Punter (gridiron Football)
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A punter in
gridiron football Gridiron football ( ),"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' ...
is a
special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their position. Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...
player who receives the snapped ball directly from the
line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an invisible transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end ...
and then punts (kicks) the football to the opposing team so as to limit any field position advantage. This generally happens on a fourth down in American football and a third down in
Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...
. Punters may also occasionally take part in fake punts in those same situations, when they
throw Throwing is a physical action that consists of mechanically accelerating a projectile and then releasing it into a ballistic trajectory, usually with the aim of impacting a distant target. ''Throwing'' typically refers to hand-throwing by a ...
or run the football to get a first down instead of punting.


Skills and usage

The purpose of the punt is to force the team that is receiving the kick to start as far as possible from the punting team's
end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on the opposite side of the field ...
. Accordingly, the most effective punts land just outside the receiving team's end zone and land either
out of bounds In sports, out of bounds (or out-of-bounds) refers to being outside the playing boundaries of the field. The legality of going out of bounds (intentionally or not), and the ease of prevention, vary by sport. Sports that use this term include Am ...
(making it impossible to advance the ball until the next play) or after being kicked exceptionally high (allowing the kicking team time to run down the field and prevent the
punt returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punt (gridiron football), punts and kickoff (gridiron football), kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusivel ...
from advancing the ball). Punters therefore must be able to kick the ball high, long distances, and precisely. One standard is that a punt should be in the air for at least 1 second for every 10 yards it travels, but the linear relationship drops off once it hits over 50 yards. Punters may also impart a spin to the ball that makes it harder to catch, increasing the odds of a muff that may lead to the punter's team regaining possession. The punter frequently serves as the holder on
field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...
attempts. The punter has typically developed chemistry with the
long snapper In gridiron football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a Center (gridiron football), center on American football positions#Special teams, special teams whose duty is to Snap (gridiron football), snap the football over a longer distance, ty ...
and is thus accustomed to catching a long-snapped ball. Additionally, punters are also
kickers Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (magazine), sports magazine in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the wor ...
and understand kicking mechanics, such as how far back to lean the ball as the kicker makes an attempt, and when a field goal attempt should be aborted. Punters may pass or run the ball on fake field goal attempts and fake punts. Many punters also double duty as
kickoff specialist A kickoff specialist is a special teams position in gridiron football. They are responsible for kicking the ball in the kickoff. These players tend to have a strong leg, often capable of making touchbacks, and capable of keeping a ball in the bou ...
s as most punters have been at one point field goal kickers as well, and some, such as
Craig Hentrich Craig Hentrich (; born May 18, 1971) is an American former professional football player who was a punter for 17 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He was selected by t ...
, have filled in as worthy backup field goal kickers. Punters seldom receive much attention or fan support, in part because they are called upon when a team's offense has just failed.


Career lengths

Certain punters can have exceptionally long careers, compared to other
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
position players (there is a similar tendency with kickers). One reason for this is that their limited time on the field and heavy protection by penalties against defensive players for late hits makes them far less likely to be injured than other positions.
Sean Landeta Sean Edward Landeta (born January 6, 1962) is an American former professional football player who was a punter in both the United States Football League (USFL) and the National Football League (NFL). Landeta played 22 seasons in the NFL for ...
, for instance, played 19 NFL seasons and three
USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
seasons for eight different teams.
Jeff Feagles Jeffrey Allan Feagles (born March 7, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a punter for 22 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes. He was originally signed ...
played 22 seasons as a punter, on five different teams. Conversely, placekickers and punters can also have very short careers, mainly because of a lack of opportunity. Because the risk of injury is remote, NFL teams typically only carry one punter on their roster at any given time. Thus, the only opportunity a punter has of breaking into the league is if the incumbent punter leaves the team or is injured. Some NFL teams will carry two punters during the
preseason In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...
, but the second punter is typically "camp fodder" and seldom makes the opening day roster. Unlike backups at other positions, backup placekickers and punters are not employed by any given team until they are needed; most
indoor American football Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American football, American or Canadian football, Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standa ...
teams, because of smaller rosters and fields along with rules that either ban or discourage punting, do not employ punting specialists.


