Ravens coach John Harbaugh placed the ball on the 38-yard line during a recent practice and presented a challenge to kicker Matt Stover.
If Stover’s kick was good, he’d cancel an afternoon practice. But if Stover missed, he and his teammates would have to endure a 90-minute session underneath the sweltering sun.
Stover proved why he’s one of the NFL’s most reliable kickers, as the 40-year-old was mobbed by grateful teammates as his football split the uprights.
“John [Harbaugh] knows how to put pressure on a guy,” Stover said. “He puts the whole team behind you and you’ve got to make a 48-yard field goal to get the night off, so you’ve got to be able to put yourself in that situation. As a kicker, there’s nothing that will be able to replicate that other than being in a game. In fact, I think that was worse than kicking a game-winner, because you don’t want to let your guys down.”
Stover has been the Ravens’ lone constant since the franchise arrived prior to the 1996 season, as he enters his 20th season as the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history. He’s made 435 of 519 of his attempts (83.8 percent), and he’s fourth on the league’s all-time scoring list with 1,822 points and his 348 consecutive extra-points is the third-longest streak of all time.
“He’s proven over such a long period of time that he is one of the premier kickers in the history of the game,” Harbaugh said. “He makes field goals. His percentage and his accuracy — is anybody better? You’d have to look at that and determine it, but he’s probably as good as anybody that’s ever kicked field goals.”
Stover, who has defeated numerous players brought into training camp to retain his job, said playing for Harbaugh has been much smoother since the coach did not bring in any kickers with NFL experience to challenge him this season.
“[Harbaugh has] seen me and evaluated me in the past,” Stover said. “That gives me a little advantage over the relationship I had with [former coach] Brian Billick. But more importantly, with him being a special teams coach he understands kickers.”
For Stover, getting back on the field this season provided a sense of relief after a relatively difficult offseason. Stover, who is the team’s representatives in the NFL Players Association, made national headlines when an e-mail he sent regarding the ousting of Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA’s executive director, was leaked to the media.
But Stover claimed the e-mail was misinterpreted, as he simply wanted to make sure the NFLPA had a plan if Upshaw, 63, retired before the collective bargaining agreement ends in two years.
“I’m trying to lead the union in the direction I want to see it go in,” Stover said. “Upshaw doesn’t believe a successor plan need to be developed right now. I do. He’s 63 years old, we could be dealing with a potential labor strife and we have time to deal with it now. I knew I wasn’t alone in that thought process and I thought I dealt with it in a professional way. I think Gene’s done a great job, although not in all areas.”
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