Female Kicker To Be At NFL N. J. Combine

The story says she never played organized sports, but has made a 40-yard field goal. Of course it's a publicity stunt.

And Barnett caught a lot of flak over his comments about Katie Hneida, and justifiably so because they were incredibly tasteless, but his evaluation of her kicking skill was right on. She was horrible.

 

Jason Hanson's going on 43 and he still might be the best tackler among NFL kickers. The Aussie Rules punters will mess up a returner, though.

 

As a publicity stunt, there was once a female holder in the Atlantic Coast Football League. She held for her husband, who later got hurt and was cut.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1992-04-05/news/9204031063_1_palinkas-pat-fans

 

Has there been a regular female kicker for a Division I school yet? I know there have been a few places that have had a female kicker on the roster, but never as the regular.

When and if that happens, and if she becomes one of the better kickers in college football, then, maybe, it would be time to have this discussion.

Then, again, could she really be much worse than David Akers was last season?

 

Fifteen-20 years ago I covered a school where an all-state soccer player was loaned to the football team as a kicker. The kid had been born in Africa and his family moved to the US when he was 12.

The football team was a perennial playoff contender in one of the state's smaller divisions and had already won a state title a few years earlier. The soccer team was usually run of the mill but when a lower-division team gets an all-state player, that usually makes them pretty much an automatic championship contender.

The kid was loaned to the football team under the usual "kick and get off the field" arrangement. Him being on the kickoff team was usually not an issue because he almost always booted the ball out of the end zone. This arrangement had been in effect for all three years of his HS career.

Soccer playoffs start a week or so earlier than football. Both teams had playoff games the same day in November. The kid scores the winning goal in the soccer game, then kicks the winning FG in the football playoff game.

Well, during the week the soccer team has another game, and they LOSE, a relatively shocking upset. The kid's HS soccer career is over.

So the next Saturday the football team comes out for the next round of the playoffs, and guess who is suddenly starting both ways, WR on offense, free safety on defense, running back kicks, everything.

The first play on defense, this kid just absolutely plasters a receiver coming over the middle. He ends up making a dozen tackles, picks off a pass, and scoring a couple TDs on offense.

In the press box there were coaches from opposing teams who were going to face these guys later in the playoffs. They kept shaking their heads and saying, "oh, shit." They did go on to win the state title. They might have won it anyway, but with this kid added to the roster it was pretty much a breeze.

The kid went on to play D-I soccer -- I lost track what happened to him after that.

 

So much for that...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/lauren-silberman-first-female-kicker-try-regional-combine-014846317--nfl.html

 

I know a guy who just did a major spit take...