"One day I was in school on a ski scholarship, the next I was on the football team. After Butkers miss in the second quarter, it was Colquitt, a 13-year veteran, who gave the rookie a pep talk that boosted Butkers spirits, so much so that in critical situations late in the fourth quarter, Reid had no qualms in trusting Butker to make his kicks. ", "Phooey," says Stenerud, in Norwegian. Like just before our first game against Houston this year. One day, Stenerud was running stadium steps as part of his ski training and paused to kick a ball around with Bobcats kicker Dale Jackson. "Did you notice that the charts showed I was missing mostly from the right hash mark? In 1969 he made 27. All Rights Reserved. The discovery that the star ski jumper (three-time Big Sky champion) was a super football kicker was made, naturally enough, by Montana State's basketball coach, Roger Craft. Kicker: 1980-83. Jan Stenerud kicks a field goal in the second quarter of Super Bowl IV against the Vikings in 1970. . What do you want me to do?" In 2008, free agent Nick Novak didnt last the season, either; he was replaced by Connor Barth after just six weeks. The Packers have a perfectly good kicker! Few did at a time Pete Gogolak and Garo Yepremian were the only so-called sidewinders in the professional game. Soon, Stenerud was running steps during a football practice when he heard Sweeneys gruff voice: Skier, get your butt down here. MSU students arrived at Gatton Field early to watch Stenerud kick on warmups. He knows all the finer points to kicking.. I kicked off five times and two of them went through the goal post and that was from the 40-yard line in those days -- 70 yards to the goal post. Kansas City, MO 10/8/1967 CREDIT: Rich Clarkson Football: Super Bowl IV, Kansas City Chiefs Jan Stenerud and QB Len Dawson in action vs Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans, LA 1/11/1970 People born under this sign are seen as warm-hearted and easygoing. Jan Stenerud was 6 ft 2 inches, 187 lb (1.88 m, 84 kg). Zodiac Sign: Jan Stenerud is a Sagittarius. During a game, Stenerud gives in to assorted superstitions. And it came while Stenerud was running on the school track. I hear you can kick. are recalled today as Jan steps into the Gold Jacket Spotlight. They had great players when I got there. The first Norwegian to play in the NFL, Stenerud pioneered the soccer-style kicking that is used by all modern placekickers and was the first pure kicker to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall . In the mid-1960s, the field goal became increasingly important to the game of football, about the same time as I had stepped onto the field at Montana State. We look forward to getting him in there and seeing how he does., That whole week was probably the strangest week of my life, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And look at this: 136 out of 153. Jan Steneruds birth sign is Sagittarius and he has a ruling planet of Jupiter. [3][5] In 2013, Stenerud recalled that he had a significant tail-wind aiding him on that kick in Bozeman; the ensuing kick-off went over the end-zone bleachers at Gatton Field,[4] whose elevation exceeded 4,900 feet (1,495m) above sea level. And he was not just a kicker, he was an athlete. I can do this, he told the Journal-Constitution. Soon, the Norwegian who came here by way of a skiing scholarship at Montana State prepared for his first Chiefs camp by kicking with coach Hank Stram as his personal holder at the teams facility in Swope Park. Stenerud, who grew up playing soccer, went down to the field and tried kicking the football. He got me started in this great American game, and Coach, without your enthusiasm, your intensity and desire to win, obviously I wouldn't be here today. George and Lou, your talents were remarkable. And in the 2018 postseason, Butker was perfect including a 39-yard field goal with 11 seconds left that sent the AFC Championship into overtime. Stenerud is still the only pure kicker elected to the Hall of Fame, but this was to be the worst day of his 19-year NFL career. And while that may be true, Steneruds story might be worth bringing him through our hypothetical time portal. Call 1-800-GAMBLER. And in the meantime, some of my teammates at Montana State had informed me that they see a guy on television from the Buffalo Bills, Pete Gogolak, who had been kicking in the same style that I had displayed, and they also had convinced me to go out for the team. He was a seven-time All-Pro and won Super Bowl IV . [9][10] Through 2017, the game remains the longest in NFL history at 82 minutes, 40 seconds of playing time, and was also the final football game in Municipal Stadium. Once more details are available on who he is dating, we will update this section. The 40s also brought us the Slinky, Velcro, Jeep, Tupperware and Frisbee. It is a job with intense pressure. With 21 field goals he is only seven shy of both the AFL and NFL records, with six games yet to play. But I was developing my skills as a soccer player and ski jumper, which is a perfect combination for a field goal kicker. It is undeniable that a kicker's position is isolated and that the skills that are necessary to become an outstanding kicker are different