By Kevin Murphy

Upon viewing Ravens’ kicker Billy Cundiff’s cringe-inducing, shanked 32-yard field goal attempt this past Sunday, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit dead inside.

After the initial wave of dismay had worn off, I found myself considering the role a kicker plays in the NFL. It is a true oddity. I contend that place-kicker is the most specialized position in the wide world of sports. In the game of football, which despite its oxymoronic name is played nearly exclusively with players’ hands, only the kicker plays the game with only his foot.

I had adopted the Ravens as my favorite playoff team after the dismal Jets detonated all over themselves (and my Super Bowl dreams) at the end of the regular season. On Sunday, it appeared that the Ravens had a real shot to knock the Jets’-rival Patriots out of Super Bowl contention for yet another year. Yet, with the game on the line, a lonesome figure, the kicker, trotted onto the field and single-handedly ended his team’s season.

A great kicker must master the kickoff, onside kick, squib kick and field goal kick. These are skills that players in other positions have absolutely no use for. As a result the kicker exists on a kind of island in the football universe, and as such he seems somewhat isolated from the rest of his teammates.

Isolating the kicker even further than his minutely specialized skills is the inordinate amount of pressure that tends to land on him at the end of close games. The rules of football are designed in such a way that in a close game’s closing moments, the kicker will likely be called into action to attempt a clutch field goal to win or tie the game. This puts the kicker in the interesting position to, with one play lasting little more than a few seconds, become the hero of the game, or the roundly despised goat.

Further, oftentimes, if the kicker converts the kick, it is often shrugged off as him “doing his job.” This would have been the case for Cundiff this weekend if he had made that fateful kick. The quarterback is usually the one who gets the credit for orchestrating the drive to get in field goal position.

In short, the kicker is often in a position to land the blame for a loss, but not the glory for a win. This makes kicker a largely stressful and thankless position to play. So if your team’s kicker chokes in the Super Bowl next week, maybe have some sympathy. In many ways, it seems like the most miserable job in the NFL.