The Era of the Barefoot Kicker | NFL Films Presents
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- NFL Films Presents looks back at the era of barefoot kickers in the NFL.
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*kicks barefoot*
*makes it and celebrates*
*teammate with cleats steps on barefoot*
Brian Calderon *career ended*
I was hoping someone was gonna comment about that
Brian Calderon that's what I thought was gonna happen
Brian Calderon they didn't really wear cleats back then. in the 1970's 1980's early 90's most fields were like carpet. getting tackled in those carpet like fields would suck. you'd have carpet burns everywhere. plus there shoes they played in weren't spiky at the bottom. they were more like tennis shi
That hurt just thinking about it
i love old nfl films. it involves so much history about the league
MHWeEatNation l
M
So true, the NBA and MLB need to take notice. The NFL always has the highest quality informative videos about it's past history
Chris Beach no I think it’s best that the NBA doesn’t bring back their past
Nothing better than some NFL historic moments with the classic music in the background. Pure nostalgia.
65 yard field goal? in bare feet as well. impressive.
Kicking a ball barefoot doesn't really hurt nor is hard. the only moment you can hurt yourself is if you kick straight with your toes in front. If you keep your foot angled as it should it feels like a slap on your foot.
KLAUS Prime check out his foot at 1:43
KLAUS Prime I'm a soccer player and this is incorrect. It can hurt if ur barefoot no matter what. It's more like a sting or getting punched in the foot
Fofo Fofo speak for yourself
It only stings if you kick the ball repeatedly in the same spot
I remember kids used to take off their shoes to kick barefoot in elementary school, 20 years ago. I guess this guy was the inspiration
I have seen the same, but people had no knowledge of people from the past.
Do a Barefoot Kicking Competition at the next Pro Bowl.
Simon Fröhlich Good idea
Simon Fröhlich terrible idea. Your foot will hurt after all them kicks and will be swollen
Doubt they'd participate
do some kind of kicking contest. like homerun derby? longest field goal contest. most accurate punts?? there's some serious kicking talent in the league now
Simon Fröhlich 666 likes
i smoke a big bowl at night and wonder about the bare foot kickers 🍁
mario gutierrez 300th like
mario
mario gutierrez i smoke a super bowl every night and think about barefoot kickers
big bowl of loops?
cringe
My dad always use to curse the "barefoot kicker" that knocked his beloved cleveland browns out of the AFC championship. Whenever dad would tell the story, he would always be sure to describe the scene, the close score, the blistering cold weather, and the freaking barefoot kicker from ohio that broke his heart. Now i can finally put a face to the name. When i showed him this video, mom told us that we were both grinning from ear to ear the entire length of the vid. Great memories
I still think that kick in Cleveland would have hit the upright if it were extended. And I'm a Bronco fan.
2017: fined $60K for kicking barefoot
TheeRacso sad but so true
TheeRacso fined 100k for honoring god, gets praised for kneeling during the national anthem
bob the builder no.
Vrennen I think it was Tim Tebow that got fined for honoring god during a touchdown celebration idk for how much but he got fined
StarCoinHero fined $900k for paying the money 37 seconds late.
My foot hurts thinking about it
Kicking barefoot isn't as painful as it sounds. The ball kinda deformes around your foot, spreading the impact out. Now, if the ball didn't do that and just kept its shape, that would be quite painful.
@@Mario_Gillette well it's harder to do that in the winter when the ball is frozen.
Mine too
My foot hurts after kicking woth tennis shoes
Look at those guys feet? You gonna say it doesn't hurt?
All fun and games until someone steps on your barefoot.
I’m the guy who would step on it
@Jens95 aren’t you a hockey channel?
@@bobbybalter1356 She is, but who said she can't be a fan of football too.
@@soulessshadow5356 no one I guess
Imagine getting cleated barefoot
Good thing there’s no metal cleats in football
XxTryHard NessxX i know people who play with metal cleats
@@nicholaswhite66 maybe in their backyard. What, you think theyre playing with metal cleats and no one notices? Lmao
Look 3 comments up they said it a year before you
Still get your toe stepped on by someone 200lbs. Those are still hard plastic cleets.
