Kickers Fight Back

A pretty entertaining story of a Washigton Redskin player getting goofed on but then getting revenge on everyone of his victimizers.

I came across an interesting story from a book written by Rick Snider titled "100 Things Redskins Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." The book is a guide filled with interesting facts and stories about the team that hails from the Nation’s Capital. One such story entertained me to the point I would love to share the tale with you in this episode.

Young men that spend a bunch of time together often blow off a little bit of steam by having some harmless fun with one another. In the football world, kickers are often the butts of other player’s jokes. These specialists who see the field on maybe only a handful of plays each game are easy targets of the big guys that are regularly out on the field.

Our story starts the day after Christmas in 1999. The Washington Redskins are on their chartered return flight from San Francisco after clinching the NFC East with a thrilling 26-20 Overtime victory over the Niners. The men are giddy with not only excitement from the game but that they are returning home with most of them getting to celebrate Christmas with their family and friends that they missed since they were working on the other side of the country on the big day.

There is an unwritten rule on travels like this of “No sleeping on the plane.” Those that violate this rule of thumb for men traveling in groups often have consequences for those that decide to violate the code. 

Kicker Brett Conway seemingly wasn’t aware of the rule or just didn’t care. His mind was on getting home and seeing his girlfriend. She was with her family near Pittsburgh and Brett planned on hopping in his car as soon as the plane landed to make the 6 hour drive. He knew to make the drive he would need some shuteye on this basically redeye flight back to theEast Coast. In order to ensure sound rest, Conway took a sleeping pill so that the noise from teammates would not keep him from restful slumber.

When he finally awoke he noticed that the Flight Attendant was laughing at him. As a matter of fact others on the plane were acting funny as well. When he finally peered at himself in a mirror he realized what all the fuss was about.

He came to find out that some of his teammates were artists. Their utensil of choice was a black Sharpy marker and their canvas happened to be Conway’s face. The 1999 second round drafted, Rookie tackle Jon Jansen, Veteran center Corey Raymer, and fullback Mike Sellers took turns and drew a mustache, beard, scars and even an earring on his ear lobe on the kicker as he was in a deep slumber.

Revenge is sweet

Kickers at that time normally completed practice before the rest of the team. Most linemen drove Ford F150 pickup trucks.

A few days later Jensen drove Raymer home on a near 40 minutes commute. Cars along the way honked, but the town was in a football frenzy as the team just clinched the division and they were Redskins players.
They had no idea, even after Raymer was dropped off that Conway had hung a sign on the tailgate that said I love Big Hairy Men . This was the exact description of Raymer with full facial hair and flowing locks. Chalk one up for the kicker.
He wasn't done on the revenge tour though. Next was Sellers. With the help of some Washington staff members, Conway stuck a live rat that was about a foot and a half long into the fullbacks locker compartment that housed his playbook. When Sellers went to retrieve the playbook the rat jumped out, scaring the big back so much that he fell backwards over a bench. A hidden film crew taped it all. Then a handful of mice came out of his shoe locker a few moments later when Sellers went to grab his cleats, frightening him once again.

Target 3 was Raymer. Conway got him back by filling the cab of his pickup with white styrofoam peanuts. 

As for the Redskins 1999 season they ended up with a 10-6 record. They took care of the Detroit Lions on Wild Card Weekend by the score of 27-13. They next had a bad draw in the 1999 NFC Divisional ROund when they had to travel to Raymond James Stadium and play the red hot Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa won the game 14-13 to end the Redskins season.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikimedia Commons of  a 1905 picture by Fielding Yost to demonstrate the position to assume just before ball is touched to the ground.