E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only five sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - - One of the things about Jay Feely is that he impresses you immediately with his size, and he's only 5-10.

Of course, he weighs 210, and he's built like the door for a garage that houses mini-Coopers. You know, short and stocky and square?

Then he just kills you with his smarts, as evidenced by his conversations which should be a book entitled "The Thinking Man's Guide to Placekicking."

"I wasn't so happy with my kicking the last couple of seasons," he said yesterday, "so I got some guy who could help me."

Who might that have been? A former kicker? A kicking coach? A soccer player (since all those guys kick with the inside of their foot)?

"No," he grinned, and he is always grinning, or so it seems, "I made an appointment with Bob Rotella."

For those of you who don't know Rotella, the easy bet is that you don't play golf or read about it. He has been the coach for such moderately famous professional golfers as Tiger Woods and David Love III.

"He is a genius," he said. "He correlates golf with placekicking, and if you think about it there are so many similarities the two are almost the same." Yeah, one exception, however, is that Tiger uses incredibly expensive clubs while Feely uses his foot.

But the concept is a revelation. The long ball, the kickoff, is the drive off the tee. The long to medium range field goals are the fairway shots, best handled with an iron. The short field goals and the extra points are chip shots.

"There is such a mental aspect to placekicking that most people just don't see it," Feely continued. "For instance, when I missed the field goal last Sunday [his first missed after 13 straight]? I didn’t miss it, the wind missed it for me. I did it all right. The mechanics were good. We have a saying, 'don't worry about the product, just worry about the process.' If the successful field goal is the product, then you must go about the process correctly. Well, I did."

To break down the missed field goal, one must first remember that it was kicked from the Redskins' 33-yard line, and that two plays before it, on third-and-five, right tackle Kareem McKenzie drew a flag for false start and that moved the ball back from the 28. So you might say that if McKenzie didn't go ahead and do something silly like start too soon, the field goal attempt, given the fact that Eli Manning's pass on third down went wild out of bounds (on purpose) would have been a 46-yarder.

The idea of a 46-yarder being a piece of cake when a 51-yarder comes with a few problems is alien to most people, but Feely and the rest of the NFL's top tier kickers know exactly what that means and how it feels.

"I will never say anything about a penalty," he insisted. "Those guys are trying as hard as they can. In the case of guys like me, kickers, it's instant gratification. We need to produce, to kind of reward all their hard work."

So Feely, who has kicked two 50-yarders, a 51-yarder and a 52-yarder this season, and whose longest was a 55-yarder for Atlanta as a rookie in 2001, is no longer perfect.

"Hey, how long could that have lasted anyway?" he smiled (again, smiling). "Nobody is perfect, especially placekickers."

He told a funny story (well, kickers think it's funny) about another kicker in the league, Joe Nedney (who will be kicking against the Giants this Sunday in San Francisco). "DO you know he hurt himself one year missing the ball on a kickoff?" he said, barely able to control his laughter. "Just as he got to it, the wind blew it off the tee. He tried to stop, and that’s the worst thing you can do. Just go through it. Look silly, who cares?"

Well, placekickers have their own peculiar sense of humor, one supposes.

Meanwhile, the veteran free agent signed on March 8 has given the Giants new life in the kicking (and kick-scoring game). His kickoffs have almost always been high and deep. He has missed just that one field goal - - sorry, the wind missed it for him - - and has been perfect on 23 extra point tries.His total so far is 73 - - and last year the kicker, Steve Christie, took all season to score 99 points in 16 games while missing six of 28 field goal tries.

So Feely was helped by Rotella, the golf maven. But did he help Feely's golf game, too? And by the way, is Feely a good golfer? "Oh, yes, I am," he said, smiling through his boastfulness. "I am a scratch golfer now and if I had time to practice I could probably be on the tour someplace." See? Finally, a reason to dislike him.

"You will find that quarterbacks and placekickers are usually the best golfers on any team," he added, a fact that is not possible to confirm but that doesn't stop a guy from asking why this is.

"Smart," he said. "I think quarterbacks and kickers are just smart."

EXTRA POINTS - - Running back Tiki Barber was named the NFL's Offensive Player of the Week, and since he gained 206 yards in 24 carries it would have been somewhat surprising if he wasn't. ... Wide receiver and special teams ace David Tyree, who missed his first game in 38, says his elbow is much better and he'll play Sunday. ... "I finally practiced," he smiled, "and you know, the only thing worse than practicing is not practicing." ... He had nothing to say about his alma mater, Syracuse, playing to a 1-7 season thus far.

The Giants are sixth in the NFC in total offense (2,379 yards) and San Francisco is 16th and last at 1,496. ... The Giants lead the NFC with a plus-12 turnover ratio, second in the NFL only to Cincinnati (plus-20). ... Feely is second in the NFL in kick-scoring with his 71 points, trailing Arizona's Neil Rackers by only two points. ... Eli Manning is tied for second with his 13 touchdown passes, behind Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb and Green Bay's Brett Favre, who each have 15.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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