News Muncher - searching for kickers

How do NFL kickers deal with pressure and failure? We asked three former greats

Few positions in sports face more singular pressure than NFL kickers. The Athletic posed that question to three former greats: Nick Lowery, a member of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Hall of Honor; Matt Stover, who ranks sixth in career made field goals; and Stephen Gostkowski, the 11th most-accurate kicker in league history. “It’s hard enough to do it right every …

Kickers

NFL kickers are better than ever from long distance, and that's changing football

NFL kickers are better than ever from long distance, and that's changing football toggle caption Ron Jenkins/Getty Images In the NFL, kickers are rarely a team's big star — but this year, they are stealing the show. Head coaches had to change, too The other key to uncorking the sudden boom in long field goals wasn't the kickers at all …

Why are so many NFL kickers getting hurt? Specialist switches have been trending up this season

Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce apparently wants to take the 'foot' out of football. On the latest episode of his 'New Heights' podcast alongside his brother and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Jason went off on what he deems to be the scourge of the league: kickers making too many field goals. Former Eagles center Jason Kelce …

Chaminade has become the school for kickers and punters

L.A. Kickers players finally get their long-deserved U.S. Open Cup tribute

The 1958 U.S. champion Los Angeles Kickers. Eberhard Herz, fourth from the right in the bottom row, is among the players who will be honored before Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final between LAFC and Kansas City at BMO Stadium. The last time Lothar Pospich, Manfred Norstadt and Eberhard Herz lifted the U.S. Open Cup trophy together, there were just a …

Analysis: Kickers benefited from rusty, ineffective offenses

Kickers tackling? You’ll see them forced to try under new NFL kickoff rules

Kickers such as the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker will be all by themself when they kick off under the NFL’s new rules on the play. “This is going to make more people be glued to their TV.” — Cinque Sweeting, kick returner for the XFL’s Vegas Vipers The new rules put the majority of opposing players much closer together for kickoffs, …

Prep Rally: Looking at the top defensive backs and kickers this season

For NFL kickers, new kickoff rules mean abandoning old habits, but also new opportunities

IRVINE, Calif. — New Orleans Saints special teams coach Darren Rizzi said he felt like a real estate agent during the early days of training camp, urging kickers to scrap their long-held, deep-ball approach to kickoffs and focus instead on “location, location, location.” “You’ve got to get the old mentality out of your heads,” Rizzi said. “It’s a little more …

No. 2 Bama’s Reichard has flipped script for Saban kickers

It’s time to ban kickers from fantasy football

Note: This column originally ran in November 2018, and was nominated for Fantasy Football Column of the Year by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. I’m happy to say that it appears as if the movement is gaining a ton of steam thanks to tweets Next year, should ESPN’s standard fantasy football game have kickers or no? The majority of the …

Are NFL kickers’ jobs easier without crowds? They say no. Stats say … maybe?