TSR’s Punter of the Week:
Spencer Lanning – Cleveland Browns
Who is he?
As is the case with many professional punters, Lanning’s path to a full-time job in the NFL has been long and winding. The 25-year-old South Carolina native overcame four rejections by four NFL clubs over two full seasons before making the Browns in camp just prior to the 2013 season. Undrafted in 2011 after a solid college career with Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, Lanning first latched on with the Bears. Subsequent stints with the Jags, Jets and Browns didn’t work out but Lanning went so far as to toil for a stretch in the now-defunct United Football League. Lanning battled journeyman TJ Conley in camp last summer for the starting Browns job and then staved off another challenge from undrafted rook Colton Schmidt. Lanning was an excellent youth soccer player but was forced to quit the game as a junior in high school after a serious knee injury. With help and encouragement from his Dad, Lanning then devoted himself fully to kicking a football. He can kick short field goals in a pinch and is a big fan of Clemson in addition to his alma mater. Lanning’s self-made creations on the mobile app Vine are funny and creative. His longtime girlfriend is Brittany Jasenski, the 2011 winner of the Miss New York City pageant.
The Lanning stat line vs. Chicago 12-15-13:
5 punts. 211 yards total. 42.2 yards per. 38.0 net.
The punts in detail:
1. With stray snowflakes swirling above the playing field and temps in the mid-20’s, Lanning stepped onto Cleveland’s well-kept natural grass field for his first punt early in the second quarter of a 3-3 ballgame. Scores of empty seats in the upper level could be seen when the Fox broadcast included occasional long shots of the venue. Some sections weren’t even cleared of snow that had fallen the night before. Lanning wore a white long sleeve shirt underneath his football jersey and had a fanny pack strapped to his waist. The fanny pack looks ridiculous on any human but especially on a man playing football. Perhaps Lanning (#5) was using the fanny pack to warm his hands – or perhaps to store written instructions on how best to avoid allowing Bears returner Devin Hester to get the ball with even a small patch of open field ahead of him. Standing at his own 15-yard-line, Lanning blew on his hands and rubbed them together before catching the ball from long snapper Christian Yount at chin level. The boot was a good one. It landed on the hard turf at Chicago’s 27 and bounced forward another eight yards before Browns cover man Johnson Bademosi downed it. It was a 50-yard punt with no return. Hester appeared distracted by the prospect of teammate Zack Bowman unknowingly making contact with the ball and barked warnings as the pigskin fell to the ground. Any time you can keep Hester from returning it, one should be happy – and this Lanning effort had the additional benefit of backing the Bears up pretty good. On the subsequent Bears offensive series, Jay Cutler threw a pick six and you can make the case that Lanning’s punt played a small role in that eventual score.
2. The rock was cold and Lanning caught it less than flush on his second punt just before halftime. The half-thud was audible as he struck it. Hester could only watch as ball squirted around on the ground well ahead of where he expected it. It was a 36-yard punt with no return. Lanning looked miffed but when you’re punting against Hester, I think you take the shank over the long return. Cutler came on with 90 seconds to go in half and immediately took the Bears to paydirt for a big score. I don’t know what the Bears do at season’s end with Cutler. It’s such a tough call given his maddening inconsistency but I guarantee somebody scoops him fast if the Bears let him walk. That team very well could be the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets and wouldn’t that be fun if he has any kind of pass-catchers and a head coach other than Rex Ryan. But I digress.
3. On for a pooch early in the fourth quarter, Lanning had his hands in his fanny pack which I think confirms the idea those silly things contain some kind of warming action. The punt landed at the Bears 8-yard-line and would have rolled nicely all the way to just before the goal line if it weren’t for an overanxious Julian Posey touching it prematurely at the 5 before backing off. It was a 32-yard punt and again – no return.
