Jeff Reed and the Most Jackwagon Idiot Kickers/Punters of All Time
Jeff Reed was just sent packing from the Steel City.
He helped Pittsburgh win two Super Bowls, but his kicking was woefully erratic this season. He even missed a 26-yarder in Sunday's loss to New England.
Reed really did himself in during a postgame interview in which he complained about the kicking conditions at Heinz Field, the media and the fans.
All this a year after he was been cited by the police twice last year (once for public intoxication, once for disorderly conduct when he beat up a paper towel dispenser... yes a paper towel dispenser).
But Reed is hardly the lone rogue kicker in NFL history.
Here is a list of 10 kickers that made big headlines having nothing to do with nailing a game-winning field goal or landing a punt that dies at the opponent's one-yard-line.
No. 10: Chris Hanson
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Chris Hanson was a good punter for several teams during the first decade of the 21st century.
But he too earned publicity for something he'd rather not have.
Hanson and the Jacksonville Jaguars got off to a poor start in 2003, losing their first three games. But new head coach Jack Del Rio urged the team with the metaphor "keep chopping wood." To illustrate his point, he brought an axe into the locker room, along with a hunk of wood so players could literally hack away.
The Jags won their Week Five contest against, San Diego, but the metaphor and the axe stayed in the team's locker room. Until, one day, Hanson took a swing, lost control of the axe, and gashed himself in the foot.
He was rushed to the emergency room and missed the rest of the season.
No. 9: Bill Gramatica
2 of 10Santiago Gramatica is the youngest brother in the famous fraternal kicking trio from Argentina. He kicked at South Florida, then in the Arena league.
Martin, is the oldest brother. He's also the most accomplished: a two-time All-American at Kansas State, spent nine seasons in the NFL, won a Super Bowl and made better than 75 percent of his kicks.
But the middle brother, Bill, is the most famous.
He was a fourth-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2001, a pretty high selection out of the University of South Florida. And he enjoyed a good rookie year, making 15 of 19 field goals.
But against the Giants in mid December, he celebrated a successful 43-yard field goal just a bit too hard (see video).
Gramatica tore his ACL, missed the rest of the season, and earned a permanent place in the NFL "hall of shame."
No. 8: Pat McAfee
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When you have Peyton Manning on your team, punters are rarely seen.
But in 2010, Colts punter Pat McAfee went out of his way to be noticed.
According to an Indianapolis television station, on October 6, he was charged with a misdemeanor for public intoxication after being spotted drunk and swimming (or having fallen) in a canal.
The team suspended him for one game, but he's back now and nailed three punts inside the 20 last week against Cincinnati. And he does have the distinction of having literally kicked off Super Bowl XLIV.
No. 7: Chris Gardocki
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The Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns rivalry is a pretty heated one.
For one, the fans hate each other.
And of course the players hate each other: something that translates into countless brutal hits during the course of the annual home-and-home set between the two teams.
But in 2000, Browns punter Chris Gardocki brought kickers into the dispute.
In a Week 3 home game against Pittsburgh, Steelers linebacker Joey Porter pounded Gardocki via a block on a punt return (for which he was drew an unnecessary roughness penalty). Gardocki lay motionless after the hit, but eventually got up.
Then he waved the middle finger to Steelers head coach Bill Cowher (twice), an action which television cameras caught on tape: maybe he thought Cowher instructed the hit? Regardless, Gardocki was fined $5,000 for flipping the bird.
Ironically, four years later, when the Steelers needed a punter, they signed Gardocki as a free agent. And in 2005, with Gardocki as his punter, Cowher won his only Super Bowl.
No. 6: Paul Hornung
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Obviously, kicking was not the legacy Paul Hornung is best rembered for.
In a truncated NFL career, he was a Hall of Fame running back after being a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Notre Dame.
Aside from scoring 62 career touchdowns (and throwing five more), he was also a pretty good kicker for the championship-caliber early 1960s Packers teams. From 1960-62, he made 36 field goals and was perfect on 96 extra points.
And after running with the football, throwing the football and kicking the football, partying was probably his next greatest strength.
