What a fascinating story, and I am no football fan. Nice, nice.
Very interesting, yet, when all is said and done , it is unlikely the Rams will be in this year's Super Bowl.
I spent over twenty years in Europe. In conversation, I was often asked, "Why do they call it football?" This is why.
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I grew up on stories of "Freddy Poole the kicking fool", who mesmerized opponents with 55 yard averages when he was an Iowa State all-American in the 1930s.
Adam Vinatieri. 'Nuf ced.
A major reason I enjoy reading the NYT Sports section is that often their articles are 'cerebral' and take on the finer aspects of any sport.
Just like this one.
And, yes, he should be an MVP.
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Thank you NYT, very good article.
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"Many punters mess with the banana in practice, but few have the confidence or audacity to try it in a game." When I read that it rang a bell. Here's a quote from an article by Barry Petchesky posted on deadspin.com back in September, referring to the same kick: "...many punters mess around with it in practice, few have the balls or the skills to pull it off in a game." Eerily similar, isn't it?
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Vacuous games and the strategy behind them are a godsend in this complex day and age. Amen to kicking a ball. The term POTUS would better serve to stand for Punter of the United States instead. Something we could all be proud of then.
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May the ever prolific DFW RIP
It was fantastic when Ray Guy finally made it into the NFL. Like Hekker, he was just a guy doing his job far above the norm anyone previously expected. Great comment I heard when they were debating whether a punter really should be in the HoF is that the act of punting a ball is one that pretty much everyone has performed at some time. Throwing a perfect spiral with a football or a bone crushing ILB tackle is not something everyone did growing up, but I think few kids could say they never punted a ball, whether a football, soccer, kickball etc.
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Punting to depreciate an opponents field position, and enhance your team's probability of stopping a score is underappreciated by the general public. Forcing the other guys to have a long field, possession after possession, just gives a team a better chance to win.
Therefore, even though punting advanced the ball, I think of Johnny Hekker as a defensive player primarily. A statistician on these pages kept insisting a team should go for a 1rst down on 4rth down the majority of the time.
When you have a weapon like Hekker, you move the ball as far away as possible from your own goal line, and play better percentages.
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The writer is saying this guy is likely the best ever apart from Hall of Fame punter Ray Guy. He obviously had never seen Reggie Roby of the Miami Dolphins in action.
Many of his punts went so high, they cleared the stadiums, and the hang times so ludicrous that long returns were extremely rare, many returners didnt bother.
In some ways, he was actually better than Ray Guy.
But like black quarterbacks until recently, you rarely hear of black punters in the history of the NFL.
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Reminds me of Mike Nugent while at Ohio State. He broke or tied 22 school records, including most points in a career by any player at Ohio State (356). He completed 72 of 88 field goal attempts and 140 of 143 extra point attempts.
The guy was phenomenal, he should have won the Heisman Trophy. Punters are always undervalued on teams but at least they have longevity. Many are able play for 10 years.
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Did you guys know Donald Trump was a ... RAMS PUNTER ?? You could look it up!
Fordham Rams, '64-'65. Freshman year. He didn't continue for a sophomore season due to an ankle injury. He was recruited from NYMA (New York Military Academy) to punt for Fordham. Trump played varsity football, baseball, & soccer at NYMA. Also played on bowling and tennis teams (singles & doubles.)
Maybe that's where he got the heel spurs from?
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I am not surprised. In his current position all he does is punt.
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Did he wear a helmet? Any traumatic brain injury?
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And yet, looking at NFL statistics, he is just an above average punter. Go figure.
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Ray Guy! Drafted in the first round by Al Davis. Special teams are important and nice to see this kid doing so well.
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Sounds like Hekker is a great punter but the fact that nowhere in this article is any mention of Ray Guy cheapens the hyperbole. If you don't know who Ray Guy is, you should look him up.
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READ the article. There is a mention of Ray Guy and that Hekker needs to be compared to the HoF kicker. So your comment is especially cheap and the hyperbole is richer.
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It's right here: "Hekker, three times a first-team All-Pro, has produced a statistically overpowering trail that places him on a trajectory to join Ray Guy as the only full-time punters in the Pro Football Hall of Fame."
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I like Johnny Hekker, I do. I had him on my Madden team four years back when they came out with 99 overall version of him. That being said, Johnny Hekker is not even in the conversation of the NFL's MVP. He is a punter who is on the field for less than a third of the snaps, and I don't even think the author believed it when he wrote a clickbait style hook to get people to click on his article. Hekker is the best punter in the league, but it's ridiculous to say he's even in the conversation for MVP of the NFL.
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Glad the "might" was in the headline.
Proud to share my Oregon State heritage with Hekker.
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Not even a nod of respect to Hall-of-Famer Morton Anderson of the New Orleans Saints? Shame on you!
His greatness was recognized even though he played for a (mostly) losing team!!
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Morten Andersen, great as he was, never punted in an NFL game.
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Good analysis and article. Sounds like a very competitive and thoughtful guy, with obviously the required physical skills. And the analysis of his impact is good, too: He is part of the defense that helps win games by significantly reducing the other team's scoring.
Best ever?
Ray Guy!
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Dudes a total punk
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iKNbFShCC0Y
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Next they’ll say that the president of the United States could be a woman.
Remember Ray Guy? Now there was a punter!
