Tucker Sets New Field Goal Distance Record

[Bryan]

One thing I've always thought odd was how long it took the soccer-style kickers to overtake the toe-punchers. A big deal was made of Jan Stenerud making long field goals in Super Bowl IV, as if the NFL had never seen such a thing. But there wasn't a sudden rush by teams to find their own soccer-style kicker. Even in the late 70's, you had guys like Don Cockroft and Jim Turner making a high percentage of field goals while soccer-style kickers like the Mike-Mayer brothers and Chris Bahr were incredibly inaccurate. So I guess my other question is why did so many of the early soccer-style kickers suck? There weren't any better than the toe-punchers.

[RRMarshall]

Post by Bryan » Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:54 am

One thing I've always thought odd was how long it took the soccer-style kickers to overtake the toe-punchers. A big deal was made of Jan Stenerud making long field goals in Super Bowl IV, as if the NFL had never seen such a thing. But there wasn't a sudden rush by teams to find their own soccer-style kicker. Even in the late 70's, you had guys like Don Cockroft and Jim Turner making a high percentage of field goals while soccer-style kickers like the Mike-Mayer brothers and Chris Bahr were incredibly inaccurate. So I guess my other question is why did so many of the early soccer-style kickers suck? There weren't any better than the toe-punchers.

Bryan, the question you pose can't be answered with just a single factor. Many old-school coaches were reluctant to take on those soccer-style kickers and have them take up a roster spot when all they did was kick. Joe Schmidt of the Lions gave Garo Yepremian his walking papers telling him soccer-style kickers wouldn't make it long term in the NFL. Other than the Gogolak brothers and Jan Stenerud and Roy Gerela, who all came out of college, teams had to organize kicking caravans to find them. As the style became more popular by the mid-70s the soccer-style kickers began to outnumber the old guard toe kickers as more and more of the sidewinders came out out of the college feeding ground to the NFL.
So when you say it took over a decade to supplant the old style of kicking, a different perspective might be in the space of only a decade soccer-style kicking became the norm in the league. As far as the inaccuracy of the early kickers a lot can be contributed to the poor field conditions, lack of a consistent long snapper and holder combination (which would become the norm in the 1980s), as well as the fact that there was hardly any coaching available for these new kickers, they were on their own.

[RichardBak]

I think the biggest difference was drastically bringing in the hash marks in 1972. Instead of kicking at extreme angles, a kicker could pretty much line up the hash marks with the goal posts. Obviously, the change also opened up offenses in general.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

I think the biggest difference was drastically bringing in the hash marks in 1972. Instead of kicking at extreme angles, a kicker could pretty much line up the hash marks with the goal posts. Obviously, the change also opened up offenses in general.

Yes, that is very true. Chris Bahr told me the exact same thing and I know Ray Wersching would line up and kick via the hash marks rather than judge by the goal posts. Plus, like you pointed out, the kickers didn't kick at crazy angles anymore. Especially what have been easy chip shots inside the 25 for a long time. I wonder what some of the older kickers percentages might have been with the same hash marks -- particularly on short field goals.

[RichardBak]

That's what makes Lou Groza's record of 23 FG in 26 attempts (88.5%) in 1953 so other-worldly. It really doesn't get the notice it deserves. Here's a guy who plays the whole game at OT and is called on to boot FGs from crazy angles---and is damn near perfect. Lou also kicked 3 more FG in the title game, though I'm not sure in how many attempts (think it was 4). Again, simply amazing, especially when the collective FG % in the rest of the league was probably around 35% (if even that).

[Jay Z]

It took a while for better kicking to trickle down to the college and high school levels.

Remember until the NFL went to 40 man rosters that teams would try to save roster spots by having a regular player doing the kicking. Once they got to 40, that started to go away. Colleges were one platoon into the 1960s. The 1970s still had a lot of college teams, top schools, with kickers that could barely make a FG. That's why the NFL was taking all of these converted soccer players, what was coming out of college wasn't that great. By the 1980s the average college kicker was soccer style and also a lot better.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

That's what makes Lou Groza's record of 23 FG in 26 attempts (88.5%) in 1953 so other-worldly. It really doesn't get the notice it deserves. Here's a guy who plays the whole game at OT and is called on to boot FGs from crazy angles---and is damn near perfect. Lou also kicked 3 more FG in the title game, though I'm not sure in how many attempts (think it was 4). Again, simply amazing, especially when the collective FG % in the rest of the league was probably around 35% (if even that).

Wow...yeah, I had really overlooked that myself. That is incredible. I looked up stats on PFR and Gordie Soltau was 2nd in '53 with 66%. Agajanian, Rechichar, and Summerall were between 41% and 37.5.

What's interesting about Groza's career stats is that he generally had a much better percentage in seasons when he had 20 or more attempts. There are a couple of exceptions, especially late in his career, but I wonder if he got better as the season went on.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... ozLo20.htm

[Brian wolf]

Though his speed, range and talent were somewhat limited as a DB, I thought Bert Rechichar has a HOVG case with his competitiveness, hitting ability and tendency to make big plays, like his record 56 yard FG ... Weeb Ewbank had a helluva time trying to keep him off the field. A Baltimore legend ...

[RichardBak]

Rechichar was one of those players who epitomized the '50s NFL, or at least how we like to remember those days. One of those rough-hewn, salt-of-the-earth, do-whatever-was-asked, don't-mess-with-me kind of guys. There's some good stuff on him in the book When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore.

[racepug]

The college record is 69 yards, so a 70-yarder is likely going to happen at some point.

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-a-70-yard- ... 50585.html