on the brink of losing their jobs. Few observers were surprised ear-
lier this year when a veteran kicker, the New Orleans Saints’ John Carney, was cut after missing a single short kick. And, in November, Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Jeff Reed was quickly let go after missing a 26-yarder in a loss to New England. Shaun Suisham, the former Redskins kicker who had earlier won Cundiff ’s Cowboys job only to lose it himself, took over Reed’s spot. No one else on a football team —
or in major professional athletics for that matter — is so easily disposable. A starting NFL quarterback, a prince in modern American sports, thrives for years off dreams about nothing more than his potential. For many teams, a young, interception-prone quarter- back is a possible Hope diamond. Even a receiver can suffer a long spell of bad hands and at least hang on through the season. By contrast, kickers are accesso- ries, utterly interchangeable. Non-kickers typically express little
{
sympathy for the kickers’ odyssey. “They don’t have to do the same things as other players do,” Hasselbeck observes. “When a lot of team meetings are going on, I’ve seen those guys in the equipment room shopping online or playing cards or video games.” He chuckles. “They work very hard, but you also have to remember they have a lot of time to work on noth- ing but their craft. They just have that one thing to do: kick. The basic feeling of guys on a team, I think, is that kickers are supposed to make their kicks.” Especially when things go wrong,
chagrined coaches and announcers often refer to kickers merely by their po- sition. After the Redskins’ Gano missed what would have been a game-winning 47-yarder at the end of regulation against Tennessee, Sonny Jurgen sen fumed: “He choked — the kicker choked!” As it turned out, Gano won the game with a 48-yarder in overtime. Moseley sounds befuddled by the
modern state of kickers. “Teams think they can find kickers anywhere now,”
“The basic feeling of guys on a team, I think, is that kickers are supposed to make their kicks,” says former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck.
Moseley says. “I thought I had it tough.” Moseley, a late-round draft pick by
the Philadelphia Eagles, went to his first training camp to discover that the Eagles’ coaches had brought in more than 300 kickers to compete against him. “Some of the guys were right off the street,” he remembers. He won the job but lasted only
one season in Philadelphia. Cut during the 1971 preseason, he failed in a try- out in New Orleans and then was off to Houston, where he lasted two sea- sons. Released again, he found himself with no tryout invitations anywhere. He found himself in jobs that included servicing septic tanks, and was out of football for most of two seasons. Just as he was beginning to conclude he might never have an NFL opportunity again, he received an invitation to attend the Redskins’ 1974 training camp and com- pete for a job. On his first day, he recalls, head coach George Allen asked him if he knew why he was there. “I’m here to win a job as the kicker,
Coach,” Moseley dutifully replied. There was more to it than that, said
Allen, who explained that Moseley was there because the team required a kick- er especially reliable on the Redskins’ notoriously soggy home turf.
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