hove
Footballguy
Why NFL punters can't hang with old ones
By RICK GOSSELIN / The Dallas Morning News
Link to Dallas Morning News
Records, they say, are meant to be broken.
But they don't say that about one particular Sammy Baugh record. "Slingin" Sammy was a Hall of Fame quarterback who holds one of the NFL's oldest records – for punting.
In 1940, Baugh became the only player in league history to average 50 yards per punt. He kicked 35 times that season for a 51.4-yard average. In the seven decades since, no one has come close.
Mat McBriar of the Cowboys gave Baugh an early run this season. He took a 50.2-yard average into November. But historically as the weather turns colder, NFL punting averages dip. McBriar has cooled off at 48.3 yards.
You have to go back to 2001 to find a punting champion who averaged 47 yards per kick – Carolina's Todd Sauerbrun at 47.5 yards. And you'd have to go all the way back to 1963 to find anyone who averaged 48 yards per punt – Detroit's Yale Lary at 48.9 yards. And you can stop looking there. No one since Baugh has averaged 49 or 50 yards per punt for an entire season.
"Sammy Baugh was a tremendous athlete," Indianapolis Colts special teams coach Russ Purnell said. "He's the greatest punter of all time – and there have been some pretty good ones since him. But he must have gotten a lot of balls on the ground with some advantageous rolls."
Yes, indeed, he did. That was the nature of football back then.
Baugh was a triple threat in the game's single-wing era in the 1940s. On any given play he could run, pass or punt the ball for his Washington Redskins. Baugh was Hall of Fame-worthy in two of those phases, leading the NFL in passing six times and punting four times. Both are league records for volume.
But the punt wasn't merely a fourth-down staple back then. It was also used as an element of surprise – and Baugh surprised them often, quick-kicking on earlier downs.
With the opposition unprepared for a second- or third-down kick to get his team out of a hole, Baugh's punts would fly over the heads of the defenders, bounce and then roll forever. There wasn't a Devin Hester back there returning them in the 1940s.
Baugh launched an 85-yard quick kick in the 1942 NFL title game. He also authored an 85-yarder against Philadelphia in 1940. He averaged a franchise-record 59.4 yards on five punts in another 1940 game, against the Lions.
Lary didn't have the element of surprise when he punted. He was a Hall of Fame safety for the Lions. When he took the field for an offensive snap, it was on fourth down to punt the ball.
When Lary trotted onto the field, he would swap helmets with quarterback Bobby Layne trotting off because Layne's helmet had no facemask. There was less chance of muffing a snap when the view was unobstructed. Lary was on the field to punt the ball – not pass or run it.
So the defense was always ready for him. There would always be someone back there to field his punts and run them back.
"I had some pretty good punts," said Lary, a lifelong resident of Fort Worth. "I had a couple over 70. But I was never lucky enough to get them over guys' heads and have them roll for 80 or 90 yards."
The longest punt of Lary's career was 74 yards. Baugh was credited with a pair of 85-yard punts, plus an 81, 76, 75, 74 and 73.
"Those were balloon balls in those days, and they just hammered them," Detroit assistant Chuck Priefer said. "Plus the return game wasn't as sophisticated. They left the offense and defense on the field, so the safety just went back there and caught the ball.
"In today's game with 32 teams, I bet there are 16 guys back there who can take it to the house any time."
When Baugh broke in as a rookie in 1937, teams carried 25 players. By 1940, rosters had expanded to 33 players. Remember, there are 22 starting positions in football – so teams weren't carrying deep snappers, coverage aces and return specialists in Baugh's era.
By 1963, when Lary posted the second-best punting season in NFL history, the rosters had expanded to 37 players. But the "specialists" remained scarce.
The best team of that era, the Lombardi Green Bay Packers, used a starting guard (Jerry Kramer) to placekick, a starting wide receiver (Boyd Dowler) to punt, a Hall of Fame safety (Willie Wood) to return punts and a Hall of Fame cornerback (Herb Adderley) to return kickoffs.
The 11 players on offense and defense generally stayed on the field on punting downs. Lary himself returned kicks, as did most safeties of that era. He scored three career touchdowns on punt returns.
That means starting offensive linemen were covering kicks and defensive linemen were asked to block them. There were no such things as "special teams" back then. The first special teams coach didn't surface in the NFL until 1969, when George Allen hired **** Vermeil with the Los Angeles Rams to handle the kicking game.
