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Posted on 06/06/2006 3:08:56 PM PDT by MikefromOhio
IRVING, Texas (AP) -- What kicker Mike Vanderjagt gives Dallas might be the same thing the Cowboys provide him: a sense of security.
The NFL's most accurate kicker felt unappreciated toward the end of his eight seasons with Indianapolis, where his last attempt was a badly missed 46-yard field goal in the playoffs that would have forced overtime against eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys had their own share of big misses last year, shuffling through three kickers during a season that ended with Dallas losing three games by three points or fewer.
So when the Cowboys signed Vanderjagt in March to the biggest contract they've ever given a kicker -- $5.4 million over three seasons -- both sides appeared to get what they needed. --snip-- Still, Vanderjagt wants to make a clutch click with the Cowboys to help erase the memory of his last one with the Colts, even though he doesn't think that kick will define his career.
"Michael Jordan missed game-winning jump shots, Tiger Woods missed putts. Does that mean they're not as good as you think they are?" Vanderjagt said.
"I'm the best kicker in the history of the game regardless of whether I missed my last kick or not, and that's the way I look at it."
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
If he wins three games for the Cowboys that they would have otherwise lost, he'll be a bargain.
Certainly...
but he isn't the best kicker ever...
I jacked up the formatting, but he thinks he is the best ever.
He does have the accuracy title at the moment, but I have to think the most important kicker ever was Jan Stenerud. He revolutionized the kicking position.
No domer should ever be in the discussion about best kickers ever, no wind, no rain, no snow, no torn up field, no challenge other than distance and pressure, and he's failed the pressure test a couple of times.
yeah...
I could put 10 kickers ahead of Vanderjagt.
I mean he could, at least, hit ONE clutch kick before giving himself that title.
the most recent one landed 10 rows up in the stands at the 10 yard line.
yes he has.
LoOL. Man law-No domers get to talk about kickers.
They can talk about them, but they can't be a nominee, kickers probably benefit more than anybody else from playing in a giant livingroom. Actually if I were at the square table my proposal would be to not call dome teams football teams, and give them seperate stats.
So whatever happened to Jose'?
Jose Cortez was booted off the club after missing a few crucial/simple kicks. Remember Larry Allen grabbing his facemask after blowing one? Cortez went somewhere as a kickoff specialist, but I've forgotten which team. Besides, he was released again.
Give me Adam Vinateri over Vanderjagt any day. Or Gary Anderson. Or Morten Andersen. Or that wory Irish guy from the Replacements.
"The NFL's most accurate kicker"
Big deal. Let's see him drop kick like Doug Flutie!
Meanwhile, Dallas' old kicker was accurate as well. He would successfully put the ball anywhere but between the uprights on critical kicks.
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