Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The Straight Stuff on Straight-on Kickers

The straight-on style of placekicking is a lost art in American football. Since the 1980s, soccer-style kickers have dominated the sport, leaving straight-on kickers with little more than fond memories and the occasional highlight on ESPN Classic or the NFL Network.

Unless you were born before 1970, you probably don't remember seeing a straight-on kicker live and in action. Straight-on, or conventional-style kickers, approach the ball in a straight line and kick with the toe. Soccer-style kickers, who began to appear in the 1960s, approach the ball from and angle and kick with the instep.

Straight-on kickers hold a special place in football history. I should know, as I was the last straight-on kicker at my high school in 1980 and truly among the last of a dying breed. Only a few straight-on kickers now exist at the high school and college levels. Maybe someday straight-on kickers will make a comeback, but until then, we can only remember the glory that was the straight-on kicker.

Some of the great straight-on kickers include Mark Moseley, Jim Bakken, Russell Erxlaben, Fred Cox, Don Chandler, Don Cockroft and Errol Mann. Straight-on kickers like George Blanda, Lou Groza, Paul Hornung, Gino Capelletti, Gene Mingo and Bob Waterfield excelled at other positions, while many straight-on kickers also handled punting duties. Straight-on kicker Tom Dempsey held the record for longest NFL field goal of 63 yards for 28 years until it was tied by Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos in 1998.

Great moments in the history of straight-on kicking include Groza's 16-yard field goal to win the 1950 NFL title game, Chandler's winning field goal in the 1965 NFL play-offs, Dempsey's 63-yarder on November 8, 1970, Jim O' Brien's winning field goal in Super Bowl V on January 17, 1971 and Mike Morgan's 38-yard field goal at Whitefish Bay on November 4, 1980. Moseley was the last full-time straight-on kicker in the NFL and 1982 league MVP, ending his career in a 1987 play-off game for Cleveland. Part-time kicker Steve Cox kicked one field goal and three extra points for the Redskins in 1988. Erxlaben kicked a 67-yard field goal for the University of Texas in 1977 and still shares the NCAA record.

2 comments:

  1. I can`t envision any scenario in which straight on kicking would make a comeback..Soccer style generates 30% more leg speed and the instep has about 5 sq inches of contact, only 2 sq in straight on..

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  2. Soccer style kicking is much more popular, I suspect, because it's much easier to learn; and hence, more accurate (for a typical lazy athlete). Soccer style kicking also doesn't require extensive knowledge of sports psychology, nor the discipline required to train one's brain to swing the leg straight through the ball AND connect the middle of the foot with the middle of the ball on a consistent basis. Soccer style kicking also allows little guys (under 6-feet tall and 240 lbs.) to kick long distances, due to speed and leverage advantages of the style. Though, from a purely theoretical framework, straight-on kicking has the potential to be extremely accurate because it requires pinpoint precision to properly execute. Does that mean it's impossible do perform on a consistent basis? No, but it does mean that one would have to put in the requisite time, effort, AND have the knowledge - that is not required of a soccer-style kicker - to generate relatively-consistent kicking. That is not to say that soccer-style kickers don't need to practice; only that they won't need to practice nearly as much nor have anywhere near the amount of knowledge required of a straight-on kicker to be effective. And the results speak for themselves: no past straight-on kicker in the professional ranks has had a career FG percentage above 65%. Those kind of numbers wouldn't get you a tryout in today's kicking world.

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