If you’re a fan of either the Minnesota Vikings or Seattle Seahawks (and the odds are frankly in favor thereof), then your lasting imagehttp://www.authentic49ersshop.com/shop-by-players-blaine-gabbert-je... of Blair Walsh, Kicker of Footballs, likely is:
because of the time he’d in front of the whole country. (Oh man. Look at the crowd reaction. You can practically smell the fatalism.)
Well. Just as most of us would not care to be defined by the worst minute of our professional life, Blair R. Walsh deserves a look at all the other minutes he’s spent aiming for end zones and uprights. Even if he weren't a Seahawk, he'd deserve such a courtesy.
College Walsh
What led him to be a 6th-round draft pick, out of Georgia, in an age when most kickers go undrafted? Maybe the two-year hot streak that was his sophojunior year: 40-of-45 on field goals. Maybe finishing his career as the SEC’s all-time leading scorer with 412 points.
He made six tackles, too; not too bad for http://www.authenticbroncosshop.com/shop-by-players-phil-taylor-jer... a scrawny 5’9” guy from suburban Miami.
Rookie Walsh-January 9, 2016 Walsh
Teams are teased for drafting kickers in the early rounds. Sometimes in any round! The Raiders might be able get away with nabbing a Janikowski in the first round, because face it, they're not going anywhere. The Buccaneers might trade up to select an Aguayo in the second round, because nobody north of Tallahassee is going to call them on it.
(You don't think the NFL is rigged. But if you ever were tempted to think it, just remember the Raiders’ only Super Bowl appearance since 1984 is a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccafuckaneers, of all possible teams.)
So already in the spotlight, Walsh had to prove himself worthy of being the 175th pick. He did. I guess. If you call “first-team All-Pro your rookie year” an okay result.
Walsh made 35 of 38 field goal tries and 10 of 10Tyrone Crawford Youth Jersey beyond 50 yards. At age 22.
Through two seasons, he’d missed all of nine kicks. Total. One inside of 40 yards. One! He was automatic. He was cruising through the fast lane of the Gostowski-Andersen Memorial Hall of Fame Turnpike. (That is a joke for the guy reading from New Jersey, who likes the Pats and remembers the 1998 playoffs.)
Right. Cruising. Except, kickers go through stuff. Seasons three and four of Walshy World played out like a TV show that simply couldn’t sustain its initial burst of torrid acting and sparkling dialogue, and instead defaulted into soap-opera mode to keep advancing an uncertain plot. Five short kicks were missed. He settled for an 81.1 percentage overall; he became just another kicker among many.
Still, in the 2015 season itself, Walsh made two game-winning field goals, as the Vikings topped the Bears in Week 5 and the Rams in Week 6. He finished the fateful year with a league-leading 34 makes.
And. And, and, and... he came into the playoff game vs. Seattle with a lifetime 34-of-35 mark on kicks closer than 30 yards. Yes, that's exactly like the graphic a broadcast team puts up right before probability cranes its crooked neck back into the picture.
January 10, 2016 Walsh
People often forget that Walsh hadDemarcus Lawrence Youth Jersey made all three of the previous kicks that fateful, arctic day. Including a 47-yarder and a 43-yarder. In one of the most meteorologically inclement settings a kicker can face.