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Punter Guy Not Kicking Over Omission

Photo by RICK SANG

Former Oakland Raiders punter Ray Guy works with a high school student at one of his recent kicking camps.

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By IRA KAUFMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 19, 2008

BRADENTON - He's in every Hall of Fame you can imagine - except the one that matters most.

The doors of the Pro Football Hall of Fame remain closed to Ray Guy, the lanky Southern man who made history upon entering the league in 1973 and merely defined a position before departing.

Unlike the footballs he punted so majestically during a 14-year pro career with the Raiders, Guy has no control over his entry into the Canton, Ohio, shrine to excellence.

The only pure punter ever selected in the first round of the NFL draft, Guy would be honored to become the first to represent his position in the Hall, but he's too proud to lobby for admission.

Besides, he has too many young legs to mold.

Thirty kickers and punters recently turned out for the Ray Guy Academy at Bradenton Manatee High School, where Guy served as an enthusiastic hands-on instructor.

"Throw out your soccer swing and use your punting swing," Guy said as four potential college punters tried mightily to impress a legend. "Every punt is going to be different. There might be wind, it might be raining, it might be a bad snap. You have to adjust."

Mounting back pain prompted Guy to retire following the 1986 season and the former Southern Miss standout is adjusting well to a second career as a teacher.

Guy's kicking academy (prokicker.com) has events scheduled across the country until early August; more than 150 camp alumni won starting positions at colleges in 2007.

"My Dad went to Ole Miss, so he's told me a lot about Ray Guy," said Manatee senior Chris Conley, attending his third camp. "For him, it's all about good technique, repetition and mechanics. He's very calm and he's taught me a lot."

Nobody ever accused Guy of being calm on the NFL sidelines.

A former high school quarterback and safety from Thomson, Ga., Guy enraged Hall of Fame coach John Madden by playing catch with Oakland quarterbacks and wide receivers during the game.

"As time went on, I got bored," Guy said, "so I started warming up with the guys. I had to keep myself in the flow of the game."

Only three of Guy's 1,049 punts were blocked and he never had a punt returned for a touchdown, helping the Raiders to three Super Bowl victories while earning a spot on the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team.

Guy's dynamic right leg prompted the term "hang time" and one of his Pro Bowl punts ricocheted off a TV screen hanging from the roof of the Louisiana Superdome.

Madden recently inducted him into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. Guy is also in the Mississippi and Georgia Sports Hall of Fames, the College Football Hall of Fame and the National High School Hall of Fame.

"I could have been a little bit longer, but I'm proud that I was a great teammate," the seven-time Pro Bowler said. "What I had was a God-given gift. I was more than a punter, but punting was my job. I turned a lot of games around. That's what punters do - they turn games around. I'd like to be the first in the Hall of Fame, but it doesn't matter. What matters is I played a position. Punter is a position."

Jan Stenerud is the only kicker with a bust in Canton and some Hall of Fame voters appear reluctant to cast a ballot for a punter.

Others argue Guy may not have been the premier punter of his generation.

"Ray Guy was different," Manatee football coach Joe Kinnan said, "and you can't judge him strictly by the numbers. You could hear the compression on the ball was different when Ray Guy punted. There's not a play in football that can change a game around more quickly than a punt."

Guy, 58, admittedly felt pressure to live up to his draft status when he headed to Santa Rosa, Calif., for his first training camp. Oakland owner Al Davis picked him 23rd overall, even though Guy broke his leg in the final game of his senior year.

The preseason went well, but Guy's first regular-season punt went "dead right" as Davis tracked the embarrassing shank from the press box.

"I went to the sidelines and I knew the press was just eating this up - with Al spending a first-round pick on a punter and all that," Guy said. "You know the cliche about how nobody talks to kickers and punters? Well, I didn't want anyone to talk to me.

"All of a sudden I felt this presence and I look up to see Hall of Famer quarterback/kicker George Blanda. George whispers, 'You kind of screwed up, didn't ya?' I said yep. He said, 'Let me ask you a question: What did they draft you for?' I said, "to punt the ball." He said, 'Well then just go do it. Don't think ... just do it.'"

Ray Guy did it.

For 14 years, he launched rockets out of the Raider end zone or hung 'em high inside the opposition's 20.

Now the best punters in college football compete annually for the Ray Guy Award.

"I tell these kids you've got to feel things from within," Guy said. "If I hit a bad punt, I knew something was out of sync. By the time I got to the sidelines, I pretty much had it figured out."

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