{"id":3810,"date":"2013-01-04T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=322"},"modified":"2019-06-12T10:22:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:22:19","slug":"griffon-kicker-is-an-nfl-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2013\/01\/04\/griffon-kicker-is-an-nfl-sensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffon kicker is an NFL sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u00a0Legatron. Greg the Leg. Record breaker. News maker.<\/strong> Call him whatever you wish, but \u00a0former Griffon kicker Greg Zuerlein is making headlines online and in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and ESPN television, for his record-breaking performance with the St. Louis Rams. Greg, who has been breaking records since his high school football days, was a sixth-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft for the Rams, and his performance was turning heads all season long.<br \/>\nGreg graduated from Pius X High School in Lincoln, Neb. in 2006, after being named Nebraska All-State and All-Class both his junior and senior years. In 2004, he set a state record for field goals in a season \u2013 12 out of 16 \u2013 the longest being 52 yards.<br \/>\nHe played for University of Nebraska-Omaha for three seasons and sat out the 2010 season with an injury. When the University of Nebraska-Omaha shuttered its football program after the 2010 season, Greg joined the Griffon squad for the 2011 season.<br \/>\n\u201cEvery one of the guys in the locker room and the coaches made me feel at home,\u201d Greg said shortly after becoming a Griffon.<br \/>\n\u201cHe\u2019s a great kicker and a first-class kid,\u201d said Griffons Head Coach Jerry Partridge.<br \/>\nRams head coach Jeff Fisher agreed. \u201cI\u2019ve been around some really good kickers, but he\u2019s a little bit different,\u201d Jeff said of Greg at the Rams training camp in St. Louis last summer. \u201cFrom the first day on the field, he expects to make it. He has great confidence in his leg.\u201d<br \/>\nAt the post-game press conference after the Sept. 30 game against the Seattle Seahawks when Greg set two franchise records, Jeff said, \u201cI was on the headsets and I said, \u2018field goal,\u2019 and somebody said, \u2018field goal?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s only 60. It\u2019s well within his range.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greg\u2019s Griffon Performance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>21 straight field goals, the most ever in NCAA Division II, including nine that were 50+ yards and two that were 58 yards<\/li>\n<li>24 out of 25 field goals, 96 percent, the most accurate season ever in NCAA Division II<br \/>\nThree 50-yard field goals, tied for most in a game in the NCAA Division II<\/li>\n<li>Nine for nine on field goals of 50 yards or more, never been done in NCAA at any level<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Greg\u2019s Rams Performance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First player in NFL History to make a 60-yarder and a 50-plus yarder in one game.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In week three against the Chicago Bears, made a 56-yard field goal, the longest at Soldier Field.<\/li>\n<li>In week four, hit a 60-yard field goal against the Seattle Seahawks, which beat the Rams\u2019 record of 58 yards, set by him earlier in the same game.<\/li>\n<li>Kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired in regulation and a 54-yarder with 26 seconds left in overtime to beat the San Francisco 49ers 16-13.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At press time, was 7 for 11 in 50+ yard field goals.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_325\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/zuerlein-ramsedit.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-325\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-325\" title=\"zuerlein rams\" src=\"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/zuerlein-ramsedit-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-325\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: St. Louis Rams team photographer Newman Lowrance.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Legatron. Greg the Leg. Record breaker. News maker. Call him whatever you wish, but \u00a0former Griffon kicker Greg Zuerlein is making headlines online and in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and ESPN television, for his record-breaking performance with the St. Louis Rams. Greg, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4208,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions\/4208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}