Specialists also began surfacing in the late 1960s. The Kansas City Chiefs carried three of them on their 1969 Super Bowl championship team: Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud, punter Jerrel Wilson and returner Noland "Super Gnat" Smith.
As roster sizes continued to increase – hitting 40 in the 1960s, 45 in the 1970s and 49 in the 1980s – the presence of specialists also increased. Coverage aces emerged as roster space became available for them, players such as Bill Bates and Steve Tasker in the 1980s.
Booming it
With the sophistication of special teams came a greater emphasis on field position. In the eras of Baugh and Lary, the goal on fourth down was to kick it as far as you could. But in the 1990s, the goal changed. Net average surpassed gross average as the measuring stick for punting games.
Punters were instructed not to outkick their coverage. Special teams coaches drummed hang time, hang time, hang time into the minds of punters.
If you punt the ball 60 yards with a four-second hang time, your teammates wouldn't be able to cover the kick. That would allow the elite return men such as Eric Metcalf, Mel Gray and Brian Mitchell in the 1990s to build up a head of steam.
The goal was to make the great ones fair catch it. Hang it up there for five seconds. Height was more important than distance. A 40-yard punt with a 40-yard net average was better than a 50-yard punt with a 20-yard return.
Also, directional kicking became vogue – punt the ball to a sideline to limit the field for those returners, making it easier for the coverage teams to contain them. The sideline would become a 12th defender.
Punters also are bigger and stronger today than they were in 1963. The top three punters that season all had compact builds. Lary was 5-11, 189, Chicago's Billy Joe Green 5-11, 175, and Los Angeles' Danny Villanueva was 5-11, 200.
The top punters in today's game all have longer, more powerful bodies. AFC leader Shane Lechler of Oakland stands 6-2, 225 pounds. NFC leader McBriar goes 6-1, 220. San Diego's Matt Scifres is 6-2, 236, and Seattle's Ryan Plackemeier 6-3, 248. Longer bodies mean more leg whip. Heavier bodies mean greater propulsion for punts.
Also, daily NFL practices are more focused now with longer segments devoted to the kicking game. Special teams coaches keep track of the number of kicks by a punter during the week, kind of like baseball's pitch count.
You want to keep that leg fresh for Sunday.
One AFC punter kicks up to 60 balls Wednesday and 40 more Friday. One NFC punter kicks up to 50 balls per day Wednesday and Thursday and 35 more Friday. Most NFL punters kick 80-150 balls per week. Lary had no idea how many times he punted the ball during a single week when he was with the Lions.
"We had punting drills during practice," Lary said. "But I would stay after and punted in Briggs Stadium, myself and Coach [Red] Cochran. We'd just punt and punt and punt. I'd stand on the 50 and try to put it into the stands, which was a long way. I just loved to punt. It came natural."
Excessive punting wasn't as draining on Lary's legs as playing a defensive position. He'd be on the field for 55-60 defensive snaps per game, tackling Jim Brown and chasing Bobby Mitchell and Tommy McDonald in pass coverage. By the fourth quarter, his legs might be heavy.
The specialists
That's not a problem for today's punting specialist. His activity each game is limited to the four-to-eight snaps he takes to punt the ball. So he's always kicking with a fresh leg, be it the fourth quarter or first.
Lechler has the talent and leg to average 50 yards per kick. His 45.85-yard career average is the NFL record. McBriar and Scifres also have the talent and leg, as do Craig Hentrich (Tennessee) and Dustin Colquitt (Kansas City). But that's not what they are being asked to do in today's NFL.
Punters are asked to keep the ball out of the hands of all those great returners. In 1963, there were only two punts returned for touchdowns the entire NFL season. This season there have already been 13 returned for scores.
Punters are asked to keep the ball on the sideline. If you're going to give a Hester, Reggie Bush or Antwaan Randle El the ball, give them less room to run. Buffalo's Brian Moorman has kicked 18 of his 76 punts out of bounds this season. It keeps a coverage team out of danger – but it hurts a punter's gross average.
