San Diego Chargers – Whatever Happened To Mister Automatic?
Any fan of football who keeps up with the rise and fall of the various franchises surely knows that the San Diego Chargers have been on a roll over the last few seasons. Winners of their Western AFC division for four years running, the team has been seeing its best days since the hallowed glory of the early Sixties. Unfortunately, their postseason record has failed to lead to a Super Bowl win. For many fans, the majority of blame for that fact can be traced directly to the man responsible for kicking the ball through the uprights on field goal attempts: kicker Nate Kaeding.
The Iowa Native
After being drafted in 2004, most fans in San Diego were satisfied with the pick. After all, Kaeding was a highly touted kicking prospect, and was only there for the choosing due to San Diego's ability to trade Eli Manning to New York in exchange for Philip Rivers and a few great pick in the draft. Kaeding, a Lou Groza Award winner from the Iowa Hawkeyes college football team, had compiled a stellar record while in college. They didn't call him for Mister Automatic for nothing. Just consider the numbers: twenty-four of twenty-nine field goals made from over forty-plus yards, and a senior season that saw him miss but one kick all year! Who would have expected him to do anything different when he became a pro?
The good
Even as a Charger, Kaeding has gone on to set records. During the 2009 season, he became the most accurate kicker in the history of the National Football League with an overall percentage of field goals made that is in excess of eighty-seven percent. Throughout the regular season campaigns in San Diego, his performance in many ways mirrors what he did while at Iowa City. In one season, he missed only three total field goals throughout the sixteen-game season. Unfortunately, all of that is easily overshadowed in the minds of many Chargers fans by his inability to make the important field goals when they matter most: the playoffs.
The bad
Take the fifty-plus yarder that he missed during the 2006 playoff game with the Patriots. At the time, it would have led to a tie and overtime. Or take the 2007 playoff misfires in games against the Titans and Colts. Either miss, had the game been closer, might have resulted in an early postseason exit (forget the fact that the Patriots eventually ousted them from Super Bowl contention anyway). And then there's the biggest heartache of all: last season's three misses during a playoff game with the Jets. They were the only three kicks he attempted in the game, and had he made any of them, the game might have ended very differently.
In the end, Kaeding is now best known by Chargers fans as the kicker who can't make the big kick when his team needs it most. Fairly, or unfairly, that reputation will continue to dog him throughout his time with the team until he once again earns the title "Mister Automatic" by making his field goals in the postseason.
Freddie Brister is a huge fan of all sports and recommends checking out his San Diego Chargers Watch and San Diego Padres watch at his shop.
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