from those skills required to play most other positions. And Bart, I assume you are listening somewhere,I appreciate that very much. And now I would like for you to meet the most important people in my life, Shane, Clancey, Betsy and of course, my wife, Lindy. But the Chiefs had been paying attention. A reader suggestion gives us a great opportunity to reflect on Jan Steneruds brief but excellent run in Green Bay. He kicked with his toe like [50 Greatest Vikings member] Fred Cox," Stenerud explained. I was drafted by Kansas City at the right time. Over the years, Stram and Dawson (the holder) and Bobby Bell (the snapper) have told a handful of interviewers about the miscommunication: Stenerud was so intent on selling the fake that Bell worried he didnt know it was on. He didn't have a prima donna bone in his body. The Norwegian kicked for the Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings in a 19-year football career, culminating in becoming the first dedicated kicker inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. It is unbelievable. Hes a good kicker. Salvador Perezs home run on Thursday was overshadowed by a rare stolen base, which was improbable testimony to what he really means to the Royals. His list of outstanding achievements is long. Baw Bakery. Jan Stenerud made a stop in Minocqua, Wisconsin, in 2012. There isn't a doubt in my mind that he's the greatest long-distance field-goal kicker who ever played the game. Though it wasnt his best in terms of accuracy, Steneruds 1983 season might have been his finest in Green Bay. Stenerud, who made field goals of 50 yards or more in the pros, normally studied the goal posts before stepping into the ball - saying they looked "narrower" the farther you stood from them. Shortly after receiving a recruitment letter from Montana State Bobcats ski coach Bob Beck, Jan Stenerud set foot on American soil to begin his college athletic career. A kicker with three NFL teams from 1966-1985, Stenerud was at the head of a group of foreign-born athletes who revolutionized kicking in the 1960s and 1970s. Majority of Jans money comes from being a football player. said Jan Stenerud. A daily roundup of all your Kansas City Chiefs news from Arrowhead Pride, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Arrowhead Pride | Kansas City Chiefs Schedule, News, Roster and Stats, The Chiefs have had a long, tortured journey from Nick Lowery to Harrison Butker, The hidden Super Bowl record Patrick Mahomes broke in Arizona. It seemed like a great time to catch you up on Butkers story, and what we hope will be the beginning of another long period of excellence in the Chiefs kicking game. Whos the richest Football Player in the world? Jan is alive and kicking and is currently 80 years old. Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. When you get off that ramp and you fly through the air for a moment, you feel as though you have conquered the world as you are soaring high above the ground. Along with his 13 seasons in Kansas City, Stenerud was a member of the Green Bay Packers for four seasons and the Minnesota Vikings for two seasons until retiring in 1985. When no deal could be made, the Panthers cut Butker, held their breath and placed him on their practice squad after he cleared waivers. Jan Stenerud (/ s t n r u d /, Norwegian: [stnrd] (); born November 26, 1942) is a Norwegian-American former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with Kansas City Chiefs.The first Norwegian NFL player, he began his career in the AFL after being selected by the Chiefs during the . It made a difference.". "The track surrounds the football practice field," said Stenerud. The discovery that the star ski jumper (three-time Big Sky champion) was a super football kicker was made, naturally enough, by Montana State's basketball coach, Roger Craft. Is Butker finally the right man for the job? Ski jumping requires concentration and, of course, kicking field goals requires concentration as well. Few games were played in domes, and there was scant specialized coaching or equipment taken for granted today. He began to laugh. [8] The Dolphins won 2724 in double overtime on a 37-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian. "Do you want to loosen your leg?" He influenced the Rules Committee to change the field goal and kickoff rules in 1974, his seventh year in the league. Enshrined in 1991, Stenerud, along with George Blanda, Lou Groza, Ray Guy, and 2017 inductee Morten Andersen, is one of only five kicking specialists in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is one of three who did not play another position (Blanda played quarterback, Groza was a tackle). Its not an exaggeration to say he was one of the leagues most accurate kickers during that time period. He doesn't jump off 90-meter hills, either. Most coaches don't, or at least I don't think they do. Thats what you do when The ButtKicker finally finds his way to your team. The difference was four field goals, with Kansas City winning 26-21. After completing a training session, Stenerud noticed some football players kicking field goals and, recalling his background in soccer, he figured hed give it a try. He was the longest-tenured player in the