Deadspin: kickers

The Most Extreme PAT Ever

Barry Petchesky — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

A high schooler boomed his kick into a transformer, knocking out power to the neighborhood. I assume the remainder of the game was played in slow motion, with sparks cascading around them, like a John Woo film. [Birmingham News]

Morning Blogdome: We Are Kickers, We Kick Ball

Rick Paulas — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:30:30 EDT

We Play With Ball, We Kick The Ball: Notre Dame's kicking woes force them to land a kicker who's never, uh, kicked before. [Sports by Brooks]

Goodbye, Sally's College Fund: You can now place bets at the Maloof Brothers' Casino for all NBA teams not named the Sacramento Kings. [USA Today Blog]

Yee-haw!: Visual evidence of Scott Speed riding a mechanical bull. [The Fast and the Fabulous]

The gentlemen from New York has the floor: Liveblogging of yesterday's Yankees-related tax evasion trial. Or something like that. [Runnin' Scared]

More than cowbell: Phillies super-fans have a ways to go to get to the intensity of this Rays fan. [Big League Stew]

You, Too, Could Kick In The Arena League

Will Leitch — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:20:05 EDT

Who says the Arena Football League isn't fan-friendly? Before the Chicago Rush's game this weekend, kicker Paul Edinger — so THAT'S where he is! — tweaked his groin, which is never good. The Rush had no extra kickers ... so they held an open call for fans.

They found a guy who had actually tried out for the Bears against Edinger.

Joe O'Donnell, a friend and former teammate of Rush lineman John Moyer with the Florida Bobcats in 2000, had driven from Birmingham, Ala., with his wife to watch the game. Moyer called him and said the Rush needed a kicker.

O'Donnell was hurried into the locker room, given shoes, shorts, T-shirt and an emergency tryout, which was sufficient for coaches to put him on the roster in time for lineup submissions.

He made five-of-seven extra points, which isn't too bad, all told. There has to be an enterprising AFL owner out there somewhere who will make this a regular thing, right?

Somebody Get Me A Helmet. Quickly. [It's Still Football]

Son, This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You

Leitch — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:15:24 EDT

Every new father has had the idea: If I can somehow start training him at birth, I can make my son into a world-class athlete. This tends not to work out well.

But the young father at Empty The Bench, tongue somewhat in cheek, is gonna give it a shot anyway, but he's gonna make his son a kicker.

That kind of composure doesn't just happen. You learn it, you work on it every day. So after he's done with his homework, Kirby and I will work on pressure situations and ignoring distractions. I'll set up in my lawn chair and get the hose and airhorn out, and he'll go to work. I'll randomly shout, sound the airhorn and spray him to simulate distractions. We'll turn on the steady stream so he knows what it's like to kick in adverse weather, maybe get some sprinklers going. If he can't make a kick with a hose in his face in front of some neighborhood kids or the girl he's got a crush on, how will he ever make a Super-Bowl-winning kick? Of course, I'll put down the hose in the winter, but hopefully mother nature will give us a hand between December and March. Once he gets good, in order to increase the pressure I'll have to throw out the occasional ultimatum ("If you don't make this kick, you're calling in sick to school tomorrow!").

Our father did this to us too, though it had nothing to do with training us to be a kicker.

Andrew Kirby, The NFL Kicker [Empty The Bench]
Whatever Happened To Todd Marinovich? [Wood On Sports]