Punters are also asked to keep the ball out of the end zone. Touchbacks are 20 free yards of field position. In the 1940s and 1950s teams would willingly take the touchback on a punt from midfield. That's a 50-yard punt. In today's game, the punter is asked to bury his kick in a coffin corner. Pin a team at the 10-yard line rather than concede the 20 on a touchback. That strategy might knock eight, 10 or 12 yards off the distance of the kick. Two or three of those pooch punts a game will chip away at a punter's gross average. Thirty-one of Hentrich's 75 punts have pinned the opposition inside the 20.
Add it all up and you have a cocoon of security around Baugh's record 51.4-yard punting average. It's stood for 66 years now.
"It's going to stand for a lot longer than that," said Hentrich, who led the NFL with a 47.2-yard average in 1998. "The game has changed. It's all about field position. It's not about your gross average, it's about your net. The perfect punt is one that ends in a fair catch."
E-mail rgosselin@dallasnews.com
UNTOUCHABLE?
The five oldest records in NFL history:
1. Points in a game: 40
By Ernie Nevers, Chicago Cardinals vs. Chicago Bears, Nov. 28, 1929 (six touchdowns, four extra points)
2. Touchdowns rushing in a game: 6
Ernie Nevers, Chicago Cardinals vs. Chicago Bears, Nov. 28, 1929.
3. Rushing average in a season: 8.44 yards
Beattie Feathers, Chicago Bears, 1934, with 1,004 yards on 199 carries.
4. Punting average in a season: 51.4 yards
Sammy Baugh, Washington Redskins, 1940, with 35 punts for 1,799 yards.
5. Punting average in a season, rookie: 45.92 yards
Frank Sinkwich, Detroit Lions, 1943, 12 punts for 551 yards.
NET PROFITS
The five unofficial highest net punting averages in NFL history (not an official record kept by the NFL):
39.6: Jim Arnold, Detroit, 1988
39.6: Rich Camarillo, Phoenix, 1993
39.3: Rohn Stark, Indianapolis, 1993
39.3: Donnie Jones, Miami, 2003
39.2: Matt Turk, Washington, 1996
39.2: Matt Turk, Washington, 1997
39.2: Craig Hentrich, Tennessee, 1998
GOING THE DISTANCE
The five highest gross punting averages in NFL history:
51.4: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1940
48.9: Yale Lary, Detroit, 1963
48.7: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1941
48.4: Yale Lary, Detroit, 1961
48.2: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1942
By RICK GOSSELIN / The Dallas Morning News
Link to Dallas Morning News
Records, they say, are meant to be broken.
But they don't say that about one particular Sammy Baugh record. "Slingin" Sammy was a Hall of Fame quarterback who holds one of the NFL's oldest records – for punting.
In 1940, Baugh became the only player in league history to average 50 yards per punt. He kicked 35 times that season for a 51.4-yard average. In the seven decades since, no one has come close.
Mat McBriar of the Cowboys gave Baugh an early run this season. He took a 50.2-yard average into November. But historically as the weather turns colder, NFL punting averages dip. McBriar has cooled off at 48.3 yards.
You have to go back to 2001 to find a punting champion who averaged 47 yards per kick – Carolina's Todd Sauerbrun at 47.5 yards. And you'd have to go all the way back to 1963 to find anyone who averaged 48 yards per punt – Detroit's Yale Lary at 48.9 yards. And you can stop looking there. No one since Baugh has averaged 49 or 50 yards per punt for an entire season.
"Sammy Baugh was a tremendous athlete," Indianapolis Colts special teams coach Russ Purnell said. "He's the greatest punter of all time – and there have been some pretty good ones since him. But he must have gotten a lot of balls on the ground with some advantageous rolls."
Yes, indeed, he did. That was the nature of football back then.
Baugh was a triple threat in the game's single-wing era in the 1940s. On any given play he could run, pass or punt the ball for his Washington Redskins. Baugh was Hall of Fame-worthy in two of those phases, leading the NFL in passing six times and punting four times. Both are league records for volume.
But the punt wasn't merely a fourth-down staple back then. It was also used as an element of surprise – and Baugh surprised them often, quick-kicking on earlier downs.
With the opposition unprepared for a second- or third-down kick to get his team out of a hole, Baugh's punts would fly over the heads of the defenders, bounce and then roll forever. There wasn't a Devin Hester back there returning them in the 1940s.
Baugh launched an 85-yard quick kick in the 1942 NFL title game. He also authored an 85-yarder against Philadelphia in 1940. He averaged a franchise-record 59.4 yards on five punts in another 1940 game, against the Lions.
