{"id":525,"date":"2012-09-25T18:24:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T22:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2012-09-25T18:24:46","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T22:24:46","slug":"525","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=525","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

TSR\u2019s Punter of the Week<\/strong>
\nSteve Weatherford – New York Giants<\/em><\/p>\n

Who is he?<\/strong>
\nWeatherford has a cocky streak in him and he can be kind of a wild child and a prankster.\u00a0 He’s brash.\u00a0 He’s imposing physically and he has a Super Bowl ring.\u00a0 His warm personality and on-field contributions during last season’s magical Big Blue playoff ride made him a celebrity on a team loaded with interesting characters.\u00a0 Weatherford’s antics can get him in a bit of trouble however.\u00a0 During this past summer’s training camp, Giants coach Tom Coughlin got livid about a Weatherford Twitter post linking to a video showing two teammates engaging in reckless horseplay.\u00a0 After Big Blue won a dramatic NFC title game in San Fran earlier this year, Weatherford could be seen on national television mouthing the words “I’m Going to the Mother-Fucking Super Bowl!” as he celebrated victory on the field.\u00a0 Not exactly something the staid Giants brass wants from its punter.\u00a0 But Weatherford has been great as a Giant. At\u00a0 29 years old, Weatherford has a steady punting job after bouncing to and from four teams starting with the Saints in 2006.\u00a0 A four-year starter at the University of Illinois, Weatherford grew up in the state of Indiana and maintains close charitable ties with organizations in Terre Haute.\u00a0 Weatherford is an active cheerleader during games which is a little unusual for a punter.\u00a0 He appears to have a close working relationship with kicker Lawrence Tynes.<\/p>\n

Weatherford\u2019s stat line against the Panthers on 9-20-12:<\/strong>
\n2 punts.\u00a0 76 yards total.\u00a0 Avg. 38.0 yards per. 38.0 net.<\/p>\n

The punts in detail:<\/strong>
\n1.\u00a0 Weatherford’s first of only two punts in this game came with 46 seconds left in the first half and the Giants up by 20.\u00a0 There was concern in the run-up to this Thursday night contest in Charlotte that Big Blue would struggle without Nicks, Bradshaw and Diehl.\u00a0 Instead, they coasted.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither Weatherford punt was a pressure kick.\u00a0 Standing at midfield, Weatherford’s first punt bounced at the five and came back high in the air.\u00a0 Teammate Chase Blackburn snared it at the eight.\u00a0 Weatherford walked off the field with a big grin on his face. He received a high five from Tynes.\u00a0 The NFL Network showed replays of Giants QB Eli Manning chastising Martellus Bennett after the latter stopped his route prematurely on the previous play.\u00a0 By pinning them so deep, Weatherford forced the Panthers to kill what was left of the first half clock.\u00a0 Carolina walked to its locker room to a cascade of boos.\u00a0 Officially, it was a 35 yard punt with no return.<\/p>\n

2. It was garbage time when Weatherford came on for his final punt late in a blowout.\u00a0 Again standing near midfield, the 4th and 13 play from the NYG 40 called for a pooch.\u00a0\u00a0 The replacement officials working the game had to halt play just before the kick.\u00a0 They convened a discussion when one of the stripes realized the game clock was winding down with the play clock off.\u00a0 After that was straightened out, the Panthers sent the house and tried for a block.\u00a0 Weatherford sniffed out the heavy rush and expedited the kick, a 41-yarder to the Carolina 19.\u00a0 Rookie Carolina returner Joe Adams muffed the catch and the fumble was recovered by Justin Tryon of the Giants in the red zone.\u00a0 Adams took his eye off the ball just before catching it and it slipped right through his hands.\u00a0 There didn’t appear to be any special knuckling action or English on Weatherford’s ball.\u00a0 Adams had earlier fumbled a kickoff return leading to a NYG TD.\u00a0 This one led to a Giants FG.\u00a0 The long delay before the punt meant Weatherford stood on the field for a solid three minutes before being able to launch it.\u00a0 While the officials bungled clock administration, Big Blue wideout Ramses Barden could be seen on the sidelines leading Lets Go Giants chants coming from a huge contingent of fans who made the trip to Carolina.<\/p>\n

The Sound of a Punt:<\/strong>
\nBob Papa and Carl Banks call Big Blue on radio and their description of the Adams muff on Weatherford’s second punt was spot on.\u00a0 Competent but largely passionless is how I\u2019d describe Papa\u2019s calls these days.\u00a0 I used to like him a lot more.\u00a0 Over on the NFL Network on the same play, Brad Nessler mistakenly told the audience that Tryon’s dash with the ball into the end zone was a TD.\u00a0 The NFL Network’s production truck put the points on the board before Nessler’s partner Mike Mayock correctly asserted that you can’t advance an opponent’s muff.\u00a0 Unrelated point:\u00a0 my cable system Time Warner finally added the NFL Network the day after the Giants game and I’ve been watching a lot of it since it appeared on my system.\u00a0 The audio clip below is Papa and Banks calling the punt and muff on WFAN here in New York.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

The Punt-osis: \u00a0<\/strong>
\nWeatherford is basking in the glory and pride of a championship and performing at a high level.\u00a0 He was given a generous, front-loaded contract extension before the current season.\u00a0 Included is an unusual amount of guaranteed and first-year-of-the-deal dough (for a punter).\u00a0 It’s said to be seven-plus million in the bank if Weatherford completes this season with four more at a mil-per (non-guaranteed) going forward.\u00a0 Weatherford’s two seasons with the Jets (preceding his free agent signing with Big Blue) were solid but special teams coach Mike Westhoff’s type A didn’t seem to mesh with a type A punter.\u00a0 The two have sparred verbally in the media since Weatherford left.\u00a0 You’d have to say Weatherford’s future as a Giant is pretty secure given the money already doled out.\u00a0 The Giants don’t put up with much nonsense so Weatherford likely knows the limits on acceptable behavior and will have to remind himself of that on occasion.\u00a0 I saw Weatherford at the parade up the Canyon of Heroes and it was great to see so much love showered on a punter.\u00a0 He clearly enjoys the attention and adulation.<\/p>\n

Next week\u2019s Punter of the Week:\u00a0 Chris Jones – Dallas Cowboys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TSR\u2019s Punter of the Week Steve Weatherford – New York Giants Who is he? Weatherford has a cocky streak in him and he can be kind of a wild child and a prankster.\u00a0 He’s brash.\u00a0 He’s imposing physically and he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,102],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-525","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}