Where are they Now?: Cockroft

12.12.2006

Former Browns place kicker Don Cockroft was sitting at a picnic table in the Beer Garden concession stand at training camp last year as practice was being carried on at an adjacent field.

There were running backs taking handoffs and cutting behind blocks, just as Leroy Kelly and the two Pruitts -- Greg and Mike - did back in Cockroft's day.

There were the quarterbacks dropping back, finding a receiver and making the throw, just as Bill Nelsen and Brian Sipe once did.

There were defensive tackles fighting off blocks and making plays, just as Jerry Sherk and Walter Johnson used to do.

Yes, with what was going on that day, this could have just as easily been a practice during any of the 14 years - 1967-80 - in which Cockroft played for the club. Indeed, those parts of the game hadn't changed in all those years since.

But then something that was distinctly 2005 shocked any dreamers back to reality. As the place kickers worked out, it was obvious that their technique was drastically different than that of most of the place kickers in Cockroft's era.

In 2006, every kicker at every level of football kicks uses a soccer style approach. Cockroft and his contemporaries went at the ball straight on, and in fact he was one of the last straight-on kickers in the NFL.

Yesterday: A Legend Follows A Legend

The first of two third-round choices of the Browns in 1967, Cockroft was drafted out of tiny Adams State in Colorado as the heir apparent to aging Hall of Famer Lou Groza, whowas headed for retirement after that season. Cockroft spent the 1967 campaign on the injured reserve list and then took over for Groza in 1968. Following a legend is never easy, but Cockroft didn't let it bother him.

"I don't know if it was immaturity or whatever, but it never crossed my mind," he said.

That's because he had a strong leg and a lot of confidence in his own abilities, especially as a punter.

"Punting is what I was certainly noted for in college," said Cockroft, who led the nation in that category as a senior with a 48-yard average per attempt.   

Cockroft doubled as the team's punter and place kicker from 1968-76, averaging 40.3 per punt.

He had an impressive rookie campaign as a place kicker, hitting an NFL-best 75 percent (18-of-24) of his field-goal attempts en route to what would turn out to be a career high of 100 points. But after that good start, Cockroft's field-goal kicking took a dip. He hit just 39-of-73 tries (53.4 percent) from 1969-71, prompting the Browns to use one of their fifth-round draft choices in 1972 to draft a kicker, George Hunt.

Cockroft responded to the challenge like a champion.

"I was having a great season in 1972 with my field-goal kicking and my punting," he said.

Then came a late-season game at home against the upstart Steelers, with whom the Browns were battling for the AFC Central title. He said he missed "by one inch to the right" a 26-yarder??? with two minutes left that would have put the Browns ahead by two points.

"That was more than a miss. It was my whole career," Cockroft said.

A deeply religious man, Cockroft wondered why he was being subjected to this nightmarish experience. It was the same question he had had the previous three years when he struggled.

He went to the sidelines and prayed for an opportunity to redeem himself.

"I said to God, ‘I don't care if it's 60 yards, just please give me a second chance,' " Cockroft said.

He got it.

"It was from the same exact spot on the field," Cockroft said.

This time, he kept his head down - "On the earlier one, I got over-anxious and looked up too quickly," he said - and booted it straight through with just 13 seconds remaining to give the Browns a 26-24 win that was key in them earning the conference's wild-card playoff berth.

The game was a springboard for his career. He finished with 1,080 points, the second-highest total in club history behind Groza's 1,349.

Today: Back In Northeast Ohio  

Cockroft, now 61, lives in the Canton, Ohio suburb of Hills and Dales with his wife, Barb. He moved back to the area six years ago from his native Colorado, where his three grown children still reside. He is also the step-father to three children.

He has been in the mortgage business for almost three years and has worked the last two years with a Canton-based company.

Memories: A Real Pain

Cockroft kicked a late field goal to beat the Bengals in the regular-season finale and clinch the 1980 Central title for the Browns, but he never got a chance to be the hero in the 14-12 playoff loss to the Raiders. After Cockroft had struggled with his kicking throughout that bitterly cold day, coach Sam Rutigliano passed up a field goal attempt in the closing minute and instead tried to throw the ball into the end zone and win it with a touchdown. Now known simply as the Red Right 88 game, it ended disastrously with an interception.

"What many people don't know about that situation is that I was a long way from being 100 percent physically in 1980," Cockroft said. "I had two herniated discs and needed four epidurals to just get through the season. I probably should have gone on IR."

But just like his kicking, he approached that injury straight on. He sucked it up and hit 16-of-26 field goals on the year and scored 87 points, the sixth-highest total of his career.