Husted kick rights Bucs' many wrongs Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 9 October 1995 The tougher the day, the farther away redemption seems to move. For Michael Husted, it was a half a football field away. He had been booed. He had been bummed. He had been dragged through the dirt (making a tackle). Like his team, he had struggled through an odd afternoon, trying to make sense out of crooked goal posts, missed opportunities, botched rekicks, necessary tackles and hitting an upright. Now he stood, 53 yards away, with a chance to make it right. With a chance to show his teammates, his coaches, his fans, that he was a big-time kicker. Sometimes, it is not merely the distance a kick covers. It is what it erases along the way. For Husted, for the Bucs, this is the one that prettied up an ugly afternoon. When the kick traveled the 53 yards and sailed through the uprights, it granted player and team alike absolution for an afternoon of underachievement. Suddenly, this was not a slopfest with Cincinnati. This was a victory. This was not a team with holes. This was a team that is 4-2. This was not a struggle. This was first place... by a foot. Husted has been with the Bucs three years, but not so you would notice. He has been a fair kicker, nothing special, who reportedly impressed teammates in practice. But you do not judge a kicker by practice. There are kickers with strong legs who come and leave ulcers as they go. What determines a successful kicker is how he does when the pressure is on, when the crowd has been on his back, when the day has gone the wrong way. "It felt incredible," Husted said of the kick. "You have to be a kicker to know how it felt. It was euphoria." He had never had a moment like this. Oh, he had kicked a 22-yarder, a glorified extra point, to beat Minnesota last year in overtime. He had missed a 54-yarder that would have beaten New Orleans. But the Bucs have not been in position often enough to place winning or losing on his right leg. Now, they have been. "He needed a big kick," special-teams coach George Stewart said. "He needed to show everyone he could be a clutch kicker." For much of the afternoon, it seemed like anyone's day but Husted's. For instance, he kicked a 37-yard field goal in the second quarter but a penalty moved the ball back 10 yards, and Husted then missed. He made a key tackle on David Dunn on a kickoff but he missed a 45-yard field goal with 4:45 to go and his team behind 16-13. On the sideline, Stewart was screaming at officials that the goal posts were crooked, and that their improper lean caused the ball to hit the right post. "Next time, we're going to take a level out there," Stewart said. "They do it for basketball goals? Why not goal posts?" Husted shrugged. "I should have hit it down the middle," he said. "I was mad. I should make those kicks." Some days, that might have been Husted's final chance. Kickers never know when opportunities come, and it was entirely possible the game could have ended without another chance. It did not. Husted kicked a 33-yard field goal with 3:38 to play to tie the score. Then, following a fumble recovery, he crunched the 53-yarder. As he stood, his arms in the air, snapper Ed Brady jogged downfield to retrieve the ball so Husted would have a souvenir. It seemed as if Brady ran a very long way. "I pretty much knew it was good," he said. "It was a matter of time until the referees raised their arms." For Casey Weldon, his holder, the wait was not necessary. Weldon said he knew the field goal was going to be good as he jogged onto the field. "I knew he'd drill it because I know how good he is," Weldon said. "I've seen him in practice after he misses a couple, with Errict Rhett yelling at him, with all this pressure, and he just drills it. He's a money player." After all this time, maybe he is. In college, at Virginia, he had exactly one chance to win a game with a last-second field goal. It was blocked. Not this one. This one came with his parents in the stands, with one of his oldest friends in attendance, with every teammate watching him to see if he was a kicker worth counting on. "This is the biggest kick I've ever made," he said. "It's the kind of kick you think about, you dream about." You wonder. What would have happened if he never had the chance? Had the game ended 16-13 Bengals, what would people be saying about Husted today? That he should be released? "There is a fine line between success and failure," Husted said. "Sometimes, you can't even see it." Sometimes, it seems as small as goal posts 159 feet away. Sometimes, it moves as slow as a twisting ball as it floats toward the goal, carrying success, forgiving frustration, as it travels. Sometimes, it does not land until it has reached redemption.