By Peter Lefko / Sportsnet.ca
A kicker's life can sometimes be measured by success or failure on one particular play, as Sunday's NFC and AFC championship games clearly illustrated.
Lawrence Tynes of the New York Giants nails a 31-yard field goal to help his team beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in overtime to win the NFC game and he's interviewed after the game. Earlier in the day, Baltimore's Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that would have sent the game into overtime in the Ravens' 23-20 loss to New England in the AFC game. He was not interviewed immediately afterward, although later in the locker room he shouldered the blame for the missed boot.
Two extreme plays, one in which one kicker is hailed as a hero, while the other is labeled a goat.
"Everyone says it's the ultimate team sport. Well if it's a team sport, why is everyone pointing the finger on one player and one play?" B.C. Lions kicker Paul McCallum told sportsnet.ca. "I just get fed up when anyone wants to point the finger. Sure, the kicker may make mistakes, but it just baffles me that in a team game you point the finger of blame on one person when you've got how many plays in a football game?"
McCallum has experienced the highs and lows of kicking, a profession that is not physical but more mental and emotional. The kicker may be on the field for only a few seconds, but they are precious and can influence a win or a defeat. Some football players will denounce kickers because of their limited role, but that's their job.
No sooner had Cundiff missed the field goal and the Twitter world was full of snide remarks about Mike Vanderjagt, Scott Norwood and McCallum, three kickers who have known joy and disappointment in their job. Norwood missed a 47-yard attempt at the end of the game that would have given the Buffalo Bills the win over the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl. He would cruelly be referred to as "Wide Right," his value leading up to that point diminished forevermore. Vanderjagt set an NFL record one year with the Indianapolis Colts, becoming the first kicker to go through an entire season without missing a field goal or point-after try. But some people - certainly those in the Twitter world - were recalling his missed 46-yard field goal that cost the Colts a chance to send the game into overtime in a 2005 playoff game against Pittsburgh. For all Vanderjagt had done to that point, it was that miss people chose to remember.
In the 2006 Grey Cup, McCallum successfully kicked all six field-goal attempts in the B.C. Lions' 25-14 victory over the Montreal Alouettes and was later voted the Most Outstanding Canadian player of the game. But McCallum is also known for missing an 18-yard field goal in overtime in the Saskatchewan Roughriders' 2004 West Division Final loss to B.C. He had eggs thrown at his home, manure dumped on a next-door neighbor's driveway and his family received some death threats.
And following Cundiff's miss, McCallum took to his Twitter account, offended that some people were blaming Cundiff instead of looking at it as a team game and a team loss. In McCallum's mind, the kicker wasn't the sole reason the Ravens lost, noting the dropped ball in the end zone on the same series by receiver Lee Evans.
"I'm not saying he shouldn't have made it, he should have," McCallum said. "He made a mistake and missed it, just like the receiver dropped the ball in the end zone."
When asked what advice he would give to Cundiff, McCallum said: "You've made kicks before, it's just unfortunate you missed in a situation like that. You just have to think to yourself you're better than that and don't let the outside distractions and negative people get to you. Just do what you've been doing, keep your head up and keep kicking."
McCallum also had some interesting thoughts about Tynes, a player he knew from his days in the CFL with the Ottawa Renegades.
"For me, Lawrence Tynes didn't win that game himself. He did his job and helped his team win," McCallum said. "The offensive lineman blocked for (quarterback) Eli Manning to pass the ball, everyone did their job. If those guys don't do those things, Lawrence doesn't have an opportunity to kick the field goal. For people to say Lawrence won the game is a little narrow-minded."
When asked how long the missed kick stayed with him, McCallum replied with a laugh: "We're talking about it, aren't we? It's just how you deal with it. I've made so many kicks since then, but (people) still talk about it.
"People are twittering about me right now. I just keep on going. One mistake is not going to define career, so if people want to talk about it, go ahead, but I've done a lot since then."
