The Sports Life

Football - Giants? Kicking Hopes Rest on Untested Legs

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J ? The Giants have two place-kickers on their roster. One, Josh Huston, spent most of last fall with the odd job of cleaning junk out of foreclosed houses. He had his appendix removed last week and will probably not kick again until June.

The other, Marc Hickok, has had one professional kicking job since he left college four years ago. That came in arenafootball2, the Arena Football League?s minor league.

Whether the Giants sign someone who has attempted an N.F.L. kick will depend largely on the performance of Huston and Hickok in the coming weeks and through training camp, which starts in late July. But kicker may be the most intriguing position battle to be waged between now and the beginning of the season for the Giants, who are looking to replace Jay Feely, who signed with the Miami Dolphins as a free agent.

For now, the job rests on the foot of Huston, who was left to do little but watch the team?s three-day rookie minicamp, which ended Monday.

The Giants have been tracking his progress the past two months. He made 87 percent of his field-goal attempts ? most from 40 to 49 yards ? in simulated drills at Giants Stadium in April and early May. On May 7, after kicking and working out, Huston left to play golf.

?I shot 78,? he said. ?I was strokin? it, but I felt a little weird the whole time.?

The stomach pain arrived after dinner, and Huston felt only marginally better the next day. By Tuesday night, his appendix had been removed. With three puncture wounds from the surgery in his belly, Huston is exercising again, but unlikely to try to kick a football for a few weeks.

Huston had spent the past couple of months tuning his abilities with an eye toward this minicamp, knowing General Manager Jerry Reese and his personnel staff would be watching closely.

?Are you kidding me?? he said when asked about the anticipation and subsequent disappointment. ?You practice with your coach, they see the film, and they look at the numbers. But to be able to go out there in front of Jerry Reese and Kevin Abrams and Dave Gettleman and those guys ? they?re out there watching, and that?s what I?m practicing for. It?s a bummer.?

Huston, 25, spent most of his college career at Ohio State stuck on the roster behind Mike Nugent, now the Jets? kicker. He performed well when he finally got the top job as a senior in 2005, and spent last year?s training camp with the Bears, who cut him in favor of Robbie Gould.

Between jobs in Columbus, Ohio, as a cashier at a market and cleaning out stuff left behind in foreclosed houses, Huston tried out for three N.F.L. teams last season, including the Giants in December, when Feely had a sore foot. At season?s end, the Giants signed him, unsure if they would keep Feely.

The job was Huston?s when Feely left for the Dolphins in early March. But Huston knew that the team would bring in at least one other kicker to stimulate competition.

They did. In April, the Giants auditioned four kickers: the former Colts Pro Bowler Mike Vanderjagt, who was cut by the Dallas Cowboys last year; the six-year N.F.L. veteran Paul Edinger; Carter Warley of the Arena Football League?s New York Dragons; and Hickok, a lifelong Giants fan.

Hickok won the job after he made 11 of 14 kicks, including a 55-yarder, in chilly, windy conditions.

Hickok, 26, spent three years after graduating from Connecticut unsuccessfully chasing a kicking job. He moved to Florida to focus on kicking, and worked as a bartender, then a personal trainer. He struggled to get invitations to even the lowest-level tryouts, but finally captured the arena football job in Stockton, Calif., last year. That helped secure an invitation to an N.F.L. Europa combine this spring, where the Giants spotted him.

?There?s no negative out of any of this,? Hickok said. ?When I?ve been busting my butt telling people where I?m trying to get to, people look at me like I?m crazy.?

The Giants seem comfortable letting the kicks fall where they may. Kicker is football?s most interchangeable position, and the Giants have waited until the last moment to make a final decision before.

In 2004, Tom Coughlin?s first season as head coach, the Giants planned to use the untested Todd France as their kicker. Five days before the season opener, they signed the 14-year veteran Steve Christie.

?They could sign a veteran at any time,? said Huston, who offers up equal doses of smiles and swagger. ?But even if they do sign a veteran, it doesn?t mean it?s their job.?

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