Where are they now?

[jason]

Thought you guys might find this interesting.

 

I was working an Arena League game the other night and ran into Paul Edinger. Remember him?

Paul Edinger

 

Remember his twisting, whirling kicking style? Well, he doesn't do it anymore. I didn't want to be too intrusive so I didn't ask to pose for a photo or anything (photos below), but I did talk to him for a quick bit.

 

He's still trying to get back into the NFL, and he has completely reworked his kicking motion. He said after leaving the NFL he watched tape and realized that the unconventional twist was causing him to pull kicks (who woulda figured?!), and he had to straighten things out as well speed it up a bit. I always liked him, and he looks like he's gotten even more accurate.

 

 

 

[Connorbear]

Thanks for sharing. I always liked 'Slingblade'.

 

Peace

[bschmaranz]

Very interesting, hopefully he works his way back to the NFL.

[nfoligno]

I liked Edinger too, and for a while, he was a very solid kicker, odd style not withstanding. Thing is, usually once kickers "lose it" they don't get it back. I don't know if it is purely mental or what, but it isn't often that kickers struggle and get back to form. Once a kicker starts missing (not talking about a game or two) they don't usually become good kickers again.

 

Thought you guys might find this interesting.

 

I was working an Arena League game the other night and ran into Paul Edinger. Remember him?

Paul Edinger

 

Remember his twisting, whirling kicking style? Well, he doesn't do it anymore. I didn't want to be too intrusive so I didn't ask to pose for a photo or anything (photos below), but I did talk to him for a quick bit.

 

He's still trying to get back into the NFL, and he has completely reworked his kicking motion. He said after leaving the NFL he watched tape and realized that the unconventional twist was causing him to pull kicks (who woulda figured?!), and he had to straighten things out as well speed it up a bit. I always liked him, and he looks like he's gotten even more accurate.

 

 

[xvflutop]

I liked Edinger too, and for a while, he was a very solid kicker, odd style not withstanding. Thing is, usually once kickers "lose it" they don't get it back. I don't know if it is purely mental or what, but it isn't often that kickers struggle and get back to form. Once a kicker starts missing (not talking about a game or two) they don't usually become good kickers again.

 

 

I can definitely tell you from experience that it most certainly is mental. I remember days when I would try to kick instead of just of doing it and everything would be wrong. My accuracy would be gone and I would shank balls like crazy. not to mention that it seems the harder I try to kick the ball the worse of a kick it would become. Usually I had to take some time off for the issue to go away. When I came back to it, my kicks would be right on the money. I think with NFL kickers when this happens they don't really have that option of taking the time off. Plus once they start going down that road of missing easy kicks they won't be getting a lot of calls to compete for a roster spot. And seeing that each team tends to carry only 1 kicker and 1 punter competition must be pretty heated.

[defiantgiant]

Plus once they start going down that road of missing easy kicks they won't be getting a lot of calls to compete for a roster spot. And seeing that each team tends to carry only 1 kicker and 1 punter competition must be pretty heated.

Yeah - I kind of wonder if you could make a case for carrying a third kicker/punter on the roster. The Cowboys carried a third guy as a kickoff specialist (David Buehler out of USC) last season, but he was sort of a special case. He's got a huge leg for kickoffs but wasn't accurate enough to kick FGs, which ordinarily would mean he'd be out of a job. But he happens to be a 6'2" 227 former linebacker/safety, and he was fast enough to catch up with the rest of the coverage team after booting the kickoff. It seems like having a big kicker who can run and tackle would be a major advantage on kick coverage - you'd have 11 guys on the coverage team instead of 10. Given the number of Aussie rules players trying out as punters, I wonder if we'll start seeing more teams using a roster spot on a hybrid kickoff/coverage player.