now-defunct American Football League, playing in the league for 19 years. He didn't just talk to me about signing, he talked about kicking. He won Super Bowl IV under Chiefs head coach Hank Stram. "Right down the middle," Reid yelled. But the most glaring and, thus, lingering elements were three field goals that Stenerud didnt make, something that over the years he has alternately attempted to joke about, expressed incredible pain over or declined comment on. Jan recalls what went through his mind when Sweeney invited him to join the 1964 team on the Montana State sidelines: This is America. His range stoked interest around the nation, and the Chiefs notified Stenerud by telegram that they had selected him in the 1965 AFL Redshirt Draft future dibs since he had a year of eligibility left. People born on a Thursday are naturally well-meaning and open. Up and Down arrows will open main level menus and toggle through sub tier links. When the great kicker, Jan Stenerud was set to attempt a relatively short range field goal that, if good (ode to announcer broadcasting great, Lindsey Nelson) would have yielded a K.C. I just know getting the ball through the uprights is good, but Dustin he knows the finer points [from] doing it so long as a veteran, and [as] one of the best holders in the league. General 73 SPD 77 ACC 64 AGI Kicking 99 KPW 93 KAC Fake 37 SAC 33 MAC 38 THP 23 RUN I had gone to a couple of games, but my girl [now Loni Stenerud] had to explain what was happening." $169.22. As a 24-year-old, I would love to line up against anybody in the league (now) and kick the football, Stenerud said, smiling as he recovers from a broken kneecap from a recent fall. I wasn't really sure if I had done OKor not. With tight ends set to work out on Saturday, here are a few players Kansas City fans should be watching. I had to read that about three times before I understood it. Jan Stenerud (born November 26, 1942) is a former professional football player for the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs (1967-1969), and the NFL's Chiefs (1970-1979), Green Bay Packers (1980-1983), and Minnesota Vikings (1984-1985). The NFL Hall of Famer and Montana State legend's story of growing up a prodigious skier in Norway before transforming into the only kicker in Canton makes it seem like Stenerud has been living a dream all his life. Jan Stenerud is part of the Silent Generation, which followed after the G.I. He really impressed me. "Anytime we get to midfield we're a threat to score three points. As a high-school youngster in Norway, before accepting the ski-jumping scholarship to Montana State, he had been listed as one of the country's most promising young soccer players. Jan Stenerud on the Kansas City bench on Jan. 1, 1976. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, MIGHTY NETWORKS, 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Colonel Paris Davis received the Medal of Honor nearly 60 years after he earned it in Vietnam, Partially paralyzed sailor finds release in adaptive sports, The top 10 most patriotic moments in sports history, Ray Didinger On Tony Franklin, The Barefoot Cannon, For Former Kicker, the Price of Fearlessness - The New York Times, The Era of the Barefoot Kicker | NFL Films Presents - YouTube. Thank you very much. Jan holds the record for career field goals, 373. On one of the other days Jan was running steps, a kicker on the football team practicing on his own encouraged Jan to join him. Even on a perfect day, one in which he shoots a 76 in a Pebble Beach Celebrity golf outing. Hes got a strong leg. But from virtually the time he made his first attempt with the Chiefs (from 54 yards away) to stints with the Packers and Vikings before the end of his career in 1985, Stenerud was the best kicker in the game. An example - Stram played percentages having Stenerud try a FG near end of regulation, 1971 playoff game vs MIA (Jan made Pro Bowl over Yepremian that year but the Dolphin actually had the better season.) Im ready to be a starting kicker in the NFL. "No sense complicating this game. The White House was occupied by a B-movie actor, Hollywood seemed to want to make any cocaine-fueled idea for a movie that it could find, and football kickers were punting and scoring field goals in the dead of winter. Thank you very much, coach. "You can forget that," says Stram. While he went undrafted in 1967, he signed with the Chiefs, and once he did, he transferred to a National Guard unit in Kansas City. To make the sea change clear, compare those figures to the career numbers of Jan Stenerud, who remains the only player enshrined in the Hall of Fame solely for his placekicking abilities.. The 18 successive seasons, a Super Bowl ring and the Hall of Fame-worthy resum all trace their history to one fateful day in the mountains. I decided right then that he was the coach I wanted to play for, that he was a man who could help me.". A miss in the 2017 postseason a 48-yard attempt in the third quarter of the 22-21 loss to the Tennessee Titans that easily could have made a difference in the game might have removed some of Butkers luster among Chiefs fans, but most fans probably remember uhhh other failures in that game. Nearly 30 years ago, I was recruited