Lary didn't have the element of surprise when he punted. He was a Hall of Fame safety for the Lions. When he took the field for an offensive snap, it was on fourth down to punt the ball.
When Lary trotted onto the field, he would swap helmets with quarterback Bobby Layne trotting off because Layne's helmet had no facemask. There was less chance of muffing a snap when the view was unobstructed. Lary was on the field to punt the ball – not pass or run it.
So the defense was always ready for him. There would always be someone back there to field his punts and run them back.
"I had some pretty good punts," said Lary, a lifelong resident of Fort Worth. "I had a couple over 70. But I was never lucky enough to get them over guys' heads and have them roll for 80 or 90 yards."
The longest punt of Lary's career was 74 yards. Baugh was credited with a pair of 85-yard punts, plus an 81, 76, 75, 74 and 73.
"Those were balloon balls in those days, and they just hammered them," Detroit assistant Chuck Priefer said. "Plus the return game wasn't as sophisticated. They left the offense and defense on the field, so the safety just went back there and caught the ball.
"In today's game with 32 teams, I bet there are 16 guys back there who can take it to the house any time."
When Baugh broke in as a rookie in 1937, teams carried 25 players. By 1940, rosters had expanded to 33 players. Remember, there are 22 starting positions in football – so teams weren't carrying deep snappers, coverage aces and return specialists in Baugh's era.
By 1963, when Lary posted the second-best punting season in NFL history, the rosters had expanded to 37 players. But the "specialists" remained scarce.
The best team of that era, the Lombardi Green Bay Packers, used a starting guard (Jerry Kramer) to placekick, a starting wide receiver (Boyd Dowler) to punt, a Hall of Fame safety (Willie Wood) to return punts and a Hall of Fame cornerback (Herb Adderley) to return kickoffs.
The 11 players on offense and defense generally stayed on the field on punting downs. Lary himself returned kicks, as did most safeties of that era. He scored three career touchdowns on punt returns.
That means starting offensive linemen were covering kicks and defensive linemen were asked to block them. There were no such things as "special teams" back then. The first special teams coach didn't surface in the NFL until 1969, when George Allen hired **** Vermeil with the Los Angeles Rams to handle the kicking game.
Specialists also began surfacing in the late 1960s. The Kansas City Chiefs carried three of them on their 1969 Super Bowl championship team: Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud, punter Jerrel Wilson and returner Noland "Super Gnat" Smith.
As roster sizes continued to increase – hitting 40 in the 1960s, 45 in the 1970s and 49 in the 1980s – the presence of specialists also increased. Coverage aces emerged as roster space became available for them, players such as Bill Bates and Steve Tasker in the 1980s.
Booming it
With the sophistication of special teams came a greater emphasis on field position. In the eras of Baugh and Lary, the goal on fourth down was to kick it as far as you could. But in the 1990s, the goal changed. Net average surpassed gross average as the measuring stick for punting games.
Punters were instructed not to outkick their coverage. Special teams coaches drummed hang time, hang time, hang time into the minds of punters.
If you punt the ball 60 yards with a four-second hang time, your teammates wouldn't be able to cover the kick. That would allow the elite return men such as Eric Metcalf, Mel Gray and Brian Mitchell in the 1990s to build up a head of steam.
The goal was to make the great ones fair catch it. Hang it up there for five seconds. Height was more important than distance. A 40-yard punt with a 40-yard net average was better than a 50-yard punt with a 20-yard return.
Also, directional kicking became vogue – punt the ball to a sideline to limit the field for those returners, making it easier for the coverage teams to contain them. The sideline would become a 12th defender.
Punters also are bigger and stronger today than they were in 1963. The top three punters that season all had compact builds. Lary was 5-11, 189, Chicago's Billy Joe Green 5-11, 175, and Los Angeles' Danny Villanueva was 5-11, 200.
The top punters in today's game all have longer, more powerful bodies. AFC leader Shane Lechler of Oakland stands 6-2, 225 pounds. NFC leader McBriar goes 6-1, 220. San Diego's Matt Scifres is 6-2, 236, and Seattle's Ryan Plackemeier 6-3, 248. Longer bodies mean more leg whip. Heavier bodies mean greater propulsion for punts.
Also, daily NFL practices are more focused now with longer segments devoted to the kicking game. Special teams coaches keep track of the number of kicks by a punter during the week, kind of like baseball's pitch count.
