When one thinks about Georgetown and major professional sports, the first league that comes to mind is the NBA. In the last 20 years, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson have graced the campus and then gone on to stardom in the pros. This summer, however, two former Georgetown athletes, Marc Samuel and Tyler Purtill, have tried to make it in the NFL. Not only did they try to catch on in a professional league where no current Georgetown graduates participate, they each play perhaps the hardest position to stick the league: kicker. While each NFL team routinely keeps more than six or seven defensive linemen, most only keep one kicker. In this series, the Voice will follow the ups and downs of Samuel and Purtill as they pursued their NFL careers.
After the NFL Draft in late-April, teams scramble to fill up enlarged preseason roster spots with undrafted rookie free-agents. Both Samuel and Purtill were signed immediately after the draft by the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers, respectively.
Samuel, the kicker on last year’s Georgetown football team, kicked at the University of Kentucky for two seasons before coming to Georgetown as a graduate student studying business and law. While at Kentucky, Samuel was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top kicker. He decided to come to Georgetown so that he would not have to sit out a season as per NCAA regulations. The NCAA waives its rule on transfers sitting out a year if the transfer moves down in division; Georgetown, a Division I-AA school, is one division lower than Kentucky, a Division I-A school. Last year, Samuel connected on eight of 16 field goal attempts and made all 17 of his extra points for the Hoyas.
“I didn’t want to sit out a year so I looked at Division I-AA schools like Penn and Columbia,” said Samuel. “Georgetown was my first choice because of its strong law and MBA programs.”
Samuel spent two years on the football team and enjoyed his experience.
“It was good,” he said. “They’re good guys on the team with a positive outlook. It’s tough not to be excited in such a positive atmosphere.”
Football Head Coach Bob Benson was thrilled to have Samuel on the team.
“Marc was by far the best kicker we’ve ever had,” said Benson. “He transferred from Kentucky and was a big time player for them and for us.”
When the draft ended, Samuel’s phone lit up with teams trying to acquire his services.
“This year, I almost got drafted by teams like Pittsburgh and Jacksonville and I had a lot of offers from teams after the draft was over,” he said after the Bills’ second mini-camp. “Buffalo was the clear choice because I feel they are generally interested in seeing me develop. I felt like if I came here the coaches want to spend the time with me to make me into an NFL kicker.”
Purtill’s path to the NFL was less direct. He was the goalie on the Hoyas’ soccer team from 1996-1999 and ended his Georgetown career with over 7,000 career minutes in goal and holds the Hoyas’ records for career shutouts (21.9) and most shutouts in a season (8). He began seriously thinking about kicking in his senior year.
“I began kicking footballs in January and February of my senior year,” he said. “It was something new. I played for the US National Team in soccer and I felt like I needed a new challenge. I achieved everything I had really tried for in soccer so I wanted to give football a shot. I always knew I could do football.”
Soccer Head Coach Keith Tabatznik agrees.
“We’ve never had a player who could kick the ball as far or as accurate as him,” he said. “We hope to watch him on TV someday.”
While Samuel was signed directly out of college, Purtill spent a year training and at NFL tryout camps before being signed by the Panthers.
“It was a chaotic first year. I moved to Florida so that I could train for football year-round,” he said. “I was working and training and bounced from job to job until I found one that would allow me time off to go to a tryout camp. I went through a lot of frustration and trials and tribulations. I’d have a good work out and thought something might happen, but it didn’t. I hired a new agent and got six offers to tryout for teams and finally got a contract offer from Carolina.”
Like Samuel, after the draft Purtill received offers from many teams.
“I got three calls before the draft,” he said. “At 6:30 on Sunday night, when the draft was ending, I got a call from the Seattle Seahawks. They wanted a right-footed kicker, but if anything happened to the other kicker they had in camp they let me know that they wanted me. The Raiders called and wanted to offer me a contract on Monday, but the Panthers offered a package on Sunday night so I took it.”
For both players, being signed was not an automatic ticket to an NFL career. In Buffalo, Samuel was to compete for the kicking job with eight-year veteran and former Pro Bowler Mike Hollis. Hollis was signed by the Bills in the off-season after spending all his previous seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is the third-most accurate kicker in NFL history in the regular season and the second-most accurate in the postseason.
“[Hollis] is a really nice guy; the kind of guy you want to be with in camp,” said Samuel. “I watch him warm up, his tendencies, and his mannerisms in practice. We’re both going to come in and kick well; it’s going to be a decision based on performances. We each bring different skill packages to the team.”
Purtill’s competition was 11-year veteran, a former Pro Bowler and the only kicker in Panther’s history, John Kasay. In 1996, his 145 points were the fourth-most points in a season by a kicker in league history.
“[Kasay]’s a great guy to learn from, but on the other hand it’s a competition,” said Purtill. “You need to use your intuition to understand what he’s saying and take it for what it’s worth. Sometimes when you’re doing real well in drills, the coaches will come over to you and try to bother you to put you in a game-like situation. John would come over too and try to take me out of my rhythm. It’s a very competitive atmosphere.”
While both former Hoyas faced daunting tasks to make the league, they were supremely confident in their abilities.
“I’ve already caught up to the level of an NFL kicker as far as the Panthers are concerned,” said Purtill after the Panthers’ mini-camp.
“I had a poor season statistically last season and I want to prove to people that I can do it,” said Samuel after the Bills’ second mini-camp. “The question is, can I kick in front of 80,000 people in an NFL preseason game? I have to show everyone that I can, and I will.”
Next week, in Part Two of the series, the Voice will look at the mini-camp and training camp experiences of Tyler Purtill and Marc Samuel and report the most recent information about their NFL chances.
