By RICH GARVEN / Worcester Telegram & Gazette

This is a going to a very memorable week for Dave Teggart, one that started with an ending and ends with a beginning.

Teggart, a Northboro resident and Algonquin Regional graduate, participated in the University of Connecticut commencement ceremony earlier where he received a degree in sports management after having completed his studies in December.

On Friday, he began taking part in the Chicago Bears' three-day rookie minicamp. It's the first step in what the two-time All-Big East kicker hopes leads to a career in the NFL.

Teggart was bypassed in the NFL Draft last month, which was sort of expected since kickers are rarely selected. (This year was an anomaly, however, with four kickers getting picked. That was one fewer than the previous six drafts combined.)

In the aftermath of the draft, Teggart was contacted by multiple teams. He felt Chicago, which offered him an invite to rookie camp but not a contract, was the best spot for him.

“I'm just going to go there and show my stuff,” Teggart said Friday. “It's a great starting point and a foot in the door. It's tough for a specialist working his way through, but if you make your kicks and hit your kickoffs well, there's going to be a spot for you somewhere.

“It was a scramble once the draft was over with teams calling, but, like I said, the Bears were the best fit, the best option going in. I'm going to go to their camp, and hopefully they'll sign me for the preseason.”

Were that to happen, Teggart would find himself in an unusual position. That would be technically competing for a job he officially would have no chance of winning.

Robbie Gould has been kicking for the Bears since 2005 and isn't going anywhere any time soon. His job security in Chicago is right up there with quarterback Jay Cutler and linebacker Brian Urlacher.

But it would still be a beneficial situation for Teggart. He'd be able to apprentice under one of the top practitioners of his craft in the league while getting some tape of himself out there.

“He's one of those (elite) guys, he's a great kicker,” Teggart said reverentially of Gould. “That would be something for me. I would love for them to sign me and go in for camp, and hey, I'm not afraid to compete with him. I'd absolutely compete with him, I'll compete with anyone.

“But it would be a great learning experience from a guy like that who has been around and worked his way from the ground up.”

Gould had a solid career at Penn State after making the team as a walk-on. He went undrafted in 2005. He signed with the Patriots despite having absolutely no shot of unseating then incumbent and forever living legend Adam Vinatieri.

Gould used his time in New England to showcase his skills and, after getting a look from the Ravens, landed with the Bears later that year. The following season, he was named All-Pro and has had a lock on the job ever since.

“It's not the easiest thing being a specialist trying to get in,” Teggart said. “There's one job (per team), it's a position they don't really have backups at, and it's tough to get drafted. But you take it as a learning opportunity and go in there and compete as hard as you can.”

By Joseph Bustos / Northwest Herald

ALGONQUIN – While a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL punter Adam Podlesh had a grape-size tumor under his ear. He underwent surgery to remove the cancerous tumor and went through two months of recovery.

He later would be named an alternate to the Pro Bowl.

Podlesh, now with the Chicago Bears, spoke about his experience Friday at Heineman Middle School in Algonquin to kick off the school’s annual fundraiser, Hawks Care. This year, the fundraiser will benefit Bears Care, a charity that pays for breast and ovarian cancer research and treatment.

Through school events and activities, the school has raised $100,000 for cancer charities in the past five years.

The assembly included a student dance contest with Staley, the Bears’ mascot, and a scooter race.

During the assembly, Podlesh said he never thought he would get cancer.

“I felt I was in the best shape of my life, I was in the prime of my life, I am a professional football player,” Podlesh said. “People like that aren’t supposed to get cancer; that’s what I felt at the time.”

But his perspective on life changed.

He wasn’t sure whether he would play again, and it changed his thought process. He no longer would be bothered by minor inconveniences, such as a ding in his car.

“The little things ... really didn’t mean a whole lot,” Podlesh said. “The main thing was family and friends – the real important things in life.”

He also said students should try to stay positive in life.

Even after he returned to the Jaguars, he had to compete for a roster spot, and thought back to what he had gone through in the previous six months.

“I had essentially been competing for my life and well-being,” Podlesh said. “Competing for a job, playing a game, didn’t mean a whole lot. It wasn’t all that stressful of a thing.”

