Matt Stover is an anomaly in the NFL. In a position that often lends itself to playing for multiple teams, Stover has shattered the stereotype of the vagabond kicker. In a job that can be one misstep away from a shortened career, Stover's durability draws comparison to another, more legendary, Ironman.
Maintaining a much lower profile while playing in the same town, Stover has become the Cal Ripken Jr. of NFL kickers.
"He's the most reliable and depend- able football player I've had in 45 years," said Art Modell, the majority owner of the Ravens and Cleveland Browns for 43 of them.
Now in his 18th NFL season and his 12th with the Ravens since coming with Modell from Cleveland, Stover attributes his own streak to a combination of hard work, good fortune and a strong faith. Despite his share of injuries, Stover has not missed a game because of one.
"You never go into a game thinking you're going to get hurt," Stover, 39, said this week, sitting in the team cafeteria in Owings Mills after practice and his own vigorous post-practice workout. "I've kicked in lots of pain before. I do everything to stay out here on the field.
"But I have to say that God has shed a lot of favor on me as well. It's as simple as me getting hit on a kickoff. What would you do in the weight room to prevent that from happening? I want to stay healthy so they don't have to get somebody else."
In a season where the defense has been erratic and the red-zone offense often unproductive, Stover's steadiness has allowed the Ravens to stay afloat. Three field goals against the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday produced one victory, a 46-yarder at the final gun two weeks earlier at home against the Arizona Cardinals another.
Given the way his team's 2007 season has gone, a strong case also can be made for Stover being considered the Ravens' most valuable player.
"It's a real comfort zone knowing that Matt Stover is here," Ravens coach Brian Billick said this week.
Sunday, when the Ravens host the St. Louis Rams at M&T; Bank Stadium, there will many people there hoping that the game's outcome will be decided early. But if it comes down to another potential game-winner, Stover doesn't seem to mind.
"Am I saying, 'Let's blow them out?' Heck yeah, but if it comes down to me, I've got to be ready," Stover said. "Is it more exciting that the team hung together and still won? Sure. Can you live on that? Yes, but it eventually wears you out."
At an age when many kickers have lost accuracy and leg strength, if not broken down altogether, Stover is still consistent and his right leg still sturdy, as he proved Sunday with a 49-yard field goal at Monster Park. The nine points by the Ravens were their fewest ever in a victory.
Stover's longevity, as well as his loyalty to the Ravens, should not be overlooked.
Only a handful of kickers have played longer than Stover. The two kickers listed ahead of Stover for career field goals made - the ageless Morten Andersen and Gary Anderson - played for five teams. George Blanda played for four, Jan Stenerud for three.
Of the league's current kickers, only the Carolina Panthers' John Kasay and the Denver Broncos' Jason Elam come close. Kasay has played 17 years, the past 13 with the Panthers, but missed the entire 2000 season with an injury and all but two games in 2002. Elam, in 15 seasons with the Broncos, missed five games in 2000.
Close calls
Not that Stover's streak has never been in jeopardy.
In 1992, his second year with the Browns, Stover played all but four games with a bulging disc in his back, making 21 of 29 attempts. In 2001, Stover played the entire season with a pulled quadriceps, making 30 of 35 attempts. Ranked third all-time with a field-goal percentage of 83.7, Stover is 13-for-16 this season, with two of his misses coming in a loss at Cleveland two weeks ago.
It says as much about Stover's personality as about his penchant for making game-winning kicks - the one against the Cardinals was his 13th - that he is still employed while Mike Vanderjagt, the NFL's career leader in field-goal percentage, is not because his foot often found its way into his mouth.
"I don't think he gets the respect because of how long he's played, I think he gets the respect because of how consistent he is," Ravens veteran special teams star Gary Stills said. "He's a real good guy, a lot of energy for the locker room."
Sean Landeta, who punted in the NFL for 21 seasons and before that for three years in the USFL, including for his hometown Baltimore Stars, has known Stover since they were teammates on the 1990 New York Giants, when Stover was relegated to injured reserve with a highly suspicious quadriceps pull after being drafted in the 12th round out of Louisiana Tech.
"He has a great combination of tremendous physical talent and ability to do his thing, and with that, he also has great confidence in his game, which is an absolute must, and a great routine," Landeta said. "He has the mentality to do the things necessary that allows the physical to happen."
Landeta said that Stover's longevity is not surprising given how technically sound and normal he seems to be while playing a position that was once the domain of downright flakes. Stover, who started kicking in the eighth grade in Dallas because he couldn't develop a left foot playing soccer, has quietly moved his way up to the highest echelon of his position, his only Pro Bowl selection coming the season the Ravens won the Super Bowl.