Notable records

Bob Cameron of the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play thei ...
(
CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...
), in a 23-year career, has the most career punting yards, with 134,301 yards.
Jeff Feagles Jeffrey Allan Feagles (born March 7, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a punter for 22 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes. He was originally signed ...
holds the NFL record for career punting yards with 71,211 yards. He played from 1988 to 2009 for five different teams in the NFL. Two CFL punters share the record for the longest punt in professional football history at 108 yards. Such a punt is theoretically possible in American football, but would likely result in a touchback, moreover this would require the line of scrimmage to be on the punting team's two yard line, thus increasing the difficulty of achieving an exceptionally long punt. Steve O'Neal set the record for the longest punt in a National Football League game in 1969 with a punt measuring 98 yards. It is the longest recorded punt in a game possible that did not end in a touchback.


Draft status

Former
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
player
Ray Guy William Ray Guy (December 22, 1949 – November 3, 2022) was an American professional football punter who played for the Oakland / Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Guy was a first-team All-American selection in 1972 ...
is the only pure punter to be inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...
, as well as the only pure punter to be picked in the first round of the
NFL draft 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 ...
.
Russell Erxleben Russell Erxleben (born January 13, 1957) is an American former professional football player and investor. A highly decorated college kicker for the University of Texas, Erxleben was a three-time All-American punter (1976, 1977, and 1978) and ...
was selected as the 11th pick in the first round of the
1979 draft Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
by the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
as a punter but performed other kicking duties as well. Guy is credited with raising the status of punters in the NFL because he proved to be a major ingredient in the Raiders' success during the 1970s by preventing opponents from gaining field position advantage.


