Steve Hauschka didn't make the varsity soccer team at Middlebury College. But the football team needed a kicker –– and they were excited about his skills. By 2008, he was on an NFL team. (OnlyAGameNPR)
One of the most unusual journeys to the NFL began in the valley below the Green Mountains — about midway between Burlington and Rutland, Vermont, on U.S. Route 7."Yeah, so it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, Vermont, in the mountains," says Alex Buggy,"You're literally amongst cows, and Ben & Jerry's is just to the north."And is it fair to say that it's not exactly a football school?" I ask.Middlebury College is known for its Quidditch.
"Our total field goal attempts were 2-for-5," Scott says."So we kicked five field goals for an entire season. So the coach wasn't showing a lot of confidence in our kicker at the time."'Just Smashing The Ball'But at some point, Alex and Scott came to learn something about Steve Hauschka — their tall skinny friend who wasn’t quite good enough for the Middlebury varsity soccer team.
So not exactly a Hall of Fame career — but more than enough to get Scott, Alex and the rest of the football guys excited. "I'm barely through my first season — I don't even know if I'm going to be the starting kicker the next season, and he's telling me I can be an NFL kicker."And senior year — just his third season of football — Steve Hauschka came into his own, on field goals and in punting.
"We were pretty close to winning a NESCAC championship, and a lot of that was because of Steve," Scott says.Steve was preparing to graduate with a degree in neuroscience, but he still had a year of college eligibility left. He decided to try to play for a Div. I team as a grad transfer. "Immediately I got so excited. I went down and visited NC state. I put up a poster of their stadium in my room and I started, like, visualizing kicking in front of all these thousands of people."
He wasn’t picked in the 2008 NFL draft, but he was quickly signed by the Minnesota Vikings. The problem: Minnesota already had a veteran kicker. Steve’s chances of landing a spot on the team weren’t very good.
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