He made the team, and that year he was named an alternate to the Pro Bowl.

“I know for a fact, if I hadn’t gone through what I had gone through, I wouldn’t have been as good as a punter as I am today,” Podlesh said. “I wouldn’t have been as good as a person I am today.”

Being a football player allows him to share his experience and help raise money for cancer research.

“The exposure I can give to help fight that fight, I think that’s the most beneficial thing I could do,” Podlesh said.

Sixth-grader Autumn Kenney was one of the students who got to ask Podlesh a question during the assembly.

“Were you worried you would have to quit football after you were told you had cancer, and do you think teams look at you differently now that you’re a cancer survivor?” Autumn asked.

Podlesh said that at first he was worried about not playing again, but he realized there were more important things. “After a while, ... [I thought] as long as I had my health, as long as I had my family, the people who meant most to me, playing a game is secondary,” he said.

He said his play on the field also shows that teams shouldn’t be afraid to have him on the roster.

“My performance since I got diagnosed has kind of squashed that whole thing.”

By Scott Michaux / The Augusta Chronicle

Try this illuminating exercise at home.

Go to the search page on the College Football Hall of Fame’s Web site and choose inductees by position.

Only one name pops up when you select punter – Thomson’s own Ray Guy.

Only one name pops up when you select place-kicker – Savannah-born and Stone Mountain-bred Kevin Butler.

That two native Georgians hold the monopoly on collegiate recognition isn’t the shocking part. That the extent of the kicking lists end with two in a sport called football remains one of the most troubling oversights in the game’s historical annals. It’s only slightly less troubling than the fact that just one pure kicker has ever graced the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Jan Stenerud).

Thankfully, the Augusta Sports Council has taken up the cause to heap praise on those who deserve more credit in the craft of kicking. On Thursday night, Butler joined greats like Guy and Stenerud in the American Football kicking Hall of Fame.

“To make it into a hall of fame for that position, it’s probably the highest honor you can get if not the highest coming from other kickers,” Butler said.

Butler was enshrined Thursday night along with the late Jerrel Wilson, a punter for 15 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (1963-77) who led the AFL and NFL in punting average four times. Wilson also kicked for Guy’s alma mater, Southern Miss.

Butler’s standout career with the Georgia Bulldogs and the Chicago Bears took him to Sugar Bowls and Super Bowls. He set team, NCAA and franchise records along the way and earned a world championship ring with the 1985 Bears.

Yet he hates that more of his peers and predecessors don’t get enough mainstream recognition for their integral role in a team game.

“We’re an afterthought,” Butler said. “It’s a team sport, yet they’re going to discard this one part of it? It’s so funny because it’s that roulette part. You’re going to pull the trigger on it and it’s either good or bad. For players to discount that is just boneheaded and blindness for not recognizing it.”

Butler and his son, Drew, are the only related tandem to be recognized at the annual All-Area Football Banquet. Drew Butler won the Ray Guy Award in 2009 as the nation’s best punter as a sophomore at Georgia. In a few months he might make the Butlers only the second father-son kicking specialists to reach the NFL, joining English place-kickers Bobby and Ian Howfield.

The elder Butler believes his son – who learned to punt at Guy’s kicking camp in 10th grade – has what it takes to have a 13-year career as he had.

“The potential that Drew has gets me excited,” Butler said. “Certainly I was excited when I played and had that potential and opportunity. You just want him to have those same opportunities. The way he goes about preparing is very professional. … You just have to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes. There’s only 32 positions in the world and you’re trying to get one of them. Just be ready.”

Butler’s enshrinement caps a memorable year. Not only did he get to follow Drew’s senior campaign to an SEC East title as a radio host covering the Bulldogs, one of Butler’s greatest feats got widely recalled. The passing of Georgia play-by-play legend Larry Munson brought renewed attention to Butler’s famous 60-yard field goal that beat No. 2 Clemson in 1984.

“So we’ll try to kick one a hundred thousand miles,” Munson said in setting up the winning attempt placed a half-yard on Georgia’s side of the 50. “And Butler kicked a long one – a long one! Oh my God! Oh my God! The stadium is worse than bonkers. Eleven seconds. I can’t believe what he did. This is ungodly.”

