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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2004
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Chiefs rely on new kickers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Steve Cheek is one rookie who is not afraid to admit he's a little nervous.
"Sure, to be honest with you," said Kansas City's new punter. "Absolutely. A little bit."
Cheek will not be alone in his jitters. A few Chiefs coaches and a city full of fans feel skittish about starting the season with both a punter and a place kicker who have never appeared in a regular-season NFL game.
Cheek, who has been in four different training camps without winning a roster spot, was given his job almost by default. He turned in a serviceable performance in his only exhibition game for the Chiefs. Almost immediately gone was Jason Baker, whose inconsistency had landed him deep in coach Dick Vermeil's doghouse.
Place kicker Lawrence Tynes, who has kicked in Canada for the past two years, worked harder. He beat out Morten Andersen, the second-leading scorer in NFL history, in a summer-long training camp battle that Vermel clearly wanted Andersen to win.
"I'm a little bit relieved,"
Tynes said. "But from day one, I thought I was going to be the guy. I was pretty confident in what I was doing. I was optimistic. Then I was fortunate enough to win the job."
While he's never kicked in an NFL regular-season game, Tynes has been seen in action in NFL exhibition games, NFL Europe and two seasons in the Canadian Football League, where he made almost 82 percent of his field goals attempts.
"This is my 51st or 52nd professional game," he said. "It's not the NFL — don't get me wrong — but we had national TV in the CFL and media and all that good stuff. It's just another level. I'm looking forward to it."
All the while the Chiefs were carefully tracking his development, knowing that one day age would finally catch up with Andersen.
Tynes does not accept the label of rookie.
Vermell, who called his decision to go with two new kickers "risky," has done this before. He went with rookies Tony Franklin and Max Runagar in Philadelphia in 1979, and it worked out well.
Vermeil is not planning on any pregame pep talk with his
new kickers before Sunday night's opener at Denver.
night a speaker at Dearborn.
"I think we've demonstrated confidence in them by doing what we've done," he said. "We let maybe one of the greatest kickers in the history of the league, a hall of famer, go. We tracked Lawrence Tynes in Canada. We've watched him grow. So it's time to move on. I'd love to have Morten Andersen 10 years ago."
If the Chiefs had not gone with Tynes, he no doubt would have drawn the attention of other teams. But Cheek was getting discouraged before Kansas City called Houston and acquired him from the Texans.
"I just completed my fourth training camp," Cheek said. "It's rare to keep on going back to camp and going back to camp and competing. Usually teams will move on to new guys. Your opportunities are limited in this business."
business
One thing Vermeil does plan for Sunday night is not to stand very close to his new kickers.
"I think I'm better off staying away from them," he said. "Head coaches tend to make people nervous. I've had that kind of affect on punters and place kickers over my career."
TV networks fight over shows
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — After preliminaries stuffed with enough lawsuits and trash-talk to make Don King proud, the first of TV's battling boxing series faced its opening round yesterday.
Fox's "The Next Great Champ" takes 12 amateur boxers and has them compete for a contract with Oscar De La Hoya's promotional company and a title fight within the World Boxing Organization.
The series made NBC and producers Mark Burnett and
DreamWorks SKG livid. They accused Fox of ripping off its idea for their boxing reality series "The Contender," which was announced earlier but is not scheduled to air until November
Burnett and DreamWorks unsuccessfully sought an injunction to keep the Fox show off the air. They had claimed Fox's series shouldn't go forward because it violated rules set up for boxing matches by the California Athletic Commission.
copycats in an attempt to hurt a rival. Fox also aired, with some success, the series "Trading Spouses" this summer after ABC had announced a similar series, "Wife Swap," for the fall.
In an unusually bitter war of words, NBC executive Jeff Zucker accused Fox of being
Fox called such allegations outrageous and said it's typical for different networks to compete with similar ideas.
Even before these battles had simmered down, an independent producer filed a lawsuit last week claiming De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions had gotten their idea from her in a meeting last
Singh approaching Woods' records
AKVILLE, Ontario — Tiger Woods has put himself in some peculiar positions this year.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
He has struggled just to make the cut. Tee shots have ricocheted off corporate tents and small children. He has spent Sunday afternoons cleaning out his locker, not standing on the 18th green posing with the trophy.
The strangest sight of all is "No. 2" next to his name in the world ranking.
Woods' record streak as the best player in golf — 264 consecutive weeks at No. 1 — came to an end at the Deutsche Bank Championship when Vijay Singh turned in a performance that even a computer couldn't dispute.
It was just a matter of time before the 41-year-old Fijian got his due.
It was the manner in which Singh reached the pinnacle of his amazing career that made it even sweeter.
Tied with Woods down the stretch on the TPC at Boston, with the gallery expecting Woods to respond to the most imminent threat to his throne, Singh pulled away with three birds on the final five holes to win by three shots and become only the 12th player to be No. 1 in the 18-year history of the world ranking.
"I've achieved what I wanted to do," Singh said. "I won a major. I won quite a lot of tournaments, and at the same time became No. 1 in the world. The whole season has been a great one."
(AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)
Vijay Singh smiles at Tiger Woods as they shake hands on the 18th green after Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass. Monday by three strokes over Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. Singh won a head-to-head matchup with Woods to end his record reign at golf's ultimate leaderboard. Singh shot a 69, clinching the No. 1 ranking in the world with his sixth victory of the year. Woods had been first for more than five years — a record 264 consecutive weeks.
If you pick the winning teams, and beat The Kansan sportswriters, you could win free textbooks from UBS, Wheat State Pizza gift certificates, and a T-Shirt!
Read Jonathan Kealing's picks in Friday's Kansan. Winners will be published in Tuesday's Kansan.
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○ Kansas vs. Toledo ○
○ #21 Maryland vs. Temple ○
Texas Tech @ New Mexico
21 Maryland vs. temple
Baylor vs. Texas State
Boston College vs. Penn State
Northwestern vs. Arizona State
Northwestern vs. Arizona State
Momahie vs. UTChatnooga
Notre Dame vs. #7 Michigan
12 K-State vs. Fresno State
○ TCU vs. SMU
○ UNLV @ #22 Wisconsin
○ Ole Miss @ Alabama
Division III
Memphis vs. OF Chattanooga
○ Washburn vs. Emporia State ○
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Washington, DC: Emprgne Charts