I know it's hard, doesn't mean I have to be impressed with kickers. Odds are with him afterall to hit that kick.
I wouldn't be impressed with that no. Penalty kicks aren't something footballers spend their time training. If they would they would hit penalties like that consistently.
I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had no control over what impresses me.
Eboue just posted them.
Threading a ball to a team mate with perfect weight is probably the hardest. Also controlling the ball away from danger with someone stronger than you breathing down your neck is very hard. You see United attackers struggle with that every game.
I'm with you. No doubt it's skilful and very tough to pull off in tense situations, they're still very dull to watch compared to the rest of the sport. Overtime should be first to score a td!
Backup QBs usually.
Well think about how much these kickers have practised throughout their life. How many years is it? They didn't start when they were 5 but rather something like 14-16. So they've got about as much experience kicking as a 15 year old that has played tennis since he was 5. Look at Morten Andersen. He was an exchange student in the US, tried kicking for his high school team and he wound up getting a scholarship because he was so good compared to other US kids and he had never kicked an American football before but by Danish standards he was a very good footballer. He was the best college football kicker in the US having only been a kicker for 4 years.
Yeah. The Calvin Johnson one and then later Dez v GB get notoriety now, but that was the original great ‘catch’ which kickstarted the deep philosophical debate about what constitutes a reception.
Fair enough. I see where you’re coming from, the angle that they are paid professionals, and it’s their job to do it, which is understandable. True, most will be able to make a field goal from a reasonable distance with enough practice, even moreso for a pro (although a 48 yarder is quite some distance and his 57 yard try set the record for longest playoff game winner). Anyone can also convert a cool unsaveable penalty in practice or during a kickabout with their mates.
Sure. I mean penalty kicks are basically just being comfortable enough doing them so that the pressure doesn't get to you and field goals are similar in that respect, also being away in the Superdome. I'm not saying that the kick wasn't good or it's not hard to score from 50+ yards, I'm just saying I'm not impressed with kickers in general and that's probably because I had been practising and watching football for almost 2 decades before I saw these people being paid to basically take goal kicks. The bar for doing hard things with balls is just higher for me. Shit, even Messi has sort of raised that bar now. It used to be that scoring more than 30 goals a season was a amazing, now it's just good.