It was so clutch that famed columnist Lewis Grizzard wrote a letter to the son he hoped to one day have and name Kevin in Butler’s honor.

“I hugged perfect strangers and kissed a fat lady on the mouth,” Grizzard wrote of that moment in Sanford Stadium. “Grown men wept. Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled. Stars fell, and joy swept through, fetched by a hurricane of unleashed emotions.”

It was a week later before Butler, at his parents’ urging, heard that Munson call he has grown to appreciate even more through the years.

“I probably get more stories of people coming up to me and telling me they remember exactly where they were,” Butler said. “That’s pretty cool. You don’t want to be on the other end of that story. People don’t come up to you and say, ‘I remember where I was when you missed that field goal.’”

It’s been an extraordinary postseason for kicking failures, including Georgia’s Blair Walsh missing two in overtime at the Outback Bowl, Stanford’s kicker Jordan Williamson failing in regulation and overtime of the Fiesta Bowl, and Baltimore’s Billy Cundiff missing a relatively short effort that would have sent the AFC Championship into overtime.

Butler sees these failures and others like them as just another example of the value of kicking being overlooked.

“I squarely blame it on the coaches,” Butler said. “As silly as that sounds, the coaches at the high school, college and pro levels draft and sign punters and then send them off to a field to miraculously get better by themselves. I’ve never known a coach to draft a quarterback and told him to go throw over on the other field and be ready Saturday or Sunday. They coach them. They coach them on technique and mental ability. And for some odd reason, coaches just don’t recognize that for kickers.”

Does he cringe whenever a kicker fails in the spotlight?

“I feel for them unless it’s somebody missing a kick against Georgia,” Butler said.

“Then it’s just tough luck at that point. But I do feel for them. How could you not? I’ve been there and done that. There’s a lot of people behind that kicker who are affected by it – his family and maybe he has kids. You’ve got to live that for a week until you get another shot or live that for a whole off-season, which is a horrible thing.”

Butler has earned his just due for a career living on the edge of heroics and disaster that kickers often walk without enough appreciation.

Maybe one day he and Guy and another ex-Bulldog such as ageless NFL veteran John Kasay will see the door opened to them in the big hall of fame.

Until then, kickers will just have to enjoy relevance in the moment when called upon.

“It’s a big part of the game and I’m sure one of those kickers will play a big part in it Sunday,” said Butler of the upcoming Super Bowl.

Maybe if they’re really lucky, they too can inspire a fan base to go worse than bonkers.

CHICAGO - Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears is the NFC Special Teams Player of the Month for the third time in his career.

The electrifying wide receiver-kicker returner returned eight punts for 130 yards (16.8 average), including a 69-yard touchdown, during October. He also had nine kickoff returns for 278 yards (30.9 average) with a 98-yard TD.

Hester won the NFL Player of the Month Award in December 2006 and September 2007. The three times is the most in franchise history.

Hester's punt return was the 11th of his career, setting an NFL record. He was previously tied with Eric Metcalf with 10. Hester has 16 kick returns for touchdowns (11 punts, 5 kickoffs). He also returned a missed field goal for a touchdown.

CHICAGO - Chicago Bears return man made NFL history on Sunday and helped the Bears defeat Carolina 34-29 in the process.

In the second quarter, after the Panthers tied the game at 10 on a 1-yard rookie quarterback Cam Newton touchdown run, Hester returned the kickoff 73 yards, setting up a Matt Forte touchdown.

On the next series, after a three-and-out, Hester charged through an attempted tackle by linebacker Thomas Williams and completed a 69-yard punt-return touchdown, the 11th of his career, an NFL record.

“It feels great. To be labeled the greatest person at a position is a great honor,” Hester said. “I have to give credit to my teammates.”

The Bears recorded the much-needed victory - division leaders Green Bay and Detroit are both 4-0 - to stay within striking distance. They can thank the spectacular Hester's heroics for the assist.

They are a team built to win with defense and special teams and anything that affects that isn't good. They claim the offense is going to get better. It must be because it will be difficult for Devin Hester, Johnny Knox and the return unit to provide the kind of plum field position the Bears are accustomed to having. There's a large Bears billboard on I-294 that features Hester and the slogan "Unlimited return policy." Wishful thinking?

