Editing Placekicker (section)

==Team standing==

It is not uncommon for placekickers to be some of the smallest members of their team. However, ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 2011 wrote that NFL kickers had adopted year-round weight training and strict diets.<ref name=battista>{{cite news |last=Battista |first=Judy |title=Kickers Are Becoming Can't-Miss Performers |date=November 6, 2011 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=SP4 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/sports/football/in-nfl-placekickers-become-cant-miss-performers.html?_r=1&sq=kicker%20percentage&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104205432/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/sports/football/in-nfl-placekickers-become-cant-miss-performers.html?_r=1&sq=kicker%20percentage&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all |url-status=live |archive-date=November 4, 2014}}</ref> [[Sebastian Janikowski]] that year was a {{convert|6|ft|2|in|m|adj=on}} and {{convert|250|lb|kg|adj=on}} kicker. Kicker [[Rob Bironas]], who was {{convert|6|ft|m}} and {{convert|205|lb|kg}}, noted, "I might be bigger than some [[wide receivers]] and [[cornerbacks]]."<ref name=battista/>

The presence of foreign born-and-raised players in the highest levels of gridiron football has largely been limited to placekickers, and more recently to punters from [[Australia]] as well. Occasionally, these players come from outside the traditional American [[high school football|high school]] or [[college football]] systems—and most of the [[List of female American football players|women to have played men's American football]] at the college level were placekickers. Notably [[Tom Landry]] recruited several soccer players from Latin America, such as [[Efren Herrera]] and [[Raphael Septien]], to compete for the job of placekicker for the [[Dallas Cowboys]]. Cypriot [[Garo Yepremian]] was renowned as much for his kicking proficiency as he was for his complete lack of awareness of the sport early in his career.  British-born kicker [[Mick Luckhurst]] was one of the first British players in the NFL to have a long career, playing 7 seasons for the [[Atlanta Falcons]] during the 1980s and retiring as Atlanta's all-time leading scorer.  Mexican kicker [[Raul Allegre]] played 9 seasons in the NFL and won a Super Bowl in 1986. Austrian kicker [[Toni Fritsch]] played 12 seasons in the NFL and won a Super Bowl in 1972, becoming the only player in NFL history to have won a Super Bowl along with a top-flight association football title. These anecdotes increase the perception of the placekicker as an outsider.

As of 2017, only four kickers have been elected to the [[Pro Football Hall of Fame]]: [[George Blanda]], [[Lou Groza]], [[Jan Stenerud]] and [[Morten Andersen]], and among them, Stenerud and Andersen are the only ones who did not also play another position. There is only one special teams player (including punters, [[return specialist]]s and [[long snapper]]s) to ever win the NFL's MVP – [[Mark Moseley]] in 1982.

Nevertheless, due to their duties in kicking both field goals and extra points placekickers are usually responsible for scoring more points than any other player on a team, and very often entire football games may come down to a single kick.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1032492/2/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100909202648/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1032492/2/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 9, 2010|title=A Life After Wide Right|website=cnn.com}}</ref> The top 40 players in NFL history in career scoring are all placekickers, with receiver [[Jerry Rice]] at number 41.<ref name="Scoring Leaders">{{cite web|title=NFL Scoring Leaders |work=pro-football-reference.com |url=https://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/scoring_career.htm |access-date=December 17, 2008}}</ref>

===Numbering===
In the NFL, placekickers, along with punters and quarterbacks, used to be among the only players allowed to wear single-digit [[uniform number (American football)|uniform numbers]]; kickers can also wear numbers between 10 and 19.

In college and high school football, kickers can wear any number and usually wear one of an [[eligible receiver]] (1 to 49 or 80 to 99). Because kickers are generally less prominent on team rosters, and low uniform numbers are much more widely used among other positions at those levels, kickers are often given high jersey numbers that go unused by other players (such as numbers in the 40s or 90s). The two players in documented football history to have worn the uniform number 100, Chuck Kinder and [[Bill Bell (American football)|Bill Bell]], were both placekickers.

=== Outside North America===
Despite a higher share of kickers in the NFL being foreign nationals than on any other position (except punter), the kicking game is not always the strong suit of teams outside North America. The [[NFL Europe]] was notable for employing former professional [[association football]] players as placekickers, some of them becoming fan favorites, like [[Manni Burgsmüller]]. The [[European League of Football]] in its inaugural [[2021 European League of Football Season|2021 season]] had a relatively high share of [[Point after Touchdown]] attempts miss or be blocked and had a notably higher share of [[Two Point Conversion]] attempts even than the contemporary [[2021 German Football League]]. The [[Cologne Centurions (ELF)]] and the [[Leipzig Kings]] even had all their Field Goal attempts that season fail (0–1 and 0–3 respectively in a ten-game season). The [[Barcelona Dragons (ELF)]] hired NFL alumnus [[Giorgio Tavecchio]] late in the season to improve their kicking game while the [[Hamburg Sea Devils (ELF)]] got lucky with journeyman placekicker [[:de:Phillip Friis Andersen]] making 17 out of 18 attempts during the regular season, including a game winning one in the league opener against [[Frankfurt Galaxy (ELF)]].