Redskin Kicker Max Zendejas Says Teammates Know How to Hurt Guy

Washington Redskin kicker Max Zendejas says he “didn’t appreciate” what some of his teammates said about him when he was placed on injured reserve with a groin pull after a bad game in Denver.

Zendejas, speaking publicly about his situation for the first time, said he “felt sorry” for three teammates who made jokes about his performance or his ethnic background after he badly missed two field goals and one extra point in a 31-30 loss to the Broncos.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t appreciate what Curtis Jordan or Jeff Bostic or Dexter Manley had to say,” Zendejas said in a telephone interview from his Reston, Va., apartment, where he watched last Sunday’s Redskin game at Philadelphia on television. Zendejas was born in Mexico and is a citizen of that country, although he was raised in California and attended the University of Arizona.

Bostic suggested last week that Zendejas start snapping the ball and that he (Bostic) could try kicking. Jordan was quoted in postgame locker room comments distributed in the Denver press box as saying, “If this had been a big game, he probably would have been running out of here to get the first plane south of the border to save his life.” And Manley said on the radio, “‘No mas.”’

“I don’t go around saying anything about them when they make mistakes,” Zendejas said. “And I’m pretty sure they’re making mistakes. Jeff Bostic has had bad games, and so have Curtis Jordan and Dexter Manley, I’m sure.

“I don’t go around saying bad things about them. That’s what I don’t understand. We’re supposed to be teammates, working hard to get somewhere together. I just don’t appreciate what they said.”

But, Zendejas said, “I can’t worry about them saying things. I just felt sorry about other people saying things like that about another person.”

Zendejas, a rookie who is expected to return next summer to compete for the kicking job, said he had been bothered by a sore kicking leg for a couple of weeks, but was hoping to keep it a secret.

“I had never complained about it,” he said. “I just went in after every game and put ice on it and went in the Jacuzzi for a while. Unfortunately, when I went in Sunday (after the Denver game), Bubba (Tyer, the head trainer) saw me this time. I didn’t know that Bubba then went up and told everybody. I wanted to hide it.”

There was some confusion surrounding Zendejas’ injury. Coach Joe Gibbs said in his weekly news conference that Zendejas told Tyer he had “some soreness inside his kicking (right) leg.”

But Jeff Irwin, Zendejas’ Phoenix-based agent, said he had spoken with Zendejas and his client told him he “is not injured.”

Gibbs later said he wanted “to clarify” the apparent discrepancy. He said the Redskins checked with the NFL to ensure that they were being “up front” about the injury. “There’s nothing here that was hidden,” Gibbs said.

Zendejas said he was, indeed, injured, but not badly. “It’s going good,” he said. “I’m just a little sore.”

He said he wanted to stay on the active roster. “I wanted to still play. The good thing about coming back is I know I would have come back and had a good game. Especially this week, on AstroTurf. That’s just like kicking off a tee.”

There are many theories why Zendejas was playing poorly, chief among them the idea that he was rushing his kicks. He missed five of 28 extra points and five of 14 field goals in nine games with the Redskins.

When Bostic’s snap was high and off holder Jay Schroeder’s right shoulder on the first extra point, it “threw me off completely,” Zendejas said.

“I expected the first snap to be a little bit better. I thought Jay would take a little less time with it, so I kind of rushed it. I let it get to me.”

Zendejas said, however, that Schroeder “did a good job” getting the ball in position on the extra point. “Jay’s a great holder, I think.”

But Zendejas is not convinced that his problem was caused by any one thing.

“I don’t know what’s going wrong,” he said. “Was it the field I was kicking on (Mile High Stadium has natural grass) or something? I don’t know what I did. Excuses mean nothing. I just know it didn’t go through.”

Zendejas watched replay after replay of his Denver misses on television newscasts.

“That really gets me mad,” he said. “They kept showing my misses. How can they do that to me when I made the winning kick (in St. Louis that clinched a playoff spot for the Redskins)? The publicity kept coming: I lost the game for them. I didn’t lose the game for them. Other players had a lot of mistakes, but, no, it was me. I’m the one.”

Zendejas was asked to evaluate his very difficult first NFL season.

“I don’t consider myself a failure at all, and I don’t think I choked like a lot of people say,” he said. “After a game like that, I would have given anything to do good this week. But I respect Coach Gibbs’ decision.

“I know I can play here. Now, I’m just looking forward to seeing what I can do next year.”