The Bears ranked second in the NFL in starting field position in 2010, averaging the 31 1/2-yard line, just a fraction behind the Jets. That's going to be tough to repeat with rules that have moved kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35. According to ESPN, 40 percent of kickoffs in 64 exhibitions were touchbacks. That figure easily could climb when returners aren't willing to bring any kick out of the end zone like they did in meaningless games. Cold weather could affect kickoff distances late in the year, but beginning Thursday night in the Saints-Packers opener it will be bombs away for kickers.

"I don't know that it is anymore of a concern for us than it is most teams," Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said. "Naturally because of our returners, it is, but I still think we're going to get a good share of returns. When the weather gets a little cooler … I don't know."

The NFL's competition committee pushed through the rule change in an attempt to reduce concussions that occur in high-speed collisions. But Patriots coach Bill Belichick said the league ultimately has a greater motivation.

"They want to eliminate the play," he said last month.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh called the rule change a "yawner." Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio is opposed to it and said it will lead to lower scoring. The Bears aren't protesting, at least not in front of tape recorders. Yes, they were one of the teams to vote against the change. The Bears proposed alternatives such as disbanding wedges and standing starts start for the coverage team.

"Do we feel the league could have done other things?" Angelo said. "We made our suggestions, as did other teams."

Why is field position crucial? The Bears had eight 10-play scoring drives last season. That ranked last in the league, 10 below the NFL average. The Bears had 16 scoring drives of 70 yards or more, also last in the league. Fourteen teams had 30 such drives or more. The Bears offense struggled with long fields, period.

"It's going to affect us a lot," Hester said. "If it looks the way it did in the preseason, it's going to limit returns. All they are doing it taking excitement out of the game."

The shift puts a greater premium on punt returners than kickoff returners. From that standpoint, the Bears are OK. Hester is considered more dangerous on punts.

Players remain curious how it actually will play out Robbie Gould put a kickoff against the Titans into the stands. The Raiders' Sebastian Janikowski nailed one through the uprights. kicker tricks could grow tiresome though on what many consider the most exciting play in football.

"I am a Devin Hester fan. I am also a Joshua Cribbs fan," cornerback Charles Tillman said. "I like to see these guys return it. That is why they are here. You cripple a team, you take something good away from them.

"I'll buy (taking the wedge away), but a lot of the other stuff … Was it Winston (Venable's penalized hit against the Browns) where a receiver is catching it, but you can't hit him because he is defenseless. Do you hit him and get the fine? Do you let them catch it and get the first down? It causes you to think and second guess yourself and once you do that it's easy to mess up. I think the league is hurting the game. The commissioner loves to talk about 'the integrity of the NFL.' That is his favorite phrase. With some of these rules they are kind of messing with it. I think most players and most fans would agree."

Special teams coordinator Dave Toub said the Bears will consider bringing out kickoffs more than five yards deep in the end zone. Hang time has as much to do with it as distance. Taking out a kickoff six or seven yards deep could be worth the risk. Hester or Knox could be tackled at the 15. They also could go all the way.

"If we can get the ball, on average, at the 25 maybe that might be the new 30," Toub said. "I don't know what it's going to be yet."

No one does. It's a new era.

"Just looking at it, sometimes we're not going to have a choice," Hester said. "They're kicking it out of the end zone."

The Huffington Post

More NFL players are weighing in on the lockout and lashing out at the owners.

On Wednesday, Chicago Bears kicker and player representative Robbie Gould told the Chicago Tribunethat the lockout is the owners' fault.

"Look fans don't buy tickets to see Virginia or Brian McCaskey. They pay to watch Brian Urlacher, Drew Brees and all the great players," he said. "This lockout is all because of the owners' greed. I'm sorry if that sounds cold, but it is the truth."

Gould, who lashed out at the owners in March, went on to say that he doesn't feel bad for the players who didn't save their money in preparation for the lockout.

Steelers safety Ryan Clark called out the owners' greed in February and said their proposals are ridiculous.

Baltimore Ravens receiver called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "a joke" earlier this month and said he needs to work on getting a deal done instead of "crying" about blood tests.