Kickers live in a lonely world in which victories and job security hang on their performances

One of the great ironies of football is that the outcome of a game often hinges on the performance of a player who is only slightly more involved with the team than the guy who drives the bus.

Kickers live in a world of their own. While almost everyone else on the team is getting pounded through the course of a game, the kicker wanders the sideline in a clean uniform, occasionally loosening up by kicking balls into a net. Some people don't even consider kickers football players because so few take or deliver hits. But when it comes down to the final seconds of a close game and the kicker trots on to the field, no one is more squarely in the spotlight--or in control of the result. I can't remember a season in which more games have been decided by the last kick than this one.

Talk about pressure. The kicker knows it's not only a victory that hangs in the balance, but often his job. ft doesn't take much of a rut for a kicker to find himself unemployed. Coaches have little patience with those guys.

Even for kickers who enjoy longevity with one team, interaction with teammates is limited. They go to special teams meetings, usually first thing in the morning, then have a long break while everybody else goes to offensive or defensive position meetings. Many kickers go home for a few hours, then come back for practice, which usually begins with special teams work. Once that's over, the kicker and the punter are off on their own again.

With a schedule like that, it's hard for a kicker to get to know anyone besides the punter very well. Those two guys tend to be pretty tight because they're all they've got.

When I played, Dallas went through a lot of kickers, and the locker of whatever guy we had was always next to mine. I'd try to make conversation, to help him feel part of the team. But our paths so seldom crossed that we really had little in common besides our uniform.

So imagine how lonely a kicker must feel when he lets his team down, as the Giants' Jay Feely did--not once, not twice, but three times--against Seattle a few weeks ago. But there was Feely two weeks later, kicking the game-winner in overtime at Philadelphia. His teammates were celebrating, and Feely was back on top again. And at least for the time being, he still had a job.

(S) The Troy Aikman show is broadcast at 5 p.m. ET every Thursday through the Super Bowl on Sporting News Radio. Listen online at radio.sportingnews.com.

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