Two of the best teams in the NFL in 1991 faced off in a epic match-up on Week 10 as the 7-1 Houston Oilers traveled to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to face the undefeated Mark Rypien led Washington Redskins.
As with almost every important,tightly contested match-up, the result usually falls on a single player making a great play or blunder. Thus was the case with Ian Howfield, only in this case, the Oilers Kicker lost his job because he missed a easy FG with one second left in the game that would've won it (bare in mind he had made his 2 other attempted FG's earlier). The redskins eventually won in OT.
The next day, pissed off Oilers Coach Jack Pardee looking to make an example because of the loss, cut the lonely kicker, who was seen departing the Oilers facility in tears. And in came a kicker who would eventually stick with the team for 9 seasons, Al Del Greco.
For Howfield,the cruel life of a NFL kicker hit him strong.
His dad Bobby, also made a career of it after his soccer playing days in England, where he kicked with the Broncos and New York Jets between 1968-74. Ian , who was also born in England, decided to follow his dads footsteps and have a American Football career.
The next 2 seasons Ian tried his best to be a starting kicker again but never made it out of the practice squad with the Eagles and Bucs. The Arena Football League came calling in '93 and Ian was finally a starting kicker.
However 4 years later, his career was almost cut short as he was involved in a serious car accident which nearly took his life.He received two disk fusions in his lower back and an entire right knee cartilage replacement.
He returned to the league in 2003 after intensive rehab from the car accident and wound up winning the Arena Bowl with the Tampa Bay Storm that same year.He would officially retire a year later.
Why I drew my interest to this random kicker to write a blog about it? As a kid in 1991 in Miami at the age of 9 years old, while my parents worked in a indoor flea market, I would sometimes head over to the Sports Collectibles/Cards store nearby and watch ESPN on their TV. To this day I remember the Card Shop owner commenting while shaking his head "wow the poor sap misses one kick and he's out of the league,". That was the day I realized that Pro Sports was a very cut throat environment and the pressures that come with it.
Ians story ,while disappointing in the NFL, also shows that the man never gave up and followed his dream.The game against the Redskins is an afterthought to many(except for some NFL historian dorks like me now), but in a way it is always cool to revisit old random moments.
*Jack Pardees Coaching Career in Houston only lasted 3 more years (which included the historically epic choke job in the playoffs vs Buffalo )and he quit in 1994 after a 1-9 start to the season.He coached in the CFL one year and never coached again after anywhere.
