The Buffalo Bills recently locked up their kicker through the 2021 season with a contract extension but another potential kicker is making news throughout the NFL.
The Bills decision makers seem sanguine in their kicking situation with Stephen Hauschka. They signed him to a two year extension. Special teams coordinator Heath Farwell expressed absolutely no concern over the kicker’s struggles towards the end of last season. He also indicated the struggles in preseason are by no means alarming. Hauschka’s resume as a whole is what the $4 million per season contract is based on.
Would I be on board with Team USA women’s soccer World cup star Carli Lloyd sporting a Bills jersey? An easy first response is absolutely, after she easily kicked a 55 yard field goal at a Philadelphia Eagles practice and routinely nails 45 yard attempts.
The Bills could be on the cutting edge having the first female NFL player. There have been double digit females suiting up at the college level over the years. Indoor professional leagues have had females on the roster. Buffalo employed the first full time female coach, Kathryn Smith, in NFL history. She handled special teams quality control.
LLoyd is 37 years old and already a professional athlete. She is not an 18 year old kid like a couple of the kickers trying to make it at the collegiate level. That said, some of the previous hopefuls trying to break through had played football, whether in college or a lower tier league. They have perfected the technique and know the pressure of defenders doing anything and everything to get to the kicker to block a kick. But Lloyd has shown such strength and accuracy while striking a soccer ball that could easily translate to the NFL. She has proven she can perform in high pressure games in another sport at the professional level.
Some concerns tossed around by players and media are locker room equality. That would be easily worked out. Females in the media had issues back in the 80’s and that has all been adapted to and no longer is a headline story in the news.
Other concerns were what happens when a kick is blocked or on kickoffs; when she finds herself on defense against grown men at 6’6″ and weighing well over 300 pounds. Those in her corner state the obvious that many of the male kickers in the history of the NFL have been the shortest or thinnest players on the teams. Some kickers make athletic plays on special teams surprising everyone. Others have been witnessed diving and rolling around as if the wind was tossing them around. Some of them make some sort of dive effort to save face but are far from putting themselves in the direct path of an over-sized grown man running at them full speed.
I believe if Lloyd is not the first ground-breaker to make the roster of an NFL team, a female will come along soon, maybe with a leg like hers but also having that football background. A smart process would be to probably get Loyd on a practice squad where she masters the technique of kicking a football and is exposed to every single other aspect of men’s professional football.
Then again on a global level soccer and football share the sports name, football. She certainly can kick a football. So who am I to challenge her decision if she decides to go for it. We still could see her on an NFL team soon and our own place kicker has offered to help get her there.
Would it not be a beautiful redemption if the Scott Norwood stories and jokes were replaced by Lloyd’s legend of kicking a winning field goal securing the Bills a Super Bowl championship?
We’ve got ourselves a Hauschka for now but change could be on the horizon. Maybe not for the Bills but for the NFL in general.