Seeking a Foothold : Abbott Is a Placekicker Who Is Still Looking for a Place to Achieve His Goal

As an outstanding soccer player in England and placekicker at Cal State Fullerton, Vince Abbott always figured his boots were made for kicking.

But, as far as the National Football League is concerned, those boots are made for walking.

Abbott has tried out for five NFL teams. He has been cut by all five.

Every year, he tells himself it will be the last time someone sends him home dejected, his bags in his hands, his cleats slung over his shoulder.

But every year, he winds up in another training camp, chasing that elusive goal.

This summer, he’s trying to catch on with the San Diego Chargers. Last year, it was the Raiders. In 1985, it was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 1984, it was the Chicago Bears. In 1982, he spent time with the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins, but was released by both before the season began.

Abbott did play one year of professional football, with the USFL’s Los Angeles Express in 1983. But he has always been on the cutting edge of the NFL.

“I’m surprised I’m still at it,” said Abbott, who is 28. “But I’ve come so close that I think if I try one more time, I’ll make it.”

You’d think Abbott would be tired of being kicked around by the NFL, tired of being second-best. Not so.

“Finishing second is not the way I look at it,” he said. “I look at it as I’ve kicked the best I can, and I may have even outkicked a few guys, but I wasn’t in the right place at the right time. Hopefully, this will be the right place and the right time.”

Conditions in San Diego do seem more favorable for Abbott. Although Rolf Benirschke has been a popular kicker for the Chargers, he’s 32 years old and coming off a marginal season in which he made 16 of 25 field-goal attempts.

The Chargers have a head coach, Al Saunders, who has been with the team for only half a season; a new special teams coach, Wayne Sevier; and a new director of football operations, Steve Ortmayer, who likes Abbott.

Ortmayer, who was a special teams coach with the Raiders, watched Abbott go down to the wire with Chris Bahr, who eventually won the job in 1986. He thought enough of Abbott to recommend him to Sevier, who watched him work out this spring and saw him make a 61-yard field goal and two 57-yarders.

“That was probably the best workout I’ve seen a kid have,” Sevier said. “Vince was the first guy we signed to compete with Rolf.”

A week into training camp, Abbott isn’t keying in on a competition with Benirschke. His objective is to beat out kickers Steve Jordan from USC and Jeff Gaffney from Virginia for the right to compete with Benirschke in the Chargers’ exhibition season, which begins Aug. 15.

That’s the way it works in the NFL. Benirschke may have a bad week in camp, but he’ll make it to the exhibition season because he’s the incumbent. It’s the veteran’s job until he loses it.

Sometimes, as Abbott has learned, it’s always the veteran’s job.

He thought he had outkicked Bahr last year, but Bahr had the advantage of experience. He had won several games with last-second field goals, and that weighed heavily in his favor. At Chicago in 1984, Abbott thought he outkicked Bob Thomas, but the Bears went with the veteran.

“I think the system is good; it’s worked for a long time,” Abbott said. “Hopefully, I’ll be the guy some day who will have the cushion of being the incumbent. Then I’ll love the system.”

Abbott tries not to think about the system. To him, kicking is a lot like golf. You just have to play to your own handicap. All Abbott can do is kick his best and see what happens.

“I want to kick well enough to be part of the decision process,” Abbott said. “I think Wayne (Sevier) and Steve (Ortmayer) will judge it on ability more than anything else.”

Trouble is, you never know when you’re going to have a chance to show your ability in an exhibition. If two kickers split a game, one may have only one extra-point try in the first half. The other may get four field-goal opportunities in the second.

“You may have the best training camp in the world, but you may have a chance to kick one field goal in the preseason,” Abbott said. “It takes a lot of luck.”

And perseverance. Abbott--who, during his senior season at Fullerton (1980), made 18 of 23 field-goal attempts, including a 53-yarder against Nevada Las Vegas--could have given up long ago.

In fact, he almost did.

His wife, Sarah, a pharmaceutical sales representative for DuPont, supported Abbott for three years while he pursued an NFL job. But after he lost out to Don Igwebuike at Tampa Bay in 1985, Abbott figured it was time to get a real job.

He began working for Coldwell Banker in the fall of 1985, leasing commercial real estate out of their Cerritos office, and coaching some high school and college kickers on the side.

“I’d start to kick with those guys, get back into the rhythm and think, well, maybe one more time,” Abbott said.

Abbott couldn’t kick the habit.

He went to a Raider tryout camp with about 50 other kickers and was one of four invited back for a second tryout. Abbott was deemed the top kicker of the group and was signed to a contract in 1986.

He lost out to Bahr, but he impressed Ortmayer enough to be invited to the Chargers’ camp. He has taking a leave of absence from work and, if he doesn’t make the team, at least he’ll have a good job to fall back on.

But Abbott wants that ultimate job.

“Kicking is my first love,” he said. “Actually, my wife is my first love, kicking is my second.”

Abbott, by the way, was married in July 1982. Since then, he has been trying to shed the label of NFL bridesmaid.

It’s the only blemish on a proud athletic background. Abbott, who spent 17 years living in five different countries--England, Scotland, Australia, Ireland and Canada--was an excellent rugby and soccer player and has dabbled in cricket, field hockey and Australian rules football.

He served an apprenticeship for a professional soccer club in England (Chelsea) for two years before he moved to Canada when he was 17. His family moved to the United States on July 4, 1976, and Abbott eventually found his niche in football, American-style.

He had a taste of pro football in 1983, when he made 21 of 30 field goals and 31 of 33 point-after attempts for the Express. But the team signed Tony Zendejas in 1984 and showed Abbott the door.

Abbott has since learned to handle disappointment. If he doesn’t make the Chargers this summer, he won’t be sulking on his ride back to Orange County.

“I’ll probably just smile and go back to my real estate career,” he said. “There’s no point in being sad about it. It’s a tough job to crack into. As long as you kick the best you can, what more can you do?”

Try again next year.