I was a barefoot kicker in the 1970's. Tony Franklin was a legend at A&M in the 70's in an era where the Southwest Conference allowed kickers to use a different ball than the one used on scrimmage plays. At the same time Franklin was hitting from beyond 60 yards, Russell Erxleben at Texas and Steve Little at Arkansas were replicating Franklin's feats.
Not having seen Franklin play on TV in a day when there was just one TV game every Saturday, I did see Erxleben kick, and he was a straight thru (not soccer style) kicker. So, when I decided to try kicking barefoot, I kicked straight thru like all the kickers of old before (pre- Pete Gogolak). Taking off the square toe shoe and kicking barefoot, my distance increased by 15 yards, and my accuracy improved. Of course, my big toe eventually got what was probably a stress fracture, and almost 50 years later, it still hurts.
Yes, those three were awesome. Erxleben later went to prison and Little tragically was paralyzed, I believe.
I got to see Steve Little (Arkansas) and Uwe von Schamann (Oklahoma) in the Orange Bowl when I was a kid...1978 maybe? Watching those two warm up before the game was something else! That was truly an era of legendary place kickers
"Who smokes a big bowl at night and says I'm gonna ask about the barefoot kickers?!"
Peter King you're the man
I have an amazing and newfound amount of respect for Peter King after that wonderful quote.
Should just overdub a scream of pain over every kick on this video.
Timesink the wilhelm scream
0:58 this guy smoked a big bowl right before this interview lmao 😂
Still a better looking than Shaq's Foot.
youmadbro951 lol
youmadbro951 You mean LeBron's foot? That thing is a monster.
Nate Haviland lmao
youmadbro951 foot powder spraaaaaaaaaay
He needs some gold bond.
When I was a kid I remember watching these guys kick and thought, "hey, the best kickers use their bare feet". I decided to go out in the yard and give it a try.
That was a mistake. My foot stung and throbbed for a couple of days.
yeah I’ll never do that, I play soccer, and am a punter/kicker in football and feel quite fine with actual equipment
How much for cleats?
A Pair ?
No just One Cleat
Stephen Harlow Who would ask if you meant a pair?
Stephen Harlow I think he would say a cleat not a pair of cleats if he means one
Why would the salesman ask "a pair?".
Just let him have his damn joke FFS.
maninredhelm We would if it made any sense.
For those of you confused about 5:55 the camera angle from the top left looked at the goal post awkwardly so if the ball passed over the two posts it would look like a miss but it was in fact a successful kick
Wyrain W Thanks.
if the officials call it good, it's good
Isn’t any ball that goes over the post (whether between it or not) counts?
@@donthaveaname1086 for a field goal to be considered good it has to be between the posts, height doesn’t matter
I thought Tony Franklin was the coolest guy ever when I was a kid. I'm from Wisconsin, and have been a lifelong Packers fan, but I was mesmerized by the idea of a barefoot kicker. Then I tried it in my backyard on a cold Wisconsin winter day, and I can almost still feel it to this day. I have mad respect for all of the barefoot bunch!
If i remember right. u of tenn had a barefooter that went straight on . 70s ?
4:03 Pause it right there on the shot of the Rams' kicker's foot - My god what a horrendous playing surface! It's like a squiggly line drawn by hand on a lumpy carpet.
VicInNocal AstroTurf was basically like carpet at that time. So it looks jacked up because they only had to lay the stuff down and that was that
VicInNocal f
i had Converse like that
i looked at the title of this video and knew it was going to be awesome. did not disappoint.
geekdiggy Arab mob,bBlbp
B" MB B,bomb BMNMBBMHFJTJFMMF,cdVV bomb
it heeled my boredom
Pause at 1:56 that is Gary kubiak when he backed up John elway
Aarnav Kolli sure is
The commentary in this video alone makes it one of the best NFL clips in history
A guy who's never kicked a ball in his life laughs at the question.
An actual barefoot kicker says "that's a good question".
