subject: San Diego Chargers Kicker Nate Kaeding [print this page] Any fan of football who keeps up with the rise and fall of the various franchises surely knows that the San Diego Chargers have been on a roll over the last few seasons. Winners of their Western AFC division for four years running, the team has been seeing its best days since the hallowed glory of the early Sixties. Unfortunately, their postseason record has failed to lead to a Super Bowl win. For many fans, the majority of blame for that fact can be traced directly to the man responsible for kicking the ball through the uprights on field goal attempts: kicker Nate Kaeding.
The Iowa Native
Kaeding was selected by the Chargers in the 2004 Draft. They were only able to get him due to receiving several favorable lottery picks as part of the Eli Manning and Philip Rivers draft/trade deal done that year, and there was quite a bit of excitement surrounding his selection. After all, the Iowa City, Iowa native had earned a national reputation during his college career with the Hawkeyes - even winning the Lou Groza kicking award after the season of 2002. As a Hawkeye, he was known as "Mister Automatic", for his ability to seemingly always make his team's field goals when they were needed most. He was particularly deadly from long range, as he had a career record of 24 forty-plus yard field goals made out of the 29 he attempted. That included twenty out of twenty one made during his senior campaign.
Winning records
Even as a Charger, Kaeding has gone on to set records. During the 2009 season, he became the most accurate kicker in the history of the National Football League with an overall percentage of field goals made that is in excess of eighty-seven percent. Throughout the regular season campaigns in San Diego, his performance in many ways mirrors what he did while at Iowa City. In one season, he missed only three total field goals throughout the sixteen-game season. Unfortunately, all of that is easily overshadowed in the minds of many Chargers fans by his inability to make the important field goals when they matter most: the playoffs.
The ones that count
The list of playoff field goal misses is heartbreaking for Chargers fans. There is the 54 yard attempt that cost the team a 2006 playoff game versus the Patriots. And the 2007 playoff misses against the Colts and Titans. Though the Chargers won those games (only to then lose to New England in the Championship game of the AFC) the memory of the misses still roils the team's fans. Of course, the most painful miss of all came in last year's playoffs when Kaeding erred on all three attempts of the game, giving the Jets a three-point victory. As any Charger fan would point out, making even one of those attempts would have resulted in a tie and overtime.
As it stands, the team's supporters think of Kaeding as someone who chokes in big situations. Though his fans in Iowa City would vehemently disagree, there is little doubt that he will continue to wear that mantle until he demonstrates with his leg exactly why Iowa fans called him Mister Automatic in the first place.
