VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- He remembers the one he missed. How could he not?
"It happened in a game at Hamilton, in 1983," Lui Passaglia was saying after practice yesterday. "The snap was low, almost on the ground. The holder was struggling to get the ball placed. He still had his hand on the front of the ball when I kicked the back. It fluttered over the line and died."
That was the one: The only extra point Passaglia has missed in 19 years of kicking for the B.C. Lions.
One miss in 794 attempts spanning five United States presidencies. (They're called "converts," not extra points, in the CFL.) He also has made 637 of his 886 field-goal attempts, better than 70 percent.
Oh, and the total distance of his 2,254 career punts is 97,469 yards, or something like 55 miles.
"He's one of the really remarkable athletes in any sport in North America," said CFLs rush end O.J. Brigance, who played with Passaglia for three seasons with the Lions.
In a career that began when Cal Ripken Jr. was a sophomore at Aberdeen High School, Passaglia, now 40, has scored more points than any other player in the history of pro football: 2,966, or 964 more than George Blanda, the leading American. And he has done it without once changing jobs.
"I don't think anyone will ever come along and repeat my career," said Passaglia, who will kick for the Lions against the CFLs in Sunday's Grey Cup. "To have one player handle both the kicking and punting for this long, that won't happen again. And it's hard to see anyone staying with the same team for 19 years."
For that matter, it's hard to see anyone else punting for 55 miles.
"I realized that was a lot of punting when I heard someone say that it would take an hour to drive that far," said Passaglia, who has a toothy smile, flecks of gray in his long hair and a slightly bemused manner.
He is one of the treasures of Baltimore's newest football league, the CFL's George Foreman, a one-man record book and a throwback to the days when sports were a lot less fancy.
"If I stand for anything," he said, "it's that you can always keep going as long as you have a passion for what you're doing."
His passion, to hear him tell it, comes from his Italian blood. His parents immigrated to British Columbia in the early '50s from a town called Lucca, in the Tuscan hills outside Florence. Passaglia was born in Vancouver in 1954, the year the city was awarded a CFL expansion team. Passaglia's father, a construction worker, was a certified soccer zealot.
"When I was growing up everything was soccer, soccer, soccer," Passaglia said. "But I wound up liking football."
He was a star quarterback in high school and a big-play receiver at Simon Fraser University. The Lions selected him in the first round of the 1976 CFL draft, intending to use him as a receiver.
"They tried me out as the punter to see if they could save a roster spot," he said, "and once I started kicking my days as a receiver were numbered."
He made the division all-star team in his second season, and that was that. "For 10 years they didn't even bring anyone into training camp to challenge me," he said. "I was young and strong and kicking the crap out of the ball."
In 1983, he averaged 50 yards a punt. In 1988, he made 52 of 66 field goal attempts. (In the CFL, remember, the goal posts are on the goal line and kickers get to use a tee.) In 1988, disillusioned by a contract dispute, he was ready to retire. But his agent talked him into trying out with the NFL's Cleveland Browns as a punter. A former high draft pick named Lee Johnson beat him out. But he came back to Vancouver, settled his contract dispute and resumed his inexorable run through the CFL's record book.
He is the league's all-time leader in games played, field goals (made and attempted), singles, punts, punting yardage, converts and, of course, points.
He has beaten out at least two training camp challengers in each of the last five seasons, and though his power isn't what it was -- "if it's 45 yards or more, cross your fingers," he said -- he is still among the league's most dependable kickers. This year he made 28 of 36 field goal attempts. And, of course, he didn't missed a convert, upping his streak to 11 years.
"Kicking is all about mental discipline and basic self-confidence," he said. "I have always believed in my ability to do this job."
A father of four, he has come to terms with the fact that his career is almost over. "I better, at my age," he said. In fact, it might end Sunday if the Lions win the Grey Cup and he has a big game and the timing seems right.
"I'll sit down with my wife and we'll talk about what goals are left for me to accomplish," he said. "If it turns out that I want to come back for another year, I'll get in shape and come to camp and try to make it 20 years in a row. I can handle that."