I remember being proud of kicking 40 yrd field goals barefoot as a preteen. Could never do that today let alone in the rain or snow!
well that was weird to watch
What kind of foot fetishist decided to make this
@@samuelmount4006 💀
I was in my teens & i loved Pat Summeral introduce barefoot kickers & punters putting the in front of barefooted.
4:58 Good lord, it's ronald mcdonald
This was from 3 years ago lol
😂😂😂😂😂
Biggest feet in the world
Tube feet
1:54 Gary Kubiak
Caden O'Brien yep
Caden O'Brien I'm not the only one who noticed
I noticed too
Hello
Caden O'Brien I noticed that
This video fails to answer the two important questions: 1) why did they start bare-footed kicking? and 2) why did they stop? What are the statistics for accuracy compared with kicking with a shoe on?
DieFlabbergast they played with bare feet because back then cleats didnt give them a very good feel for the ball. now that soccer cleats are more advanced and alot thinner they are using them. thats my theory
DieFlabbergast ... I agree. There is so much information and questions that could have been given and answered in this film. I still want to know how and why they started kicking barefoot. And did it hurt the first time?
DieFlabbergast well, he did say he was just better at kicking without the shoe. So that's why it started. As for why it went away, shoe tech got better, most likely.
DieFlabbergast EXACTLY!
Kickers use soccer cleats?
“Who smokes a big bowl at night and says I’m gonna ask about the barefoot kickers we got a new network and we need to fill some time” he is my new favorite person on these videos 🤣
Jim (Chris) Everett calling someone else demented is the highlight of this video😂😂😂
The slightly somber piano music at 3:58 when he's talking about shaving callouses on the plane. Love it.
4:56 wtf are wrong with those feet
Those shits long af
@@gavingriffith6554 😂
Eric Anderson oh gosh
LOL THEY BUILT LIKE HOT DOGS
I was just fixin to comment something about that
47 second mark..
dude is my hero.
"who smokes a bowl at night" 😂😂👏
When I was in my late teens I used to practice kicking field goals and I found out I could kick it at least 5 yards farther barefoot. And my accuracy was better too. I had very wide feet though, which might have helped. Even so, I worried about fracturing a toe if I kicked it wrong , so I stopped. But it never really hurt me much.
You pretty much described me. Used to practice kicking field goals for fun. Seemed to have more distance and accuracy barefooted. I never could quite hit from 45.
I did shank it once and am pretty sure I did fracture my toe. Didn’t help it was a new football.
I’m 62 now. Bad knee on my plant foot. Hadn’t tried a field goal in 30(?) years. Impressed my grandson with a 30 yd. kick. Barefooted after not doing a few kicks well at all with shoe. He was duly impressed all around.
I’ve been practicing in secret. Need to really impress him. 😂
This is obviously an old video, because Jeff Wilkins kicked barefoot in the first seven games in the 2002 season before putting his shoe back on. He is currently the last barefoot kicker in NFL history.
Not big on football but this was awesome. Love history like this
5:40 Obviously it’s just because of the camera angle but it’s hilarious watching the Broncos cheer and jump in the air for a kick that looks 15 yards wide.
Took too long to find someone who noticed this
“It’s kind of like owning a pet. These guys come with their own types of problem.” 😂
Barefoot kicking is so much more acurate than with cleats, its not even close.
That kick at 5:50 looked like a miss
It did. I think it was the angle of the kick. It seemed to go over the uprights and then swerve away. In today's game it would obviously be officially reviewed a dozen different times at different camera angles before the call was confirmed.
zyxwut321 if it went above the upright then they can't review it.
Conor Donnelly t
It went above the uprights and swerved after it went through
Conor Donnelly exactly
I was a barefoot kicker in the 1970s, but my style was different from these guys. I was a conventional straight through kicker using a kicking shoe with the square toe. When Franklin kicked the long field goal at A&M, I decided to take the bulky square toe off and try it barefooted. By raising my toes and kicking the ball by striking it with the pad of my foot, the ball exploded. Immediately, my range went from less than 40 yards to 55 yards, and the ball quickly lofted high enough not to be blocked. My special teams coach then fitted me with a string that forced my toes to bend backward and better expose the pad of my kicking foot.
