When Rodrigo Blankenship missed the potential game-winning 42-yard field goal for the Indianapolis Colts last week, concluding the opening-day proceedings with a 20-20 tie versus the Houston Texans, he knew he was committing a felony.
However, he didn’t know the verdict would result in capital punishment and his Colts epitaph would read “Wide right.”
That’s the way it is for kickers in the NFL. Everyone says there is no need to be perfect, but if you’re not, it is held against you. Those players who make their living with their foot rather than brawn or speed are labeled heroes or goats with no gray area accounting.
Blankenship compounded his crimes by twice booting kick-offs out of bounds to give Houston excellent field position, but if he had done only that and not failed to put the points on the board, they would likely have been regarded as misdemeanors.
Instead, coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard decided all of the kicks were part of a pattern.
Playing in the NFL is one of the most coveted opportunities in sports, but teams carry just one place kicker. Linemen, runners or defensive backs may fill in at a number of spots, may help on special teams. A kicker’s essential job is to send that leather ball right through the middle of the uprights.
Sometimes, there are extenuating circumstances, a ball slippery from weather, a long snapper not hiking neatly or the holder bobbling the ball. None of those things were factors on the field goal attempt for Blankenship, who said, “Snap and hold were great. I just need to do my part and finish it.”
The next time Blankenship is called on to do his part, it will be for another team. Kickers have tenuous job security. There is no union rep in the room when the bosses give you the stern look and the pink slip.
If the hasty divorce from Blankenship after relying on his toe since 2020 symbolizes anything, it is the urgency this Colts team harbors this season after botching entry to the playoffs at the end of 2021. Indianapolis is living on the edge with a win-now mentality, and a tie instead of a victory in September could loom as very costly in the standings in December.
Blankenship’s demise offered a reminder to fans there is always a glut of NFL kicker hopefuls lined up to make their dreams come true. If Kurt Warner’s stocking-grocery-store-shelves, fairy-tale rise to the Hall of Fame can be the inspiration for quarterbacks, then any team suddenly in need of a kicker opens a door a crack.
It is not difficult to imagine a platoon of kickers who starred in college or who have had tastes of NFL action but who may have become abruptly unemployed as Blankenship did, practicing on high school fields with old friends as fill-in helper snappers and holders. The kickers buy the milkshakes after. They also have left their personal cellphone numbers in the offices of all 32 head coaches and pray the message surfaces from under a stack of paper when needed.
As it so happened, Reich had phone numbers at the ready and summoned Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik to spend the week kicking it out mano a mano for Blankenship’s job. In 2019, McLaughlin kicked for the Colts for four games. Havrisik is a rookie out of Arizona.
McLaughlin’s experience over the last four years pegs him as the ultimate journeyman. In addition to being with Indianapolis, he played four games for the Los Angeles Chargers and four games for the San Francisco 49ers in 2019, three games for Jacksonville and one for the New York Jets in 2020.
He was on Cleveland’s roster all of last season, making 15 of 21 field goal tries and scoring 81 points. He was kicking for nobody when Reich called the other day, though he said he was practicing twice a day. Most assuredly, McLaughlin understands the wide rights and wide lefts of NFL kicking life. Reich knows him and likes him personally, a plus.
McLaughlin has changed addresses frequently in recent years, but he hopes this time around, he can direct his long-term magazine subscriptions to Indiana. It will depend on whether he is a hero or a goat on the field.
Lew Freedman writes sports columns for The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected]