From The Toronto Globe and Mail
For those who don't know New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, the
easy presumption was that he and his teammates were wrought with doubt
about whether he could make a 47-yard, game-winning field goal in
overtime of the NFC championship game on Sunday.
So went the analysis from Fox broadcaster Troy Aikman as the Giants
drove into Green Bay Packers' territory of a classic NFL playoff game,
which New York won 23-20, thanks to Tynes's off-the-mat field goal.
With a trip to the Super Bowl at stake, Aikman wondered aloud
whether Giants head coach Tom Coughlin would gamble on fourth down,
which the coach later admitted he had considered, given the struggles
of his kicker, a former member of the CFL's Ottawa Renegades who had
missed two potential winners in the fourth quarter.
The second miss, after a bad snap, came from 36 yards on the final
play of regulation time and could have turned Tynes into a renowned NFL
goat à la Scott Norwood, the Buffalo Bills' kicker, who lost Super Bowl
XXV with a last-second miss.
Fox's cameras caught an angry Coughlin reaming out Tynes, who had
previously missed a 43-yarder with the score tied, as he walked
casually to the Lambeau Field sidelines.
"To be honest, I have no idea what he was saying," Tynes said from his New Jersey home yesterday.
"I heard him yelling, but you're not really listening. I was in
great shape mentally. I knew if we got our operation cleaned up for the
next one, I'd make it, no matter how long."
For those who know Tynes, that answer is typical.
Former Renegades head coach Joe Paopao often called him the cockiest
player on the team, and Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Kerry
Joseph, a former teammate, said Tynes had more swagger than most
kickers.
"I've never met a kicker like L.T.," Joseph said from his Florida
home yesterday. "Most kickers have to end practice on a good note. He
could hit the upright twice in a row, say 'Coach, I'm good,' and walk
off the field with his confidence intact.
"Just knowing L.T., and how nonchalant he was about [the second
miss], I was actually telling the guys I was with that, if he gets
another chance, he is going to make it. I mean, it's fourth down and
the announcers are talking about going for it and you look on the field
and L.T.'s already out there."
The odd thing about Tynes, who kicked for 1½ seasons with the
Renegades before departing for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2004, is that
he is more comfortable from longer distances and more apt to lose
concentration from shorter range.
"I agree with that," Tynes said. "Sometimes I just go out there and
kick without analyzing the situation. That [first] miss was my first
this year from outside 40 yards, and, of course, I had some short
misses during the course of the year. If I could take a couple of those
misses back, I'd be the NFC Pro Bowl kicker."
Tynes, 29, has missed six extra points - a large number - in his
four NFL seasons and missed four kicks this season between 20 and 40
yards. From beyond 40 yards, he was perfect on eight attempts heading
into the playoffs.
Dave Easley, a former special-teams coach in Ottawa, noticed that
Tynes had a tendency to be careless with short attempts, as though they
bored him, but was locked in when presented with a more challenging
distance.
"You knew he had to make one of them, and it is just like Lawrence
to hit the longer one," said Easley, who is now the Hamilton
Tiger-Cats' special-teams co-ordinator. "He would make a 55-yarder
right down the middle, but when he gets in close, he'd still make them,
but they wouldn't be as clean. From long distance, he was Mr. Perfect,
he was Mr. Cool. He knew he'd make it and the further away the better."
Paopao tells a story about Tynes's first game in 2002, when he
sauntered up to the coach before the kickoff and told him, "If we win
the toss, kick off and I'll get you a single [point]."
Kickers and head coach usually avoid each other during games, but
that was hardly the case after Tynes's miss at the end of regulation
time on Sunday. Coughlin was incensed.
"You saw the look on Coughlin's face," Easley said. "That was almost
abusive. But that's what I liked about the kid. Lawrence took criticism
well. He knew how to handle it."
Even though he joined the Renegades midway through the 2002 season,
it was clear to most observers that Tynes was an NFL kicker
masquerading in a CFL uniform. He returned in 2003, somewhat
surprisingly, given the signing bonus offered by the Chiefs, because he
was not convinced that then coach Dick Vermeil would cut veteran kicker
Morten Andersen, whom Tynes was waiting to replace based on his strong
performances in previous training camps.
"I wanted to play the full season and I thought that was worth more
than $30,000 [U.S.]," he said. "That was probably the best decision I
made."
Tynes was the CFL's all-star kicker in 2003 before kicking for three
seasons with the Chiefs and being traded to New York before the start
of this season. Asked yesterday whether he feared being cut had the
Giants lost on Sunday, Tynes replied: "No. That thought never once
crossed my mind."
Courtesy: Associated Press