from Norway to Montana State on a ski scholarship. Jan Stenerud. He quickly noticed that he booted it farther than the team's kicker. Jan Stenerud has had two reoccurring dreams during his 70 years. CHIEFS WIN!! There were many factors in the 27-24 defeat in the last game at Municipal Stadium: The Chiefs committed four turnovers to the Dolphins two, and the defense couldnt keep Miami out of the end zone in the final minutes after taking a 24-17 lead. Jan is a total Hall of Fame package:productive, consistent and enduring. His status then was the same as any five-year redshirt. Team Stats. [2] Craft notified football head coach Jim Sweeney of the Norwegian ski jumper's kicking abilities, and Sweeney offered him a tryout, which was successful. Players for the Eagles, Broncos, Rams, and Steelers were all known to kick off their shoes before kicking off the game (except for the Rams their kicker always wore shoes on kickoffs). During his first three years as professional, the last seasons for the AFL, Stenerud hit 70% of his field goals, compared with a 53% average for the other kickers in the AFL and NFL. Stenerud kicked 18 of 33 field goals in two years at MSU. Wearing tennis shoes, Jans first attempts straight-on, as was the style of the era were lousy, and painful, so Jan changed his approach to match his soccer-playing background. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. His name was Jim Sweeney. If you are using a VPN, try disabling it. You just trot into that building over there and have the man fit you to a suit. Luck is on their side. Well, why not? He's already made two from 52 yards this season. Now, he hates to admit it, but he is a 3-handicapgolfer. Jan Stenerud's age is 80. During the 1969 season, Stenerud made a then-record 16 field goals in a row and 27 of 35 overall as the Chiefs went 11-3 and beat the Jets and Raiders to get to the Super Bowl. 11834 posts. "One day of my junior year in 1964, I ran the stadium steps, and the kicker was kicking field goals. pic.twitter.com/Uu5Bm27dSq. Why barefoot kicking went away is because the rise of the NFL as a big money sport finally created a market for shoe companies to create an athletic shoe designed for kickers. Gambling problem? I'm sure someday he'll make one from 60 yardsheck65 yards away. Vahe Gregorian: 816-234-4868, @vgregorian. Description MUT20 Ultimate Legends Career Edition: The only Kicker in the Hall-of-Fame, Stenerud was selected to the Pro Bowl six times and scored 1,699 points in 19 seasons. And it. Tab will move on to the next part of the site rather than go through menu items. As of 2017, only four kickers have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: George Blanda, Lou Groza, Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen, and among them, Stenerud and Andersen are the only ones who did not also play another position. The Chiefs have had decades of missteps after decades of excellence. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. In October he kicked a 59-yard field goal against Montana, the longest kick in football history to that point. Nineteenseasons in the greatest team sport ever invented produced a lot of memories. [fetch instagram= display=posts show=2 ]. He never missed a game because of injury or illness. That was 60 field goals ago. Football practice hadn't yet started that afternoon and some of the players, most of them fellows I knew, were fooling around kicking field goals. She is not dating anyone. Bookmark this page and come back often for updates. Today with these memories and this honor, I got the same feeling, the feeling that my feet are now touching the ground. If you are ready for it and some kind of occasion presents itself, who knows what can happen? . Stenerud, the middle of Johan and Klara Steneruds three children, was skiing since before he can remember: from the jumps his father built outside their house in Fetsund (population approximately 7,000) to the improvised ones hed contrive like other local kids or at any of a half-dozen venues that lit the town at night. So on a blustery day with the punter struggling, Sweeney sent out the field goal unit to get the ball downfield from out of its own end zone. Now, he will simply call the day a horrible experience, one that he suffers more from because he believes its often referred to with little balance about his broader career. Everyone in the Hall of Fame was a great player, but only a few were the very best ever at their position. When training camp arrived and with Succop due a big payday the team brought in competition: free agent Cairo Santos. He is the first pure placekicker to be. For 27 of those seasons from 1967 through 1993 the Chiefs had only two placekickers: Jan Stenerud and Nick Lowery. He kicked for the Chiefs for 13 years (1967-1979) until his release in the summer of 1980. Passing, Rushing, & Receiving Table . A Norweigan immigrant, Stenerud came to the United States on a ski jumping scholarship to Montana State. Gano due to the contract that former Chief kicker Ryan Succop had just negotiated with the Tennessee Titans scored a four-year, $17 million deal with the Panthers last spring, while the Chiefs still have Butker on an inexpensive deal for two more seasons.