Former Pro Bowl and L.A. Rams kicker...

Former Pro Bowl and L.A. Rams kicker Dave Chapple, 38, who retired 10 years ago to pursue a career in art, gets his exhilaration these days from one-man gallery shows of his wildlife paintings.

“You can’t compare the feeling of a good game or good kick with a good piece of art,” said Chapple, an Irvine resident. He said football careers end at age 34 or 35, and added, “that’s about when an artist gets going.”

In football, he said, the kicker is often judged from game to game or kick to kick, “but art is a long-term game. It’s not over right now.”

All during his football career with the Rams and before that, with San Francisco, “it was a matter of football fitting into my artwork rather than vice versa. I retired because I couldn’t be a six-month artist.”

Although art is his life, “I’m still a football fan,” he admitted. “Did you see that blocked kick (in the Denver-San Diego game last Sunday)? Someone missed a block and he’s going to hear about that.”

Once a kicker, always a kicker.