It’s hardly a thankless job, even though only one true placekicker (Jan Stenerud) is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Patriots fans have been thanking Billy Cundiff ever since the Baltimore kicker’s 32-yard attempt to tie the score with 11 seconds left in Sunday’s AFC Championship game veered wide left. Instead of going to overtime, the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl, with a surprising miss by Cundiff - he had been perfect from that distance and closer all season - helping to send them there.
Cundiff missed, and Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes made his overtime kick from 31 yards in New York’s 20-17 victory over San Francisco in the NFC Championship game. The situations weren’t the same - a miss by Tynes would have extended the game; Cundiff’s miss effectively ended it - but they served as a reminder about how important the kicker’s role can be.
“You can be immortal, like Adam Vinatieri, or you can live in infamy, like Scott Norwood, and it can all be based on one kick,’’ said Jay Feely, a 10-year NFL veteran who has played for five teams, including Arizona this season.
Feely was referring to two well-known kickers, for vastly different reasons. Vinatieri, now with the Colts, is a Patriots’ icon, kicking game-winning field goals in two Super Bowls, and coming through in numerous other big-game opportunities. Norwood pushed his 47-yard game-winning bid wide right on the game’s final play, costing the Bills in a 20-19 Super Bowl loss to the Giants in 1991.
Kickers share a unique bond, almost a fraternal relationship. They’re frequently the first on the field for warm-ups, and find each other after games. If anyone can understand something that happened to a kicker during a game, it’s another kicker.
In fact, Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko momentarily forgot what Cundiff’s miss and Sunday’s victory meant. He and Cundiff are friends, with Mesko working Cundiff’s camp in Iowa while in college, and pointing to the eight-year veteran as something of a mentor, even though Cundiff kicks and Mesko punts.
Knowing that Cundiff was gutted, Mesko sought him out.
