Placekicker

Placekicker, or simply Kicker, is the title of the player in American and Canadian football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals, extra points, and, in many cases, kickoffs.

The placekicker usually will only punt when the punter is injured, although sometimes one player handles both jobs (common in the Canadian Football League, which has smaller active rosters than in the U.S.). Because the skills are different enough, and to reduce the risk of injury, on the professional level most teams employ separate players to handle the jobs. During the first two games of the 2006 NFL season, the Atlanta Falcons experimented with using only one player, punter Michael Koenen, to kick field goals, punt, and kickoff. Even though Koenen maintained his strong punting and kickoff performances, he went only 2 of 8 on attempted field goals in the first two games of the season and forced the Falcons to seek another kicker, NFL kicking legend Morten Andersen, to solely concentrate on field goals. Occasionally a professional team will even have a kicker who handles only the kickoffs and serves as a backup to the kicker who handles field goals and extra points, typically to further protect a premier kicker from injury.

Placekickers and punters are frequently the lowest-paid starters on professional teams, although proven placekickers sometimes earn over a million dollars per year in salary.

Amateur teams (e.g., college, high school) often do not differentiate between placekickers and punters, have different players assume different placekicking duties (for example, one person handles kicking off, another kicks long field goals, and another kicks from shorter distances), or have regular position players handle kicking duties. The last option is quite common on high school teams, when the best athletes are often the best kickers. Before the modern era of pro football, this was also the case for professional teams, particularly when most place kicks were still made in the "straight on" style outlined below.

Placekickers today are almost all "soccer-style" kickers, approaching the ball from several steps to the left or right of it and several steps behind. Before this method of kicking was popularized in the 1960s, almost every kicker was a "straight on" kicker, a style that does not include coming at the ball from the side at all, but rather from straight back.

Placekickers in the modern game usually wear specialised shoes, but in rare circumstances some prefer to kick barefoot. Tony Franklin was one such kicker, who played in Super Bowls for the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots. More recently, Englishman Rob Hart kicked barefoot during his 7-year NFL Europe career.

An American sitcom, Married... with Children in the episode "Just Shoe It," references the soccer-style kicking of the placekicker as the reason for position being filled by "a little foreign guy who can barely speak English, never gets hit, and is taking, yet, another job from an American."