As for sharing positions in the NFL…
In the 1970s, Houston Oilers starting QB Dan Pastorini was also one of the punters. (I remember him being the primary Punter for a while, but I could be mistaken.) Added an extra element of D/ST planning for the opposing team having to wonder if he will punt, pass, or even run.
Didn’t Doug Flutie do that, too?
True, but if it had that discouraging effect at all, I think it was only a very small effect.
IIRC, that rule change happened in the mid-1970s, but field goal accuracy pretty steadily climbed (with some year-to-year wobble, and a weird dip in '76 and '77) throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and saw its most rapid increase in the early 1980s (several years after that rule change, IIRC). Here’s the year-by-year percentages through the 1970s and 1980s (stats from ProFootballReference.com):
1970: 59%
1971: 59%
1972: 61%
1973: 63%
1974: 61%
1975: 64%
1976: 60%
1977: 58%
1978: 63%
1979: 63%
1980: 64%
1981: 66%
1982: 68%
1983: 72%
1984: 72%
1985: 72%
1986: 72%
1987: 70%
1988: 72%
1989: 73%
Not only did they change the ball spot from line of scrimmage to point of kick, there was an earlier much more radical change. FG kicks used to be handled like punts. A missed FG belonged to the “receiving” team at the point the ball was downed, typically the 20 yard line on a touchback. This was the rule until 1974.
The only drawbacks to trying a field goal then were, they were somewhat easier to block and they were harder to cover as they had less hang time. The latter rarely mattered though since they usually resulted in touchbacks.
No – the only kicking or punting which Flutie ever did in the NFL was the drop-kick extra point he made in his final game, with the Patriots in 2005.
Danny White was the Cowboys’ punter in the 1970s, while he was also Roger Staubach’s backup at quarterback. After Staubach retired, and White became the starter, he still acted as the Cowboys’ punter for most of the rest of his career.
While Randall Cunningham was never the Eagles’ primary punter, he would make the occasional “quick kick” on third and long, and had some monster punts as a result (since there would be no one deep to return the unexpected punt, they’d roll and roll).
Someone may have said this above, I didn’t read every note… but there’s actually another factor here.
Some teams even have/had the extra luxury of “kickoff specialists”… to wit there’s a punter, a field goal kicker AND a guy that only does kickoffs.
I’ve seen that on occasion – what it usually seems to be is that they have an older placekicker, who’s still accurate on XPs and FGs, but can’t boom a kickoff any more, and a younger placekicker, whom they may be grooming to eventually replace the older kicker, but to whom they give kickoff duty for the time being.
What you also sometimes see is that the punter handles kickoffs (since distance is more important than accuracy) – the Packers are doing so this year, with punter Tim Masthay also kicking off (a duty which kicker Mason Crosby handled until now).
That’s fairly common in college, where they’ll throw a bunch of walk-ons at the kicking specialties and see who sticks.
When I started watching the Bears (early 1970’s), Bob Parsons doubled as tight end and punter. Even then that Old School. I suspect, but don’t know, that Parsons was the last (NFL) person to combine punting with a position other than QB or PK.
Pat McInally beats Parsons by a few years – he was the Bengals’ punter from 1977 to 1985, and was also a wide receiver (he even wore #87). Though he was primarily a backup as a receiver, he did start 8 games as a receiver in 1980 and 1981, and had 57 career receptions. According to McInally’s entry on Wikipedia, he stopped playing wide receiver after a series of concussions; his last reception was in 1981. (Parsons’ last reception was in 1976.)
Speaking of multitasking – around the time McInally retired from the NFL, he also developed an idea for a line of sports action figures. He sold the idea to Kenner, which marketed the line as Starting Lineup.
To add to your list, i think the best example of a guy who played two positions was George Blanda, who was the pk and qb for the Oilers and Raiders. He played both of these positions on and off full time throughout his career, although in his later years with Oakland, he was mostly a PK and backup QB.
Just for completeness, I’ll add that both Terry Bradshaw and Kordell Stewart punted for the Steelers at one time. I’m pretty sure both punted infrequently (single digits for both, and probably under 5 times for each). But this, along with his WR and QB play was where Kordell received his nickname “Slash”. I have no idea of the total numbers of punts for each, though.
I can’t think of another QB that punted, but I’m sure there are a few.
The reason the punter is a separate role is that it gives retired AFL players a place to go and earn some easy money.
The Packers started the season using their punter, Tim Mastay, to do kickoffs, leaving PK Mason Crosby to concentrate exclusively on FGs and XPs. Crosby had a serious case of the yips on FGs last season and the Packers apparently did this to try to narrow his focus as much as possible (after the kicking competition brought in during training camp didn’t pan out). Whether it made a difference or not, Crosby is pretty much back to his historical level of scoring this season. I’m not completely sure if Mastay is still doing the kickoffs or not though.
I’m not sure that was ever common, and it seems to be less common now thanks to the new kickoff rules. You don’t need a huge leg to get a touchback these days.
The Cowboys had a kickoff specialist in David Buehler in 2011. Because, you know, Jerry Jones, and such. Definitely a rarity to waste one of your precious 53 spots on a second kicker. It’s quite common in the college football 80-100 man roster world.
Are those just quick kicks rather than lining up as a punter? I know Brady has done a handful of kicks as well.
Sam martin handles punts and kickoffs for the Lions. David Akers does field goals and extra points.
To go way back, Sammy Baugh led the league in passing, punting, and interceptions in 1943, and still holds the single season record of punt average. But, that was back in the days of “one-platoon” football.
Alex Henery is probably capable of doing a pro-level job in both categories, as I’m pretty sure he’s in the top 30 in each of them.
Bradshaw punted 8 times in his career – 3 times in 1970, and 5 times in 1980. Given that odd distribution of his punts, I suspect that most, if not all, of those were as an injury replacement for the Steelers’ regular punters.
Stewart had 5 career punts – one in 1998 for the Steelers, and 4 in 2004 for the Ravens. As he was the starting QB for the Steelers in '98, that one may have been a quick kick. He never threw a pass for the Ravens, so, I suspect those punts were also as an injury replacement.
He is – or, at least was, as of last week.
There’ve been several former Australian football players who’ve come to the NFL; I’m kind of surprised we haven’t had more of them, as they’ve generally been quite successful. The first, Darren Bennett, wound up making the NFL’s “Team of the 1990s” as the punter, and he was responsible for introducing the “drop punt” into American football (a different style of punt, which is well-suited for “pooch kick” situations, and which is now widely used by punters trying to drop the ball just short of the goal line). Sav Rocca is, I think, the only former AFLer currently in the NFL.