Kai Forbath

Kai August Forbath (born September 2, 1987) is a former American football placekicker. He played college football at UCLA and was recognized as an All-American and the best college kicker in the country in 2009. Forbath was signed by the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2011, and has played for Washington, New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, and Los Angeles Rams.

Early years

Forbath was born in Santa Monica, California. He attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. During Forbath's last two prep seasons, he converted 26-of-33 field goal attempts and scored 213 total points, with a long field goal of 57 yards. He also forced touchbacks on 150 of 188 kickoffs and made 134-of-135 extra point attempts. Forbath also served as the team's punter and had a punting average of 46 yards that led to him being named to the ''Los Angeles Times All-Star team at punter. Forbath subsequently earned high school All-American recognition by ''USA Today''. In addition to football, Forbath also played soccer in the West Valley Samba Soccer League (National Premier Soccer League). Following his senior season, Forbath was invited to play in the 2006 U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the CaliFlorida Bowl.

Considered a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, Forbath was listed as the No. 1 placekicker in the nation among the class of 2006. He picked UCLA over California, Notre Dame, Oregon, among others.

College career

Forbath attended UCLA, where he played for the football team from 2006 to 2010. After redshirting his initial year at UCLA, Forbath made 25 of 30 field goals and all 30 points after touchdowns (PATs) for a team-high 105 points in 2007. He became the first UCLA player to record five field goals of at least 50 yards in a season, including a freshman-best 54-yarder versus Oregon. In his sophomore year, Forbath received first-team All-Pacific-10 honors after making 19 of 22 field goals on the season, including his last 13 straight.

As a junior in 2009, Forbath connected on another three field goals from 50 yards or more and had then made 9-of-12 tries from that distance. Competing with Leigh Tiffin of Alabama and Blair Walsh of Georgia, Forbath was named the winner of the 2009 Lou Groza Award, recognizing the best placekicker in college football.

On September 25, 2010, Forbath kicked two field goals in leading the Bruins to an upset victory over the #7 Texas Longhorns 34–12 in front of a stadium-record 101,437 fans in Austin, Texas. In the previous week, Forbath kicked a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter to give the Bruins a 24–3 lead in the game against then-#23 Houston. UCLA defeated Houston by a score of 31–13. On November 6, 2010, Forbath kicked a game winning 51-yard field goal in the last second of the game to give the Bruins a 17–14 win over Oregon State, and he was named Pac-10 Conference Special Team Player-of-the-Week.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Although he was projected as the second-best kicker in the 2011 NFL Draft, Forbath was not selected in the Draft. Alex Henery ended up being the only kicker selected in the draft that year. On August 2, Forbath was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent, but because he had a pre-existing quad injury that did not allow him to practice and that would take a lengthy time to heal, he was immediately placed on the active non-football injury list. At the time, the Cowboys had an open competition for the placekicker job and were covering themselves in case a player did not emerge from the four kickers they had in training camp at one time.

On August 30, he was placed on the Non-Football Injury list, so he would not count towards the first 80-player cut and later towards the 53-player limit. The performance of fellow rookie Dan Bailey made the Cowboys decide to keep Forbath on the NFI list during all of the regular season.

On April 16, 2012, Forbath was waived by the Cowboys, having never participated in a practice with the team.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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