Evolution

Before Guy's arrival in Oakland, many teams trained a position player to double as a punter (the
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 ...
was likewise expected to "double-up" at another position), even after the
one-platoon system The one-platoon system, also known as "iron man football", is a platoon system, rule-driven substitution pattern in American football whereby the same players were expected to stay on the field for the entire game, playing both offense and defense ...
(which effectively required a punter to play offensive and defensive positions on top of their duties) was abolished in the 1940s. The
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
won
Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at th ...
and
Super Bowl II The second AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super Bowl II) was an American football game played on January 14, 1968, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The National Football League (NFL)'s defending champion Green Ba ...
using running back
Donny Anderson Garry Don Anderson (born May 16, 1943) is an American former professional football player who was a halfback and punter for nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers and St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). From Texas Te ...
as their punter. The Packers' regular placekicker,
Don Chandler Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a village and hill station in Dang district, Gu ...
, was an All-Pro punter with the
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
but
Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi ( ; June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American professional football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be among the greatest coaches and leaders in Ame ...
brought Chandler in from his old team to serve exclusively as a kicker after
Paul Hornung Paul Vernon Hornung (December 23, 1935 – November 13, 2020), nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966 ...
, who set the NFL single-season scoring record with 176 points in 12 games in 1960, was suspended for gambling in 1963 and suffered a sharp decline in accuracy in 1964. Linebacker
Paul Maguire Paul Leo Maguire (born August 22, 1938) is an American former professional football player and television sportscaster. He played as a punter and linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Early spo ...
served as a punter for the AFL-champion
San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...
and
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
in the 1960s. The
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
, who played in Super Bowl I and won
Super Bowl IV Super Bowl IV was an American football game played on January 11, 1970, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the fourth and final AFL–NFL World Championship Game in professional football prior to the AFL–NFL merger taking ...
, bucked the trend at the time by signing
Jerrel Wilson Jerrel Douglas Wilson (October 4, 1941 – April 9, 2005), nicknamed "Thunderfoot", was an American professional football punter who played for 16 seasons, 15 of them with the Kansas City Chiefs, in the American Football League (AFL) and the ...
as a punting specialist in 1966. Wilson punted for the Chiefs for 13 seasons, and combined with placekicker
Jan Stenerud Jan Stenerud (, ; born November 26, 1942) is a Norwegian-American former professional football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Kansas City Chiefs ...
to give the team one of the best kicking combinations in the league. Backup quarterbacks were commonly used to punt well into the 1970s.
Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former football player and coach. He played ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often referred to by his nicknam ...
, who was stuck behind
John Brodie John Riley Brodie (born August 14, 1935) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. He had a second career as a ...
at quarterback for the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
, served as the team's primary punter for the first four years of his career. Bob Lee took on the same role for the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, punting for the club in
Super Bowl IV Super Bowl IV was an American football game played on January 11, 1970, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the fourth and final AFL–NFL World Championship Game in professional football prior to the AFL–NFL merger taking ...
.
Danny White Wilford Daniel White (born February 9, 1952) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback and punter for 13 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He was the third major franchise qu ...
played little as a backup quarterback to
Roger Staubach Roger Thomas Staubach (, -; , -; born February 5, 1942), nicknamed "Roger the Dodger", "Captain America", and "Captain Comeback", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 se ...
with the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...
from 1976 through 1979, but was the team's primary punter from 1975 through 1984, when he gave up the kicking duties to
Mike Saxon Michael Eric Saxon (born July 10, 1962) is an American former professional football player who was a punter in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings. He played college football fo ...
. One of the last examples of a punting quarterback was
Tom Tupa Thomas Joseph Tupa Jr. (born February 6, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a punter the majority of his career after starting out as a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college footbal ...
. A quarterback and punter in college, Tupa started his career in the NFL as a quarterback but eventually settled into a role as a full-time punter and emergency quarterback. Starting in the 1990s, some NFL teams turned to retired
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
players to punt for them, as punting is a basic skill in that game. Darren Bennett, who played for the
San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...
and
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
in his career, was one of the first successful Australian rules football players to make the jump from that sport's top professional competition, the
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
(AFL), to the NFL, doing so in 1994. Ben Graham, who entered the league with the
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...
, became the first AFL player to play in a Super Bowl when he played in
Super Bowl XLIII Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champions Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...
with the
Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...
. Other former AFL players who made the transition to NFL punters include former NFL punter
Mat McBriar Mat McBriar (born 8 July 1979) is an Australian former professional player of American football who was a Punter (football), punter in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers and the S ...
and
Sav Rocca Saverio Giovanni Rocca (born 20 November 1973) is an Australian former professional sportsman. He played Australian rules football for Collingwood and the Kangaroos in the Australian Football League (AFL), and then switched to playing America ...
, formerly of the
Washington Redskins 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) NFC East, East ...
. In recent years, an increasing number of Australians have been making the transition to gridiron football at earlier ages, with a significant number now playing for U.S. college teams. Between 2013 and 2017, all five
Ray Guy Award The Ray Guy Award is presented annually to college football's most outstanding punter as adjudged by the Augusta Sports Council. The award is named after punter Ray Guy, an All-American for Southern Mississippi and an All-Pro in the National Fo ...
s, presented to the top punter in
NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...
football, were won by Australians: Tom Hornsey (
Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...
, 2013),
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 ...
(
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, 2014 and 2015),
Mitch Wishnowsky Mitchell Wishnowsky (born 3 March 1992) is an Australian professional American football punter. He played college football for the Utah Utes, where he won the Ray Guy Award and was a unanimous All-American as a sophomore in 2016. Wishnowsky ...
(Utah, 2016) and Michael Dickson (
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, 2017). All three finalists for the 2016 award were Australians. In the 2018 season, nearly one-fourth of the schools in college football's top level,
Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
, had at least one Australian punter on their roster.
Sam Koch Samuel David Koch ( ; born August 13, 1982) is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 16-year career as a punter for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the ...
revolutionized punting by developing many variations, due to his flexible hips in an effort to increase net punting average by giving the ball variable trajectories and bounce, making it more difficult for returners to catch and return. The
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
were noted for almost exclusively employing left-footed punters during the coaching tenure of
Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick ( ; born April 16, 1952) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Widely regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time, he holds numerous coaching records, inc ...
, who claimed it was unintentional. Left-footed punters have been increasingly used at the NFL level; at the start of the
2001 NFL season The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL), and the first season of the 21st century. The league permanently moved the first week of the regular season to the weekend following Labor Day. In the wake o ...
, there were 26 right-footed punters, four left-footed ones and one ( Chris Hanson) who was dual-footed. By the
2017 NFL season The 2017 NFL season was the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 52nd of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 7, 2017, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the defending Super Bowl LI champion ...
, there were 22 right-footed punters and 10 left-footed ones. By the late 2010s and early 2020s, punters were highly specialized players on an NFL roster. Louis Bien of
SB Nation ''SB Nation'' (an abbreviation for their full name ''SportsBlogs Nation'') is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Blezinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2003. The blog from which the netwo ...
wrote:
A punter's job is no longer simply to kick the ball high and far while fans hold their collective breath that this time isn't the time when the ball flies sideways into the stands. No, punters are now neutralizing and terrorizing the most electric return men in the NFL with kicks that spin and move and bounce and flip in all sorts of unpredictable, terror-inducing ways.


Notes


External links

* {{American football positions American football plays American football positions American football punters American football terminology