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Eye on the kicker
(Second in a short preview of some of the top rookie kickers eligible for the NFL draft. While the Patriots signed free agent Martin Gramatica on Thursday, they are still likely to bring a younger kicker or two to training camp.)
When Steve Gostkowski arrived on campus at Memphis as a freshman, his focus was baseball. He had a partial scholarship to pitch for the Tigers (Division 1).
“Coming in, I didn’t know if I wanted to play football,” he said this week from campus. “But I decided to walk-on to the football team, with the idea of possibly earning a full scholarship. That’s when I fell in love with football all over again.”
Gostkowski (6-0, 214) has been a two-sport athlete at Memphis since, playing baseball in the spring and football in the fall. He earned a full scholarship after his freshman football season. And while he loves baseball, he said there is no doubt where his future lies: football.
On Wednesday, he is scheduled for his fifth workout for an NFL team, when Patriots coach Brad Seely comes to town.
“In some ways it can be more nerve-wracking than a game,” he said. “I feel like the workouts have been going well, that I’ve shown a lot of leg strength.”
Gostkowski, who describes himself as having a laid-back personality, is coming off a season in which he hit 22-of-25 field goals (9-of-9 beyond 40 yards) and converted on all 35 extra points. A four-year kicker, he holds the Conference USA record for field goals, with 70.
One area that might be difficult for the Patriots to project is Gostkowski’s experience in the cold. While Gostkowski said the wind picks up at times in Memphis, the coldest temperature in which he’s kicked was around 25 degrees, in Cincinnati.
“It gets pretty cold down here, but not as cold as Boston,” he said. “I don’t have experience on a consistent basis, but not many guys do. You get used to it.”
In balancing baseball and football, Gostkowski has brought footballs on road trips this spring and works out at local football fields on the road. He believes playing two sports has helped him as a kicker, and said baseball coaches have encouraged him to kick, telling him that they understand if he misses a practice or game due to football obligations.
“So far,” Gostkowski said, “there haven’t been any conflicts.”
EXTRA POINTS: Former Patriots defensive back Michael Stone, a free agent, visited with the Texans on Thursday. … Bills owner Ralph Wilson had some sharp words for some of the NFL’s high-revenue owners, including the Patriots’ Robert Kraft, in this Associated Press report.
