Packers 2024-25 Season Thread

rpiotr01 said:
Extra padding in the right toe?
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I kicked with my toe in my day, now it's the top of the foot. I had a square hard toe on my kicking shoe, today, they're just a zero spike type shoe. Such a big difference it's made. I was making a little over 50% of my kicks, and at that time, it was considered pretty respectable. Now days, if you ain't over 80%, they don't even know you exist. Kick one 50 yards? Are you kidding? My best was about 42. When I kicked it, I thought I was going to get a hernia. Today, that's a freaking extra point.

So many changes in the game.
 
TW said:
I kicked with my toe in my day, now it's the top of the foot. I had a square hard toe on my kicking shoe, today, they're just a zero spike type shoe. Such a big difference it's made. I was making a little over 50% of my kicks, and at that time, it was considered pretty respectable. Now days, if you ain't over 80%, they don't even know you exist. Kick one 50 yards? Are you kidding? My best was about 42. When I kicked it, I thought I was going to get a hernia. Today, that's a freaking extra point.

So many changes in the game.
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TW I say this with all love, but this just makes me picture those old videos of Jerry Kramer kicking field goals lol. Line up behind the ball, take one step and kick straight forward like one of the Rockettes!
 
rpiotr01 said:
TW I say this with all love, but this just makes me picture those old videos of Jerry Kramer kicking field goals lol. Line up behind the ball, take one step and kick straight forward like one of the Rockettes!
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That's pretty much the way it was. No steps getting into it. It was one step and swing that leg like a hammer. Believe it or not, I would exercise year round to make sure I wouldn't pull a groin muscle kicking. I know that sounds silly, but to kick the ball right straight on, it was the amount of force you could put behind the kick, and each time I kicked, I could feel it.

If you look back, at the better kickers in NFL history from that era, two stand out. Lou Groza, who lost half of his kicking foot to a lawnmower, I believe it was, and Tom Dempsey, who claimed the longest kick for a long time. Dempsey was born with half a foot, more like a club. It told me that if I really wanted to be good, I'd have to get someone to cut the front half of my kicking foot off. Not going to happen, that's for sure.

So, I spent more time working on my punting. We had pine trees in our yard when I was a kid. Really tall pine trees. I'd stand on one side, and practices kicking over the top of the trees. It took time for me to get consistent with it, getting height and length. At one time, there were six balls stuck up in this one pine tree. My Dad laughed one day when we had some strong winds. He was looking out the window when two of them fell out of the tree. "It's raining footballs!," He said laughing. It made me happy. I'd run out of balls, and for a kid, they're kind of expensive.
 
TW said:
That's pretty much the way it was. No steps getting into it. It was one step and swing that leg like a hammer. Believe it or not, I would exercise year round to make sure I wouldn't pull a groin muscle kicking. I know that sounds silly, but to kick the ball right straight on, it was the amount of force you could put behind the kick, and each time I kicked, I could feel it.
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It actually looks like there is a lot of stress on the lower quad muscle doing it that way; kinda right above the knee, and then all down the calf muscle as well. I can’t speak to the torque applied to the ball with modern kicking techniques but the movement looks more efficient and easier on the leg and hip.
 
rpiotr01 said:
It actually looks like there is a lot of stress on the lower quad muscle doing it that way; kinda right above the knee, and then all down the calf muscle as well. I can’t speak to the torque applied to the ball with modern kicking techniques but the movement looks more efficient and easier on the leg and hip.
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Very true. A completely different approach. Had anyone tried to sell them on kicking it soccer style back in my day, they'd have sent them packing without even watching them perform.

I remember when Pete "Go Go" Gogolak started out. Even their home fans booed him, until they realized he was outdoing the straight on kickers.
 
realitybytes said:
love it when you remind me of some of the big names from the past.
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To me, it seems like yesterday. That was back in the days when I'd sit at a bar with guys like Dave Robinson, and Fuzzy Thurston, tipping a few, while we played ship, captain, and crew. I could relate stories about some of those nights, but we were young, and enjoyed life. They didn't live in a bubble in that era.
 
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