportunity -- to kick the field goal or take out the general or whatever it takes. He may have five seconds to pull that trigger. That's exactly the way I look at my job."

Kicking is insane. You spend hours preparing and in truth all that preparation comes down to a single kick that is in play for just over a second. Hours, weeks, and a lifetime of dreams all compacted into a mere second of action. You either make the kick or you do not. There is no room for error. 


                              

          

 Jake Feely, Adam Vinatieri, Billy Cundiff, Matt Stover: left to right, top to bottom