What would you say which position scores the most points in American football? Quarterback, running back, wide receiver? No, the answer is the placekicker. Actually, the all-time highest-scorer in the NFL is placekicker Adam Vinatieri with 2,673 points.
The second on the list is also a placekicker, and so is the fourth, fifth, and all the way to #38. Even in the 2020 season, sportsbooks on Reddit are suggesting it’s very likely that a placekicker is going to score the most points.
Apart from scoring a lot of points, there’s another interesting fact about the placekicker – this is practically the only player who actually kicks the ball with the foot. Other footballers carry it in their hands.
Another sport where players kick the ball with their feet is football or, as Americans call it, soccer. This fact brings out the question of whether association football players could take this role? The answer is that they can, and they seem pretty good at it!
NFL Teams Sign ‘Soccer’ Players as Placekickers
On Friday, October 9, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced the signing of a new placekicker, Jon Brown. What’s interesting is that he’s the fifth placekicker to be brought into the roster in five weeks. An even more interesting fact is that Jon Brown hasn’t always been an American football player. He started his athletic career in association football.
Less than a month before Brown joined the Jaguars, similar news came from Indianapolis. On September 15, the Colts signed Matt Gay as a new placekicker. Same as Brown, Gay also started his journey as a ‘soccer’ player. In his college days, this guy won the 2017 Lou Groza Award for the best placekicker in the country, but before that, he played association football for two seasons.
Another story suggesting that the league is planning to focus on footballers is the one surrounding the NFL Competition Committee. In 2017, they started its international player pathway program. The goal of the program is to make the sport more attractive to “non-traditional football players.” They plan to expand the popularity of the NFL across all continents, keeping the program open to athletes based in countries other than the United States and Canada.
Earlier this year, the committee revealed its plan to add the placekicker position to the program. Although the position is not the most popular choice of Americans, they believe that athletes from other parts of the world could find it interesting. The reason behind this decision is obvious – athletes from other parts of the planet are familiar with the kicking aspect of the game, thanks to their familiarity with association football.
High-Profile Players Seem Tempted
The plan of the NFL Competition Committee is to encourage non-American athletes to transition from association football to American football. Their program is aimed at youngsters, who could be trained for the new role. This begs the question of whether established footballers can transform into NFL placekickers?
Carli Lloyd thinks so. One of the biggest US women’s soccer stars has some revolutionary ideas on her mind. Not only is she thinking of moving from one sport to the other, but she also wants to get herself in a competition traditionally dominated by men. She wants to become a placekicker in the NFL.
It all started with a video of Lloyd kicking a 55-yard field goal in practice with the Philadelphia Eagles went viral last year. Something similar happened with England captain Harry Kane, who’s revealed his plans of becoming an American football player in the future.
A self-professed New England Patriots fan was seen practicing field goals on many occasions. It’s needless to say that most of his attempts were successful. Still, despite him saying that “the desire to play in the NFL is real,” there seem to be some obstacles on his way.
It has nothing to with what Kane has to offer to the NFL, but with what the NFL has to offer to him. The thing is that the placekicker is not a very well-paid position.
NFL Placekicker – Not the Highest-Paid Position
In most NFL teams, the lowest paid starter is the placekicker. An average American football team has a payroll of about £150 million, but the biggest chunk of that money goes to the quarterback, followed by running backs, and so on. Placekickers, on the other hand, usually only get the minimum salary, which as per the NFL rules is about £770,000.
There are some exceptions, though. For example, Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens has a base salary of £2.7 million a year, plus bonuses. Still, this figure is not that impressive knowing that Tucker is the highest paid placekicker in the history of the NFL. In comparison, the highest-paid NFL player, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is earning a yearly salary somewhere in the ballpark of £20M.
When it comes to high-profile Premier League footballers, their salary is closer to Mahomes’ than to the money Tucker is getting. Harry Kane, for instance, earns £200,000 per week, which accounts for £10,400,000 a year. Moving to the NFL in 2020 would mean a major salary cut for the Tottenham striker.