4:58 PAUSE IT .... WHAT ARE THOSE????
Feet DUHHHHHH
Matt Beeman XD
3:21.....the key to being an elite kicker. When you can snap your kicking leg as fast as you can snap your fingers. And Karlis appears to be in his mid 50's.
They heard about Rex Ryan's secret and got scared.
Osaji Obi huh
Brian tha goat scalabrine Rex Ryan has a pretty well known foot fetish
mike lomez Oh yeah I remember that that was all over the news
Osaji Obi try that Rex Ryan joke rules do that just rules
Tony's bare foot kicking made warmups and games at Kyle Field even better!
4:55 - The stuff that nightmares are made of.
Beardmania those are some big ass feet
Just after the Franklin era in the SWC, Texas (then Phil Eagles) had a great barefoot punter in John Telschik
2:10 I can spot Belichick by his stance a mile away, 40 years in the past.
Standing between Giants QBs Randy Dean (#15) and rookie Phil Simms (#11). Interestingly, Bill Belichick was then Special Teams coach, a few years before he would become defensive mastermind for Big Blue.
Thanks you guys for being amazing. 😃🙌
Linemen jump in the way and you kick the helmet
owch
Oh no dam lol
A great tribute to such an elite group of amazingly innovative athletes...
👍
As a soccer player who has kicked many a ball bare footed I get it. It provides a feel that gives you a level of accuracy that can be improved upon at a very minute level. But, yeah, it can frickin hurt sometimes.
2:53 I love that they told the homie to put his bare foot up on the table for the shot
kickers are a strange breed of people
I tried it once as a kid in the 80's. After that 10 yard attempt my foot hurt like hell for a couple of minutes. Those kickers are more demented than, Night train, Deacon, Lambert, Butkus, and Taylor put together.
How and why did I just watch this whole doc?
I love Karlis’ reaction upon kicking number 7!
y'all forgot the bingo dog movie?! the kid's dad was a kicker for the Packers and at the ending you can see he was a barefoot kicker
Every now and then I rewatch this video to remind myself that this wasn't a fever dream i had one night and that in fact there was a group of people who kicked footballs barefoot during the 1980s.
I can't kick worth af with shoes but barefoot I'm pretty good
"who smokes a big bowl at night and thinks I'm gonna ask about barefoot kickers???" Thank you, NFL films, for leaving that in
1:09 that laugh tho
Clicks on nfl video...one minute in.....”who smoked a fat bowl and came up with these questions?!”.....
imagine your holder doesn’t get the laces turned...
Corbin Reedy one time I kicked a ball with shoes on right on the lace and drove my toe nail into my toe
Devin Harrison I’m not a kicker I was just playing with my football and decided to kick it
like ray finkle
Caleb Dempster I’m not a kicker I was just messing around
@@yoboibacon16 i am a kicker do not kick with your toe it is strong but dangerous
My uncle actually kicked barefoot in highschool in the late 70s early 80s must have seen these guys i always thought he was crazy i tried a few barefoot punts and field goals but only had to hit the ball wrong once to realize i wasnt into that lol
Anyone else saw how long the fans feet are💀💀😂😂😂😂
LOL LOL LOL. I was thinking the same exact thing. LOL
You know what they say about guys with long feet ;)
@@MAarshall Yeah, they wear big shoes.
MAarshall long socks
🤣 I was scrolling your comment as it came on
I'm a freshman in middle school but I promise if I go big you will see me kicking bare foot for all the foot kickers out there I'm bringing it back in the years of 2025-2029
I wonder how many times Broncos kicker Rich Karlis called left upright every time he bounced a field goal attempt off of it.
i could punt and kick barefoot better than with a shoe, but it hurt too much to keep doing it. guess cash makes the pain go away 🤩
Could you imagine kicking a frozen football?!?⛸🏈 Good god! And why are they all interviewing with their foot out😂
I took my Honda in for service and they told me I needed new brake shoes. I said “Shoes! Let me talk to Mr. Franklin about that!”
barefoot kickers????😮 wow fascinating 🤔
I kicked barefoot in high school in the early eighties. I set the record for my HS for longest field goal. I loved it.