"If you look at the outside and you detail the whole thing, you say 'Gee, day in day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, this guy is able to do it and do it.' That's why he's become a great field goal kicker," Landeta said. "Right now, he's become one of the best ever, and by the time he's finished, he could be the best field-goal kicker in NFL history."
Learning early
Perhaps the most valuable education Stover received came in the season when he didn't attempt a single kick.
On a Giants team that won the Super Bowl, Stover watched Raul Allegre and, after Allegre was injured, former Browns kicker Matt Bahr, as well as observing Landeta prepare for each game.
"I watched two very different veterans and how they approached the game," Stover said. "Raul was very meticulous, and then there was Matt Bahr, who put the ball down and kicked it. ... Then I learned from Sean how to be a student of the game and how in your position you're going to affect the game. I continue to revert back on how they approached the game."
When defensive coordinator Bill Belichick parlayed the Giants' Super Bowl win into his first head coaching job with the Browns, Landeta recommended Stover.
"I told him that I watched Stover day in and day out, and even though he hadn't proven it yet in a game, I told Bill I felt he could do it," Landeta said. "I felt comfortable saying that to Bill. They ended up signing Matt, and 18 years later, Matt has done the rest."
How long Stover will keep doing it will depend largely, but not solely, on his health and accuracy. Stover knows that someday he will be replaced. But he sees Andersen, the NFL's all-time scorer, still going at age 47, and knows Blanda kicked until he was 48.
Stover, the league's second-oldest active kicker, will turn 40 in January and isn't looking past this season - yet.
"One year at a time, one year at a time," Stover said. "A lot of it has to do with other factors than just your performance. You don't want to play too long. You want to be competitive. I want to be able to hit a 49- or 50-yard field goal and get it there with no problem. I want to be able to kick off and maintain the level of my performance."
Just as Stover goes back and reviews each kick, putting all the particulars in what is now a stack of red spiral notebooks, Stover will be analytical about how long he will play. The variables go a lot deeper than his field-goal percentage or his place in the record books.
It goes to the fact that he and his wife, Debbie, live year-round in Baltimore County, with their three children, ages 12, 11 and 4. Along with coaching his 11-year-old son's rec basketball team, Stover and his wife are involved in several activities and charities both locally and in Texas.
"Do I still have the desire to play? At this point, I do," Stover said. "The factor that's the most important, it's my family. Do I want to keep the family under pressure, because they wear it, too. With any professional athlete when your kids take ownership of your career, it's hard. All that plays a part in it."
don.markus@baltsun.com
FIELD-GOAL PERCENTAGE* .837
ALL-TIME RANK: 3RD
FIELD GOALS MADE 421
ALL-TIME RANK: 3RD
POINTS 1,761 ALL-TIME RANK: 5TH
*With more than 150 attempted
KICKING IT AROUND
Favorite kickers
Rafael Septien: Former Cowboys kicker got Stover's attention as a kid, and later an aspiring kicker, in Dallas.
Morten Andersen: Started following NFL's leading scorer when he was in New Orleans and Stover was at Louisiana Tech.
Matt Bahr: Learned a great deal from the veteran when Stover was a rookie with the New York Giants.
Favorite stadiums
M&T; Bank Stadium, Baltimore: Loves the field and the crowd and knows the winds well.
Three Rivers Stadium and Heinz Field, Pittsburgh: As much as Steelers fans hate the Ravens, Stover says "It's hard, but it's fun."
Lambeau Field, Green Bay: Kicked there once in his career. "But hey, it's Lambeau Field."
Least favorite stadiums
Cleveland Browns Stadium, Cleveland: Stover missed a pair of field-goal attempts there last month, slipping on the uneven turf on one of them.
Gillette Stadium, New England: The old stadium was infamous for poor field conditions. "I did play in the new stadium; it was a quagmire, but they've got the new turf."
Three Rivers Stadium and Heinz Field, Pittsburgh: "Put that in as one I hate to kick in, too. That's kind of hypocritical, but it's true."
Favorite field goals
The January 2001 Super Bowl vs. Giants in Tampa: A 47-yarder by Stover right before halftime gave the Ravens a 10-0 lead in a 34-7 win. "Our defense said, 'Get us 10 points and we win.' We're in the locker room saying game's over."
Two field goals of 40 yards or longer at the end of regulation and in overtime to beat the Seattle Seahawks on the road in 2003: "I couldn't believe we were back in that game. It was like that Arizona game [this year]. It was really a lot of fun."
A kick right before halftime for the Browns in a win over the New England Patriots in the 1994 playoffs: "I had missed two field goals in that game already; it was a tough, tough game to kick in. We line up before halftime, a 40- or 42-yarder kicking right into the Dawg Pound, wind howling at me, and I nailed it. That's when I started pointing up."
DON MARKUS