Legendary Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley waves to the crowd before the Redskins’ oct. 17 game against the indianapolis Colts.
behind a cactus. “You know what those cute things do?” he says. “They take that beak of theirs, ram it right down on a rattlesnake’s head, knock it out and then eat it. Cute has nothin’ to do with it. They’re tough. … Dominance. Dom- inance wins. It’s tough out there. My guys have to see that, too. Only some will make it.” At 60, Zauner is proudly old school
to a sports psychologist. “He works with a lot of military guys,” Cundiff says. “Special Forces types. It’s an approach that gets away from that California hot tub stuff. … I think it’s done quite a bit for me. … You look for everything you can do, every edge.” Joining the Ravens last season dur-
ing week 11 of a 16-game NFL schedule, Cundiff made 12 of 17 field goal attempts for the team, just over 70 percent, with his longest field goal coming from 46 yards. The stats were unremarkable, but in November he made the most im- portant kick he had attempted in four years: a short game-winning field goal in overtime against the Ravens’ tough divisional rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nicole was exultant, but Cundiff knew better than to celebrate. “Let’s be hon- est,” he says. “I needed to make that kick just to stay on the team.”
G
ary Zauner exits his house in a Phoenix suburb, on his way to a kicking lesson. He glances at a few snake skins that have been shed in his
garden, then wheels around, having caught a glimpse of something mov- ing. A skipping roadrunner, as cute as its namesake cartoon character, scur- ries across his driveway, disappearing
when it comes to attitude and disci- pline. If a student misses a series of kicks, the last thing he wants to hear from the guy is that he’s just having a bad day. “A bad day? You can afford a bad kick, but you can’t afford a bad day,” he says. “You have a bad day, and you’ll never get a job.” He doesn’t want to see someone going through the motions at one of his lessons, either. He has his lines ready, the way other people carry around canisters of Mace. “You know what, man? Practice … doesn’t … make … perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” He regularly points at the half- dozen or so footballs that, having been kicked down the field, now need to be retrieved. “Go get the balls,” he tells his students cheerfully. For this, along with two days of les-
sons and videotape reviews of their performances, the dreamers pay him $1,200. And it has been worth it, in many
cases. Some of the game’s most gifted young kickers have come through these doors. Just the week before, in early Oc- tober, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Josh Scobee, who to that point in the season had not missed a kick, publicly praised Zauner for helping to refine his kicking stroke. The Oakland Raiders’ Sebas- tian Janikowski sought Zauner out two years ago, after which, coincidence or not, his accuracy rate soared again, leading later to a $16 million contract. It’s a long ways from the offseason
camps that Zauner helped run in his native Wisconsin during the 1970s, when he would join forces with a cou- ple of established NFL kickers whose names lured young starry-eyed camp-
ers. Amazed and amused, he watched the extraordinary Stenerud struggle to explain to kids how he did what he did. Zauner tells the story while imitating Stenerud’s Norwegian accent. “Stener- ud would shrug,” Zauner remembers, “and look around at these kids and say, ‘I take two or three steps this way, and I take one step this way, and I just kick the ball.’ That really hit me. It made me realize a lot of good athletes can do it, but they can’t explain it, not at all. They do it completely by feel. … I thought, There’s a need for somebody to really teach this. And so I studied and broke it down.” On this day, Zauner’s student is
25-year-old Clint Stitser, once regarded as a prodigy — a high-school All-Amer- ican kicker from Reno and next a star kicker at Fresno State. But Stitser hasn’t made a professional team. After two years out of football, he attended Zaun- er’s free agent combine last March, performing impressively enough to win an invitation from the Jets to attend one of their preseason camps. He had a bad first day there and was soon on a plane back to Nevada. Late in the pre- season, he kicked in a couple of games for the Seattle Seahawks before being released. Stitser has told Zauner that he would
be willing to kick anywhere for the time being, including in the Canadian Foot- ball League or the United Football League, and Zauner has tried to get a read on the job market for him. When a CFL coach called Zauner for recom- mendations, Zauner mentioned Stitser. The coach responded that somebody connected with the Jets had told him that Stitser hadn’t fared well at their camp. Zauner called Stitser and said, “Clint, when that kind of rumor starts going around, that’s not good.’ ” “I just had a bad day with the Jets,”
Stitser protested. “Clint, you know how I feel about a
bad day,” Zauner replied. “What have I said? You can’t afford a bad day.” Later, he meets Stitser at a high
school field, and they get to work, zero- ing in on Zauner’s gospel. “What I want you to do is not keep your eyes down and back as you come through the ball,” he tells the right-footed Stitser. “I want
december 12, 2010 | The WashingTon PosT Magazine 19
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