Football Is a Kick for Him : Two Veterans Face Challenge From Mojsiejenko

Ralf Mojsiejenko will forever be grateful to his parents for moving the family from West Germany to the United States when he was 9 months old.

“I’m thankful,” he said. “Otherwise, I’d probably be playing soccer in Germany now.”

Mojsiejenko would most like to be the punter, placekicker or both for the San Diego Chargers this season. He unlikely to unseat placekicker Rolf Benirschke, but he has a good shot at taking punter Maury Buford’s job.

If Mojsiejenko, 22, does makes the roster, it will culminate his longtime dream of becoming a professional athlete.

Mojsiejenko’s family moved in 1963 from West Germany to the heavily German populated town of Bridgman, Mich. Mojsiejenko’s father, who is still a tool and diemaker in Bridgman, introduced his son to football by entering him in punt, pass and kick competitions when he was still a child.

However, football was not his only love. He earned varsity letters for three seasons in baseball, basketball and football at Bridgman High School. He went on to pitch as a sophomore and junior at Michigan State, compiling a 4-7 record.

“I was not that bad of a pitcher, but I never had the luck of a pitcher,” he said. “I gave it up my last year of college because of the fact (pro) football teams were calling me and I was pitching baseball. I had to make a quick decision where my livelihood would be.

“My baseball talents weren’t coached as well as they could have been. In a town of 2,000, you didn’t get coaching. Basically, I was a self-taught pitcher. Kicking is also basically self-taught.”

At Bridgman High, Mojsiejenko learned a lot about different football positions. He was the starting split end on offense, played some linebacker and cornerback on defense and, of course, handled the punting, placekicking and kickoffs.

Bridgman High is a very small school. Mojsiejenko said his graduating class was 76 students, a school record-high at the time. Mojsiejenko became versatile by demand.

“Our football team had 18 players on it,” Mojsiejenko said. “When a couple of guys got hurt one game, we had to go with 16 players. Almost everybody had to play both ways. I didn’t play defense all of the time because our coach saw my kicking potential. He didn’t want me to break a leg.”

Mojsiejenko did make it through high school in one piece. He earned all-state honors as a placekicker as a junior and was all-state as a punter as a senior.

When he got to Michigan State, the team had a placekicker and 13 others, including Mojsiejenko, trying out for punter. Mojsiejenko won the job.

As a sophomore, Mojsiejenko also won the Spartans’ placekicking job. His first collegiate field-goal attempt was a successful 61-yarder against Illinois.

“It hit the crossbar and bounced over,” he said. “I had a 10 m.p.h. wind at my back. I didn’t hit the ball that well, so I guess it was adrenaline. I had kicked them longer than that in practice.”

The 61-yarder proved to be Mojsiejenko’s longest field goal. However, his most satisfying field goal was a 59-yarder on the last play of the game to tie Purdue his junior season.

Mojsiejenko was 44 of 53 on extra points and 35 of 53 on field goals in college. He averaged 43.8 yards a punt, including 63 of more than 50 yards and four of more than 70 yards.

Perhaps what he liked most about living in Michigan was the surroundings. He plans to return to Michigan when football season is over.

“I like California life a little bit,” he said. “It’s not Michigan to me. I sort of like the way Michigan is more open. It’s like a desert here, and everything else is buildings. In Michigan, everybody has a lawn. We have four acres there. We can take our dogs out for a walk, and we have a garden.”

In the next three weeks of exhibition play, Mojsiejenko would like to cultivate his chances of making the Charger roster. He had good reviews in his debut as a punter last week, averaging 44.6 yards on five attempts against Cleveland in San Diego’s exhibition opener. He will share the punting with Buford on Saturday night against Dallas while continuing to be the kickoff man.

Since NFL rosters have been trimmed from 49 to 45 players this year, the Chargers could create an extra opening by letting Mojsiejenko do all of the kicking. However, Benirschke all but secured his placekicking job by going 4-for-4 on field goals against Cleveland.