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The game is constantly in flux and there are players that come along and decide they are going to change all by themselves the way that game is played.
It is always the intangibles that dictate that, so when all is said and done, I think this guy having been a true offensive threat will be his legacy.
Fun to watch.
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A very good article, needing only a video of the banana punt in a game.
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Here.
http://www.stack.com/a/see-why-this-normal-looking-punt-has-over-130000-...
Ray Guy was the best punter in NFL history.
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Ray Guy's career net punting average was 35.0, Hekker's is 43.5. Guy was best of his era. Hekker best of his era. But numbers far favor Hekker
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Ray Guy was a great, great player, a super athlete, and waited too many years to get in the Hall of Fame. He had quarterback skills also.
However, Hekker might be better because his kickin' foot is so deft in avoiding touch backs.
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He is a great punter and an even greater human being.
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I really wish people would stop complaining about "clickbait" just because a story is published online. My parents spent their entire adult lives in journalism, working for major newspapers & magazines for a combined 60 years or more.
The art of writing a headline hasn't changed jack in 100 years, the only difference now is that when you dangle the bait people only have to "click" instead of the "clink" of their coins at the newsstand. And if they feel deceived or simply don't like the story, now they can shout their opinions immediately, far and wide ... rather than have to sit down and write a letter to the editor.
All I care about is if the story is good. Does it contain information that made me happy, or better informed, or maybe even changes a long held opinion? Then I'm good, thanks.
This story was a lot of fun for me, and I learned something cool about the NFL I've followed for 56 years.
You want "clickbait" from 70 years ago?
"DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN!"
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Terrific article. Fascinating!
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Few things about football get under my skin more than a so-called analyst (i.e., former player) who makes fun of a punter or kicker under the subtext that they are not football players. Hey, it's called football, not 10yardslantball or 15yardoutball or armtackleball. As coach Parcells once said, you can't take the foot out of football. Great story about a great athlete.
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He's one Hekker of a punter. And has the size to be a good quarterback.
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What a horrendous clickbait title. In no possible sense "might" he be the NFL's "most valuable" player. That isn't hyperbole, it is flat out wrong. In no sense does this article even try to prove that the value that he adds remotely compares to that of a top positional player or defender (let alone quarterback).
The article does a nice job at looking at his mindset, and showing how he is a statistical outlier at his position. That's great. But this is an indefensible headline. For what it's worth, the closest the article gets to justifying it is the quote from the coach saying that "Pound for pound, the best value I’ve gotten for any player has been Johnny Hekker". Great. Now, coach's say stuff like this all the time. In fact, it would be pretty damn rude of them to *not* compliment their players to the media. But more importantly, when discussing "value", that's because Hekker earns $3million a year. When they say that he's got good "value", they mean that relative to his cost. Which is about 1/6 of what the Browns are paying Brock Osweiler.
It's just a pointless claim. if anyone in the league believed he was even *half* as valuable as any number of positional players, then he would have received offers for 2-3 times his current salary. If anyone in the league thought he had the value of even an *average*QB, he would be earning offers about 6 times his current salary. No one thinks this. It's awesome what he's doing, but the headline is wrong.
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That assumes an efficient market. Ask Billy Beane about those in sports.
If a defensive player wins MVP, it's because they're ultimately good at preventing points, with a delta between them and the average player that's high on that metric. If his punting is able to to reduce the likelihood of scoring by leaps and bounds beyond what other punters can accomplish, his net value really could be off the charts. They don't jump into that analysis here, but the claim that a punter couldn't possibly be an MVP-type player is silly.
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So very happy that you aren't a journalist. You anger and judgemental attitude is sad.
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Dylan,
Okay, you've made your point, and supported it well, but I think at worse, the headline writer is just guilty of hyperbole, much like you started your comment with "horrendous clickbait." It's not clickbait. It's actually a well-written profile piece, and I enjoyed it without even considering the title. What makes this a great profile is that Hekker is dominating his position (not his sport), and that demonstrates an unusual value. Remember that what makes players "most valuable" isn't just their salary, but how well they do compared to others at their position. While Hekker might not be as "valuable" in aggregate as, say, Tom Brady, he'd probably be the most valuable on my favorite team, the 49ers, because they are so terrible right now and they punt so much!
The N.F.L.’s Most Valuable Player Might Be ... a Punter?
Yeah, no.
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great rebuttal, a little light on facts though.
For once, the star of the field is a punter, not a quarterback. How refreshing!
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The fact that you believe the star player on the field is a punter is completely wrong. They will never amount to anything close to a star QB or RB, even if they are the best of all time. While a QB can give you a game winning drive and an RB can have an 80 yard touchdown run, all a punter can do is to give the other team worse field position. You would never go to a Ram’s game saying “Wow, that was a really good punt,” You go to a game to watch star players like Todd Gurley make a 40 yard run while dragging 3 defenders with him. While I believe that having a great punter like Johnny Hekker on trick plays is valuable, it will never amount to being as valuable as even an average NFL QB.
Nice piece about a talented and smart guy. Too bad he's had to play for such a terrible organization. On the plus side for him, the Rams' consistent dismal performance has allowed him plenty of opportunity to practice his craft.
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5 and 2 this year !!!
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This dude is a hero! Changed the game forever!
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Hekker's skill and touch really are phenomenal. Hope you didn't just jinx him!
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