Stanford & UGA: Why Kickers Should Have to Play Another Position

Each year since 1992, the Lou Groza Award is presented annually to the top college football placekicker in the nation. Lou Groza was a former Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns player.

The thing that people forget about Groza was that he wasn't just a kicker, he played most of his career as offensive tackle for the Browns. He was very proficient at both positions, named nine times to the NFL Pro Bowl and was All-NFL tackle six times.

Groza also led the NFL in field goals five times and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974. His No. 76 jersey is retired by the Browns.

This should be a rule:

Of course not everyone has a player of with the overall talent of Lou Groza. However, 99.9 percent of the game is played by a rotation of offensive and defensive players who leave their "blood, sweat and tears" on the gridiron.

Those players are then often relegated to sit and watch (or not watch—their preference) the outcome of a game decided by the foot of a player whose helmet may not fit and they kick into a net "in crunch time." 

Watching Blair Walsh of the Univeristy of Georgia and Jordan Williamson of Stanford cost their teams bowl victories cemented my stance on the issue. You should, in my opinion, have two options: punt, or go for it.

Unless the kickers play another position, in overtime you should be given four downs to score with no kickers involved.  

The irony in all of this: Blair Walsh finished the game yesterday as the SEC's all-time leading scorer!

I feel an onset of nausea coming on just writing this piece.

Walsh and Williamson are just kids who feel absolutely horrible today.  As a fan of either team, we are just disappointed that it had to rest on the foot of a kicker.

If you aren't familiar with Sammy Baugh and Lou Groza, please look at their careers. Then explain to me why such a physical game comes down to (Sebastian Janikowski aside) glorified soccer (futbol) transients.