You want to keep that leg fresh for Sunday.
One AFC punter kicks up to 60 balls Wednesday and 40 more Friday. One NFC punter kicks up to 50 balls per day Wednesday and Thursday and 35 more Friday. Most NFL punters kick 80-150 balls per week. Lary had no idea how many times he punted the ball during a single week when he was with the Lions.
"We had punting drills during practice," Lary said. "But I would stay after and punted in Briggs Stadium, myself and Coach [Red] Cochran. We'd just punt and punt and punt. I'd stand on the 50 and try to put it into the stands, which was a long way. I just loved to punt. It came natural."
Excessive punting wasn't as draining on Lary's legs as playing a defensive position. He'd be on the field for 55-60 defensive snaps per game, tackling Jim Brown and chasing Bobby Mitchell and Tommy McDonald in pass coverage. By the fourth quarter, his legs might be heavy.
The specialists
That's not a problem for today's punting specialist. His activity each game is limited to the four-to-eight snaps he takes to punt the ball. So he's always kicking with a fresh leg, be it the fourth quarter or first.
Lechler has the talent and leg to average 50 yards per kick. His 45.85-yard career average is the NFL record. McBriar and Scifres also have the talent and leg, as do Craig Hentrich (Tennessee) and Dustin Colquitt (Kansas City). But that's not what they are being asked to do in today's NFL.
Punters are asked to keep the ball out of the hands of all those great returners. In 1963, there were only two punts returned for touchdowns the entire NFL season. This season there have already been 13 returned for scores.
Punters are asked to keep the ball on the sideline. If you're going to give a Hester, Reggie Bush or Antwaan Randle El the ball, give them less room to run. Buffalo's Brian Moorman has kicked 18 of his 76 punts out of bounds this season. It keeps a coverage team out of danger – but it hurts a punter's gross average.
Punters are also asked to keep the ball out of the end zone. Touchbacks are 20 free yards of field position. In the 1940s and 1950s teams would willingly take the touchback on a punt from midfield. That's a 50-yard punt. In today's game, the punter is asked to bury his kick in a coffin corner. Pin a team at the 10-yard line rather than concede the 20 on a touchback. That strategy might knock eight, 10 or 12 yards off the distance of the kick. Two or three of those pooch punts a game will chip away at a punter's gross average. Thirty-one of Hentrich's 75 punts have pinned the opposition inside the 20.
Add it all up and you have a cocoon of security around Baugh's record 51.4-yard punting average. It's stood for 66 years now.
"It's going to stand for a lot longer than that," said Hentrich, who led the NFL with a 47.2-yard average in 1998. "The game has changed. It's all about field position. It's not about your gross average, it's about your net. The perfect punt is one that ends in a fair catch."
E-mail rgosselin@dallasnews.com
UNTOUCHABLE?
The five oldest records in NFL history:
1. Points in a game: 40
By Ernie Nevers, Chicago Cardinals vs. Chicago Bears, Nov. 28, 1929 (six touchdowns, four extra points)
2. Touchdowns rushing in a game: 6
Ernie Nevers, Chicago Cardinals vs. Chicago Bears, Nov. 28, 1929.
3. Rushing average in a season: 8.44 yards
Beattie Feathers, Chicago Bears, 1934, with 1,004 yards on 199 carries.
4. Punting average in a season: 51.4 yards
Sammy Baugh, Washington Redskins, 1940, with 35 punts for 1,799 yards.
5. Punting average in a season, rookie: 45.92 yards
Frank Sinkwich, Detroit Lions, 1943, 12 punts for 551 yards.
NET PROFITS
The five unofficial highest net punting averages in NFL history (not an official record kept by the NFL):
39.6: Jim Arnold, Detroit, 1988
39.6: Rich Camarillo, Phoenix, 1993
39.3: Rohn Stark, Indianapolis, 1993
39.3: Donnie Jones, Miami, 2003
39.2: Matt Turk, Washington, 1996
39.2: Matt Turk, Washington, 1997
39.2: Craig Hentrich, Tennessee, 1998
GOING THE DISTANCE
The five highest gross punting averages in NFL history:
51.4: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1940
48.9: Yale Lary, Detroit, 1963
48.7: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1941
48.4: Yale Lary, Detroit, 1961
48.2: Sammy Baugh, Washington, 1942
