Are you one of those people who have never won a contest?
I don’t mean a contest of the wills – I mean the kind where you get your name drawn. You know, like a raffle, or a lottery, or, for example, a field goal kicking contest for College Gameday.
Future engineer Daniel, who goes to school at Cal, is decidedly not one of those people. And he proved it in front of the entire nation Saturday.
Next question: Are you one of those people who absurdly thinks kicking field goals is easy? That kickers, who spend most of the game on their buttinski riding the pine, should be able to hop up at a moment’s notice and never miss a 50-burger?
In this case, you’re wrong. Kicking field goals is extremely difficult. Unless you’re Daniel from Cal.
Good Guy McAfee Gives Daniel a Mulligan
To prove my point – McAfee actually gave Daniel two bites at the proverbial apple. On the first try, for a cool $75k, Daniel doofed it right.
Well, so much for that. Told you kicking field goals is hard!
But not so fast – McAfee gave him another shot, and this time for an even bigger prize: $100k large.
And on that kick, Daniel proved himself to be at least the equal of Green Bay Packers kicker Brayden Narveson. (Plus, the NY Post points out that he was wearing Vans slip-ons during the kick!)
Watch this beauty:
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The Truth About Field Goals
I had this conversation with the old man recently: Why do kickers get so much blame?
Sometimes kickers miss. There’s no such thing as an athlete that makes 100% of their attempts. Everyone acknowledges this in the larger picture, but when it comes to field goals, we seem to forget.
Like I mentioned earlier – just think about being the kicker. He gets up a few times a game for kickoffs (sometimes!), field goals, and extra points. The rest of the six or so hours he’s at the stadium, he needs to stay loose, limber, and focused on not ever missing, lest he wants to bring King Hell down on himself.
In my humble opinion, it’s actually incredible that kickers regularly turn in 80%+ seasons.
Amazingly, the trend line is absolutely clear: kickers are getting better, and missing fewer kicks. In 2001, kickers made a pedestrian 76% of all field goals attempted.
By last year, that number was up to 85.9%. (Though the trend for extra points has obviously reversed with the new, further attempts. In 2001, kickers made 98.5% of all extra points. Last season, it was a mere 95.9%.)
I heard a great bit of wisdom as a younger man, though I can’t recall where I heard it: if you’re blaming the kicker, you’ve got bigger problems.
Meaning, if 60 minutes of football all comes down to one man’s attempt to kick a pigskin 50 yards through little posts, many other things have already gone wrong. Your defense should have been stouter. Your offense should have scored more points. Missed a crucial 4th down? Blame the kicker!
At any rate.
Daniel, if you’re reading this, please go set up camp in the Lambeau parking lot. Football is more fun than engineering anyway.
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