anEngineer wrote:While acting as Special Teams coach for the Saints during the Ditka era, Bobby April got the Saints to get rid of Mark Royal as their punter because he said Royal kicked it too far and it created coverage problems.
A man ahead of his time. Today net punt avg is pinnacle. In the old days that's wasn't considered. Teams wanted a punter that could out kick everyone since out kicking coverage wasn't considered as a negative in the early days of the NFL. Punters became specialists later on. First with coffin corner kicking, hang time, then finally net coverage kicking.