“If you put everything into one guy, it does give you a roster spot for another player,” said Marv Braden, the Chargers special teams coach. “You’re also in a situation where if something happens to him, you lose all three (punting, place kicking and kickoffs). The only other way is to say there are enough kickers around who are adequate enough to grab if something happens. Having one kicker would give you another roster player. When the rosters have been cut to 45, that’s important.”

Though retired players such as former Cleveland star Don Cockroft handled both punting and place kicking, it seems to be a thing of the past in the NFL.

“It’s hard to do both unless you are a conventional kicker,” Braden said. “Cockroft was a straight-on kicker and punter. The leg motion and muscles he used were very similar. When you kick soccer-style, you are using totally different muscles.”

But Mojsiejenko thinks it would be difficult, but not impossible, to both kick and punt for the Chargers.

“There is an emotional and mental strain along with the physical strain,” he said. “You can be taking punts into the net and if a field goal comes up, you run into problems.

“I ran into problems like that a few times in college. It might be third and long, so you are getting ready to punt. All of a sudden, your team scores a touchdown and it gets hectic on the sidelines. The guy holding for practice field goals might go nuts and he doesn’t come over (to hold for practice). I’d miss extra points a lot of times because of that. You need your head on straight to punt and kick.”

- 1/2 Albeit Mojsiejenko will only punt and kickoff Saturday, he had been practicing field goals earlier this week in practice. Braden said he wanted Mojsiejenko to be kicking in practice with the same motion he would use on kickoffs. The punting motion is different than the kickoff motion.

Admittedly, it will be difficult for Mojsiejenko to watch Benirschke kick the field goals.

“In a game, it’s a different feeling not to go in on field goals,” he said. “In my mind I’m saying field goal. Then, I’m not the guy kicking them. They’re taking me along slowly and not putting extra pressure on me to kick field goals.”

Mojsiejenko said that both Benirschke and Buford have helped him.

On Benirschke: “He basically tells me what is expected of an NFL kicker. He’s my brother-figure on the team. I’m not saying we’re that tight. He does tell you what people expect and how to act.”

On Buford: “At first, it was more or less silence between us. I didn’t like it. Once we got to know each other, we got along. When one of us needs help, we help each other. We have to be open-minded. It wouldn’t help our chances of making the team if we hated each other. He even nursed me through our first scrimmage on how to go along. He kept saying, ‘Come along pup.”’

Within the next three weeks, the Chargers must decide whether Mojsiejenko has come along enough to unseat at least one veteran kicker.

Charger Notes

Coach Don Coryell got off on a tangent about baseball during his daily press conference Thursday. “Football’s not like baseball, where the same nine guys play the damn places,” he said. “You know what they ought to do to jack up that game? Play eight guys on defense. You have to leave a hole some place, then you have some strategy. I mean you could hit to the hole and people would be moving. I said that to that great (player) in St. Louis. Oh yeah, Stan Musial. He kind of looked at me and said ‘manure.’ Why should the pitcher hit? That’s stupid. I’m not saying (have the) designated hitter. Play eight guys and make that hitter play defense. If they played eight, they’d get the good hitters up more, too. That’d liven up the game. Then, coaches could stay up at night and figure out what they’re going to do. With football, we’re up until 11 or 12 o’clock at night figuring out how to do the job. That’s the great thing about football.”. . . .Coryell said that first-round draft choice Jim Lachey will probably play the entire game at left tackle against Dallas on Saturday night. Among the ailing expected to play are wide receivers Wes Chandler (ribs) and Jesse Bendross (Achilles tendon) . . . .Coryell said he would try to play quarterback Dan Fouts for more than one quarter against Dallas. “It’ll depend really on how our protection is going,” Coryell said. “If they’re getting to him, then we’ll get him out of there. If our protection is holding, we’ll play him more than a quarter but not much more than a quarter. We just have to give Bruce Mathison a shot. We’ve got to get him some experience.”. . . .Coryell said the Chargers will start the same defense that started in last week’s 12-7 exhibition win against Cleveland. “They have the speed and quickness,” he said. “They’re just inexperienced.