Saturday, September 18, 1999
Bengals' ambidextrous punter leads league
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
New Bengals punter Will Brice admits he is odd, even in the skewed fraternity of football kickers.
Brice, who set a Bengals one-game record with a 63-yard punting average in last week's opener, punts with his left foot and kicks off with his right.
That's right. An ambidextrous kicker. Which is fine if you're fooling around in the backyard but is rare, if not unprecedented, in the NFL.
“I know it's weird, and I can't explain it 100 percent,” Brice said. “I've been doing it since high school.”
Brice said he is naturally left-handed. Because a punter's “drop” (dropping the football from hand to foot) is so important, Brice said he always has been a left-footed punter because of his dominant left hand, which gives him a firmer grip on the ball.
But for field goals and kickoffs, Brice discovered he was more comfortable going right-footed. Just a “feel” thing, he said.
“I was a soccer player too, and you kick with both legs in soccer,” he said. “That's where I started using both. I started kicking field goals with my right leg, and I stuck with that. But in punting, the drop is the most important part, so I do that with my left foot.”
Now, the Bengals have had some characters at punter. Lee Johnson was known for his wit and his clubhouse singing and had his 11-year Bengals career terminated when he ripped management last year. Before Johnson, free-spirited Harvard product Pat McInally once appeared for practice in a tuxedo. He also made the Pro Bowl.
Now there is Brice, who signed at 2p.m. on the day of the Bengals' final preseason
game (Sept.3) and was punting that night.
Brice, 24, is replacing Brad Costello, who replaced Johnson in December. Costello (torn thigh muscle) was waived with an injury settlement in preseason but is eligible to return after Week 10.
Bengals President Mike Brown said Brice could win the job if he continues to kick well.
“We're still finding out about him,” Brown said of Brice. “I know he has power and can kick it far. But we haven't written off Costello, either.”
Brown and Bengals special teams coach Al Roberts are among those who can't remember seeing an ambi dextrous kicker, at least in regulation games. Brice has not seen anyone else do it, either.
Strangely enough, the Bengals had another such kicker just this summer in free-agent Derek Schorejs, who also kicked right and punted left. Schorejs was waived in preseason.
“It's highly unusual,” Roberts said of the run on switch-hitting kickers. “But the point is whether or not you're proficient. (Brice) has shown he can be proficient at it, but let's see what happens.”
Brice punted in six games as a St.Louis Rams rookie in 1997, averaging 41.8 yards a kick. He was waived in October 1997, signed with the New York Giants in February 1998 and punted in the NFL Europe League before the Giants waived him in August '98. He tried out with the Green Bay Packers this summer before landing in Cincinnati.
Brice, from Lancaster, S.C., was a first-team All-America punter at Virginia in 1996, when he averaged a career-high 44.7 yards a punt.
His first Bengals punt was smothered for a Titans safety, which Roberts said was the result of a missed block. Then Brice shanked the ensuing free kick, a punt.
Later, he cranked a 72-yard punt, just 1 yard short of Costello's team record. And his 63-yard average (three punts) leads the NFL by a full 15 yards over Johnson, now of the New England Patriots.
“I'm not going to kick it 60 yards every time,” Brice said. “The important thing is to get hang time and have a good net (average).
“I'm not looking at it as taking (Costello's) place,” Brice added. “I've been bounced around by a lot of teams, and if it works out that I stay here, that'll be great.”
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