Narfle_ the_Garthoc doesn't it hurt ur foot? Especially in the cold
You grow used to it and your foot develops a callus on top. Fortunately, by the time the weather gets cold, you've become hardened to the pain. But kicking in the cold was not my favorite thing to do. :P
I started my sophomore year in 1980, after hearing about Franklin. Like him, I started with a sock on and then ended up removing it. I wasn't the longest kicker, but I was the most accurate.
Tony Franklin changed the kicking game completely. Before him, kickers wore a flat toed shoe and approached the ball straight on. No one ever kicked field gaols/PATs soccer style until him.
In 1970's the Texas Tech University Athletics Department offices were located between 6th Street and the south end zone of Jones Stadium, with a row of windows overlooking the field. Whenever we scored into the south end zone, everybody started clamoring for the kicker to "kick out a window!" of the AD's office with the PAT. No one ever got close.
In the 1977 Texas A&M game, they scored first going into the south end zone. When a short dumpy looking guy with ONE SHOE trotted out on the field to kick the PAT, we all laughed at the sight, but then that short dumpy looking guy kicked the ball over the south end zone stands, OVER the athletic office building, and into 6th Street. Things got pretty quiet after that. Tony Franklin.
guy sounds like he smoked a big bowl before the interview
I played Jr. High football with Tony Franklin at Stripling Jr. High in Ft. Worth, TX. We didn't kick FGs then, but he was the QB. Let's see, that would have been '70 - '71. Our punter was a kid named Barry Westberry. I remember he kicked one punt from our 25 that hit the goal line in the air.
5:48 wtf he missed that
Awesome VIP PERSON!! ohhhh
Yes he did
No he didn't
Yeah he missed it. Browns should have won the super bowl that year.
if u look at it closely it does tip across the flag and goes through but its above with a spin so no entirely accurate
Remember those commercial jingles in the 80's ? Before i kick with my bare feeties, i get my eaties from my Wheaties
i practice kicking bare foot so my technique is perfect
because if my technique isn't good I hurt myself
I’m from New England I told my son and he and me your big patriot fans about Tony Franklin how are used to kick it barefoot he couldn’t believe it you got a big kick out of that no pun intended
As a lineman all I can think of is what if someone stepped on ur foot😂
Amazing the NFL actually allowed barefoot kicking at all!!!
Great video. Not sure why we have to endure 20 or so seconds of Peter King not contributing anything at all but I guess they didn't want to make it too perfect.
Kinda like every time he talks 😂
@@redwingsfan3621 Or writes.
I love the reaction of the fan in row two at 5:02.
Never understood the barefoot kickers but punters, in my experience, could consistently get a spiral which is harder to catch given ample height.
Even Chicago Bear doesn't have a Bear foot kicker =D
man that looks like it stings!
Peter King with the best reply ever 0:48
2:36 Damn look at the scar tissue..looks like he just drop kicked a hornet's nest
finally they posted this! I've been telling people for years about this and they wouldn't believe me. Now I have PROOF!!!!!!
All I can remember is Browns v Broncos.
Any film about barefoot kickers is incomplete without mentioning the first one, who was Ricky Townsend of The University of Tennessee in the early 1970's (I think he was the first). Also, Murray Cunningham of Tennessee Tech was an All Ohio Valley Conference kicker in the mid-1970's who also kicked barefoot and did a tremendous job doing so. Can't remember if Townsend got a shot in the NFL or not, but I know he was good enough to warrant one!
That hurts my feet just thinking about barefoot kicking
Be
My Middle School P.E was a barefoot punter, he played for the 49ers in 1981 Jim Miller.
0:40 lol feels like national geographic
Merrill Reece announcing in 1979. Wow. 40 years go merrill
I didn't know there ever were barefoot kickers.
Peep Gary Kubiak before he was the best head coach of the Houston Texans franchises history 1:55