“The kick is up … and it’s … CLANG…”

NFL kickers have the deck stacked against them. They only enter the field of play when it’s necessary to kick an extra point, or to attempt a field goal. They kick the field goal, tap helmets with their teammates, and return to the sidelines.

If they score a field goal or an extra point, they’re expected to do that. If they miss the field goal or shank the extra point, they’re ripped to shreds in the media and online.

And then there’s that moment when they kick the ball … and it hits one of the goalposts. Sometimes it can still carom through the uprights and the points are still good, but other times the ball just bounces harmlessly away, noted only by the dull CLANG of a doinked kick off the uprights.

You would think that such an occurrence is rare. I mean, those are very thin uprights and there’s plenty of distance between them.

This video shows differently. This is over six minutes of doinked kicks from just the 2022-23 NFL season. Wow.

So why am I showing these doinked kicks?

Because of what happened last week.

Brett Maher, a kicker for the Los Angeles Rams, faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 7. He had one successful field goal completion in that game. But he also botched two other field goal attempts, as well as an extra point. Those seven points were left on the table, and the Rams lost by seven points.

And among the two missed field goals … was this one that twanged off the uprights.

I tried to embed it here, but you’ll most likely have to click on the block below to see it. Thanks, NFL.

So what happened after the Rams lost to the Steelers?

The Rams cut Brett Maher from the team and signed a kicker from the Cleveland Browns’ practice squad.

Well, that’s a fine how do you do, I guess…

But I guess you could have seen this coming. Brett Maher has games where his kicks don’t even land in the same area code as the stadium. For example … here he is in Dallas, botching FOUR extra points in a row. Again … go see it on YouTube. Thanks again, NFL.

But hey … I’m just guessing that the NFL doesn’t want anybody to see these Brett Maher botches. And that’s totally understandable. If I shanked four extra points in a single game, I’d hide my head in shame. If I spooted two field goals and an extra point – with one field goal clanging off the goalposts – I’d hang up my cleats and find a job stocking shelves at Walmart.

But then again … these people were good enough to actually MAKE an NFL roster.

Even as a kicker.

Which is certainly more than I’ll ever achieve. 😀