4. Now in crunch time, Lanning came on in a 24-24 game and was asked to come up in a serious, pressure spot. If he launched one all out from his own end zone, Hester was ready to return it. That’s how it ended up going down. Lanning crushed the ball from the goal line. Hester backed up to receive it at his own 45 and got a wall of protection to his right. He curled around the clearly well-rehearsed Bears return set-up and found a seam down the right side. Lanning had moved swiftly into that alley and pushed Hester out of bounds at about the Cleveland 35. What was interesting about the television coverage of the play was a trippy visual image created by a Fox on-field camera operator. With the lens situated on the ground perhaps 10 yards behind Lanning, the wide-angle shot included a large wind turbine spinning behind the opposite end zone. The totality of the picture as Lanning unleashed the punt was as pretty as a professional water-color painting hanging in a Manhattan art gallery. The punt was 47 yards and the return was 21. Lanning saved a longer return but probably should have continued the game-long pattern of not allowing Hester to touch and scamper with it.
5. Punting a football in freezing cold conditions isn’t easy. Even if you nicely execute all of the key steps prior to launch, the ball still won’t travel like it would if the air was moderately warm. I believe the football becomes less buoyant in extreme cold. Maybe buoyant isn’t the right word. Something about the energy one gets when a foot hits a football gets lost when it’s 20 degrees. Or does it? Denver kicker Matt Prater kicked a 64-yard field goal in 14-degree weather the Sunday before last. Perhaps the thin air at Mile High mitigates the effects of a cold football but I think most punters will tell you it’s hard to get distance in frigid climes. Lanning’s final punt should be viewed in this context. He appeared to hit it as hard as a punter could and it was recorded as a 46 yarder with no return.
The Sound of a Punt:
Jim Donovan has been the radio voice of the Brownies since ’99 and is joined in the booth by Doug Dieken. Donovan has battled chronic lymphocytic leukemia for more than a decade but you wouldn’t know it listening to his broadcast. His energy level is high and his voice sounds younger than his years. The clip below is the description of Lanning’s big fourth quarter punt that ended with the punter getting credit for a tackle. Browns games can be heard in Cleveland on WKNR-AM (ESPN 850).
The Punt-osis:
Lanning had a nightmarish game four weeks back when the Bengals blocked one of his punts and returned it for a TD. Cinci partially blocked another punt in that game, too. A few days later the Browns brought in three unemployed punters for tryouts (Zoltan Mesko included) but ended sticking with Lanning. That’s probably the right move given the fact most blocked punts are the fault of one’s protection up front. No matter what happens going forward, Lanning will have quite a scrapbook entry from his week three outing in Minnesota. Against the Vikes, Lanning executed a fake field goal as holder and threw a TD pass to the tight end. He had a great game punting and also kicked an extra point and launched a kickoff when regular kicker Billy Cundiff got hurt. According to an AP story on that game, it was the first time since 1968 that a player punted, threw a TD pass and kicked a PAT in a single game. Lanning’s 2013 in sum should be enough to maintain incumbency in Cleveland next summer but punters can’t be choosers. The revolving door spins fast – and sometimes unfairly – for NFL punters. It takes a special type to punt on the shore of Lake Erie and Lanning seems to have the skill set to leg up, down, short and long. I hope he sticks.
-On a vote of four-nil, the New York City Council Committee on Technology approved a non-binding resolution Wednesday that urges the operator of the area’s three major airports to end a long practice of charging passengers for wireless internet. As it is now, people waiting for flights at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark pay through the nose in order to gain wi-fi access. The Port Authority’s deal with Boingo to profit from Wi-Fi is expiring and the City Council resolution is aimed at pressuring the Port to go the way of most American airports which make internet access available for nothing.
-United Airlines will pay almost triple what it’s costing now to keep its name on the Chicago arena that’s home to both the Bulls and Blackhawks. United’s 20-year extension to retain naming rights on the madhouse on Madison will cost the air carrier $100 million according to Chicago Business Journal reporter Lewis Lazare. The original 20-year deal reportedly cost United $36 mil. Considering a 30-second Super Bowl television commercial now costs upwards of $4 mil, I’d say United is getting decent value on its forthcoming $5 mil annual expenditure when you add up the exposure.