He was notorious for staying out late, missing curfew and was suspended from the NFL in 1963 for associating with gamblers and other sketchy characters.
Doing all of that with Vince Lombardi looking over your shoulder: less than brilliant.
No. 5: Garrett Hartley
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A kicker who takes banned substances?
For a spot on this list, that's pretty much self-explanatory, isn't it?
Well, it's not quite the same as what Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens did... Adderall isn't exactly a performance enhancing drug. But it's still a banned substance.
In 2009, Hartley, the New Orleans Saints kicker, was suspended four games for using Adderall during the offseason. That cost him $90,000 in pay. It didn't really cost the Saints that much, however, as New Orleans started the 2009 season 4-0.
Eventually, Hartley would redeem himself, kicking three field goals in the Super Bowl win over Indianapolis in February 2010.
No. 4: Sebastian Janikowski
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Compared to the trouble he got into at Florida State (multiple fights at bars, along with an accusations of trying to bribe the arresting officer), Janikowski has laid fairly low in the NFL... at least in recent years.
But as a rookie in 2000, he was arrested for possession of GHB (date rape drug), and then two years later was arrested for a DUI. Not long afterwards, he was arrested for getting into a fight at restaurant in California.
He's stuck to kicking in recent years. Janikowski is the Raiders career scoring leader and holds the record for longest overtime field goal in history, 57 yards.
Still, he probably didn't warrant being the 17th overall selection in the NFL draft. Maybe Al Davis should have a spot beside him on this list.
No. 3: Garo Yepremian
8 of 10Garo Yepremian was an outstanding kicker for the Miami Dolphins in the early- to mid-1970s. During the Dolphins' three consecutive AFC Championships from 1971-73, he made 77 field goals and earned two all pro spots.
But he will forever be known as for "Garo's Gaffe."
In the fourth quarter of Super Bowl VII, as they were trying to complete their undefeated season, Miami lined up for a field goal that would give them a 17-0 lead over Washington. That final score would be a nice number, considering the Dolphins were about to finish their season with 17 wins and zero losses.
But the kick was blocked and Yepremian made the unfortunate decision of trying his best George Blanda impression (i.e. a kicker/quarterback).
No. 2: Nick Lowery
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Nick Lowery had a lot going for him during his NFL career.
He had an awesome, neatly trimmed mustache. He graduated from Dartmouth. And, at the time, he held the record for most field goals. He would also eventually be inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame.
But he left KC in 1994 and signed with the Jets. He was having another supremely accurate year (15-of-19) in his second season, 1995, when the Jets went to Foxboro to play the Patriots. There, Lowery committed one of the stupider kicker faux pas in NFL history.
According to published reports, in the third quarter, Lowery slapped a ball boy for not properly warming up the team's kicking balls (Lowery missed a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter: the Jets lost by three points).
In addition to the "profane" language, Lowery probably didn't like the fact that the team's ball BOY, was 20-years-old.
No. 1: Mike Vanderjagt
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Vanderjagt was one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history... that is if you don't count the 2005 postseason.
He averaged more than 27 field goals per season during his first five years in the NFL. But after the Colts were bounced from the 2002 NFL playoffs, he went on a Canadian radio show and criticized quarterback Peyton Manning and head coach Tony Dungy, among other "idiotic" things.
A few weeks later, during the Pro Bowl, Manning was asked about the comments, giving us one of the greatest sound bytes of the modern age.
"I'm out at my third Pro Bowl, I'm about to go in and throw a touchdown to Jerry Rice, we're honoring the Hall of Fame, and we're talking about our idiot kicker who got liquored up and ran his mouth off...
"The sad thing is, he's a good kicker. He's a good kicker. But he's an idiot."
Ironically, Manning was right, because the next year, Vanderjagt made all 37 of his field goal attempts, and he was nearly as good from 2003-2005.
Of course, in the 2005 AFC Divisional playoff game, he missed the game-tying 46-yarder at the RCA Dome against Pittsburgh, his last field goal attempt in a Colts uniform.
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