In the high stakes world of NFL place-kicking, the other cleat has dropped in New York as the Giants have replaced the departed Jay Feely in a trade for Chiefs' kicker Lawrence Tynes. The Giants have agreed to send the Chiefs the ever popular "future considerations" for Tynes. Now I am sure you are wondering why on earth you should care about place kickers, much less place kickers in May. Well, the replacement the Chiefs have lined up, 5th Round pick Justin Medlock, has something in common with Tynes: "character issues".
You see, a kicker is not the guy you normally think you have to watch out for making trouble out on the town. Tynes however, did just that in 2005, when he allegedly got into a bar fight and punched a bouncer in the face. At the time, coach Dick Vermeil said "Least likely normally to have a problem is the kicker". Well yeah, this is true, unless you are the Chiefs. Oddly, the Chiefs have somehow found another kicker with an off field incident in his recent past. Replacement Justin Medlock was kicked off of the UCLA team in late 2005 for a DUI incident. Medlock was reinstated by Karl Dorrell the following season. What is up with kickers nowadays? Someone needs to remind these guys that they are much more easily replaced than a troubled QB or WR. I'm sure there are plenty of unemployed soccer players that are chomping at the bit to take their spot. In fact...I was the emergency kicker for my high school team...
