In Pro Bowl Today : Father Time Stenerud Still Kicking at 42

Jan Stenerud is quick to disclaim the notion that he invented soccer-style placekicking in professional football.

“No,” he said. “Pete Gogolak did that. But when I started in college, I had no idea that anyone had ever done it.”

Still, take one look at the other guys practicing for today’s Pro Bowl here and Stenerud stands out like Father Time. At 42, he’s a full nine years older than the next senior player, 33-year-old John Hannah of New England, and his 18 years of professional football are six more than Hannah and Ed Newman of the Miami Dolphins have.

Norm Johnson, the AFC’s placekicker, was asked if he was a fan of Stenerud’s while growing up. The 24-year-old Johnson replied, “He’s my idol.”

Go back 21 years and Jan Stenerud of Norway is a junior at Montana State University on a ski scholarship, when a friend asks him to try and kick a football. Sure, said Stenerud, who had played soccer in Norway and the next thing he knows, he’s being asked to kick for the Montana State football team.

Stenerud played varsity football for two years--he purposefully stayed seven credits short of a degree in his senior year so he could retain another year’s eligibility. Then he joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967.

He was a decided oddity--the only other soccer-style kickers were Gogolak and Garo Yepremian, who played a few games that year with the Detroit Lions, then began a long career with Miami.

Stenerud stayed with the Chiefs with 13 years, played with Green Bay for four, then joined the Minnesota Vikings this season. In all those years, he was the most consistent year-in, year-out kicker in a league that his success helped transform--the only straight-ahead kicker left is Mark Moseley of the Washington Redskins.

“They saw Pete Gogolak, and later Charlie Gogolak and myself,” he said, a little smile on his craggy face. “Suddenly, every team was sending talent scouts all around the world looking for soccer players. Now American kids play soccer so they don’t have to do it any more.”

One American kid was Norm Johnson, who grew up in Southern California playing football in the fall and soccer in the winter and spring and watching Stenerud kick field goals on television whenever he could. He was a linebacker and tight end in high school, but was awarded a scholarship to UCLA strictly to kick, a perfect example of the new generation of American soccer-stylers.

Johnson and Stenerud were both nearly perfect this season--Johnson was 20 of 24 in field-goal attempts; Stenerud was 20 of 23. In fact, the NFL is loaded with accurate placekickers--the average field goal success rate this season was two of three, 67%.

“The competition is enormous,” said Stenerud, whose 64% mark in his 13 years with Kansas City made him the dominant kicker then, but would brand him as average now.

“When I first started, if you made 50%, you were considered good and if you made a 40-yard kick, it was an accomplishment. Now if you miss from 40 yards, the fans boo you.”

Stenerud plans to be back with the Vikings next season--why not, if he’s good enough to make it to the Pro Bowl for his sixth appearance. Asked how he manages to keep going in a profession that’s as demanding mentally as it is physically, he replied:

“I’m lucky. I’m the same weight (190 pounds) I was in college.”

Norm Johnson, asked about Stenerud’s longevity, said: “He works very hard at it. He’s always in great shape.”

Johnson suggested that the combination of good young kickers and a new salary scale that automatically increases each year will make teams get rid of older kickers in favor of young ones.

“I don’t think we’ll see any more 20-year kickers,” he said.

Except, of course, Norwegian Father Time.