Kicker Trivia

Don’t get me going on kickers! I was an old-style straight-on kicker in high school…never could quite get the soccer-style gig. Got to kick a little in college intramurals. If you dig on the blogspot blog, a few months ago I wrote my personal kicking history.

I wasn’t paying close attention in the Rose Bowl, or I would’ve figured out who the USC kicker was…the son of former NY Giant kicker Joe Danelo. (how many Danelo’s do you know?).

Texas’ Russell Erxleben, Arkansas’ Steve Cox, and Texas A&M’s Tony Franklin were all booming 60-yard field goals down there in the old Southwest Conference at the same time…I remember an old SI article on them. Wasn’t Erxleben the first to punt a ball off the Superdome gondola? He was the only straight-on kicker of the three. Number 14 for the Saints when they were wearing those black pants, right? It appears he ran into some trouble with the law, according to Google.

Cox was drafted by the Cardinals and never made it either…was he in an accident? Little Franklin kicked for a long time in the NFL, barefooted, mostly for the Eagles.

I barely remember that about Saints RB Tony Galbreath filling in as the kicker. Did he not kick in college, at a small black school?

Steve Crumley was that UGA straight-on kicker. Didn’t think he was good enough to wear the same number 5 as Kevin Butler and Rex Robinson. Robinson kicked for four years, then Butler came in the next year and kicked as a freshman. An older friend at Tech said there were older UGA alumni who thought Robinson was still out there.

Mark Mosley was the NFL's last straight-on kicker. He and Butler wore those single-bar face masks, as did Gary Anderson of the Steelers/Vikings/Titans. Now the single-bar has been outlawed by the NFL……you can only wear it if you were ‘grandfathered in’. This year only the Cards’ punter wore one.

Todd Sauerbrun keeps things interesting, especially his feud with those Gramatica brothers, who didn’t seem to stick around very long.

Billy Lothridge was the first Falcons punter…as a GT QB he was a Heisman runner-up to Staubach…in the pros he filled in at safety. The Falcons first kicker, Lou Kirouac, was also an offensive lineman. Guard Jerry Kramer and RB Paul Hornung kicked for the Pack. Jim O’Brien won the Super Bowl for the Colts was supposedly a backup WR…that’s why he was number 80.

Interesting line from the old ‘Brian’s Song’ movie…when Piccolo was struggling to make the Bears as a RB, he commented to Sayers that perhaps he could make the team as a punter. He kicked in college.