Jude McAtamney (born 9 May 2000) is a professional

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

placekicker In gridiron football, the placekicker (PK), or simply kicker (K), is the player responsible for attempts at scoring Field goal (football), field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist ...

for the

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of the

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(NFL) from

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. Originally a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er, he later switched to American football and played at

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level for the Chowan Hawks and Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Early life

McAtamney was born in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, in

. His grandfather Harry Cassidy was a

er for, and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

of, Bellaghy GAC and the

Derry county football team The Derry county football team represents Derry GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association, in the Gaelic sport of football. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football ...

. McAtamney grew up in the village of Swatragh and played Gaelic football with his six brothers. He later played for the under-20 football team of

Derry GAA The Derry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) () or Derry GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland. It is responsible for Gaelic games in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland (the GAA refers to the county as ...

and helped them win the Ulster Under-20 Football Championship in 2018. McAtamney attended St Patrick's College, Maghera, and later studied for two years at

St Mary's University College, Belfast St Mary's University College is a university college in Belfast, Northern Ireland. History The origins of the College can be traced back to 1900 when the Dominican Sisters opened St Mary’s Training College on the present Falls Road campus with ...

College football career

In May 2020, McAtamney became interested in

after noticing, through

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, Irish punter David Shanahan accept an

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to play

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

in the U.S. for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. He bought some equipment on

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and began practicing at a local Gaelic football field. He recorded himself and sent a message to Shanahan, who referred McAtamney to ProKick Australia, a program to help develop college football punters and

s. Those at ProKick were impressed by McAtamney but he was unable to travel to Australia due to

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restrictions. After several months,

Tom Hackett Tom Hackett (born 10 May 1992) is an Australian former college football Punter (gridiron football), punter for the Utah Utes football, Utah Utes. He was a two-time winner of the Ray Guy Award. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New ...

offered to work with him and Shanahan in the U.S., in January 2021. The two trained for two weeks in

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and then were cleared to travel. He trained with Hackett for several months and was able to consistently make 50-yard field goals in practice. He later returned to Swatragh and continued training, being able to make field goals of over 60 yards by June 2021. In July 2021, McAtamney received and accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Chowan Hawks of

Chowan University Chowan University ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

program. In his first season, he appeared in nine games and made 6-of-10 field goal attempts and converted all 47 of his

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tries, also having 60 kickoffs with 19

touchback In American football, a touchback is a ruling that is made and signaled by an official when the ball becomes dead on or behind a team's own goal line (i.e., in their end zone) and the opposing team gave the ball the momentum, or impetus, to travel ...

s. He entered the NCAA transfer portal after the year and underwent training with ProKick in Australia in the 2022 off-season. McAtamney ultimately transferred to the FBS-level Rutgers Scarlet Knights and won the starting placekicker role. That season, he was successful on 12-of-18 field goals, with a long of 49 yards, and made 23-of-24 extra points in 12 games played. He was the team's leading scorer with 59 total points and also made 47 kickoffs for 2,787 yards with 17 touchbacks. In his last year, he only attempted one field goal, a miss, after having been replaced by Jai Patel, but remained the kickoff specialist, posting a team record 40 touchbacks on 60 kickoffs.

Professional career

After impressing at his

pro day The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

, McAtamney was invited to tryout for the

, where he made all 10 of his attempted kicks in front of scouts. He was not selected in the 2024 NFL draft, but afterwards signed with the Giants as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. He was assigned the team's exempt/international roster spot as part of the International Player Pathway Program (IPPP). Having been called up off the practice squad onto the Giants roster, McAtamney made his NFL debut against the

Washington Commanders The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division ...

on 3 November 2024, kicking an extra point and a 31-yard field goal. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 6, 2025.

Notes

References

External links

Chowan Hawks bioRutgers Scarlet Knights bioNew York Giants bioJude McAtamney
on