You can tell just by the sound of his punts that there's something special about Ben Graham.
With virtually each booming thump, Graham's left foot sends the football 60-plus yards down the field, and the fans gathered at New York Jets' training camp can't help but say, `Wow!'
"He's a folk hero right now," coach Herman Edwards said this week.
The strong-legged Graham, 31, is this season's unknown curiosity at Jets camp, but he's doing his best to earn a job and make a name for himself in the NFL after starring for 12 years in the Australian Football League. He's competing with veteran Micah Knorr for the Jets' punting job.
"I'm doing pretty well so far," Graham said. "It's been a long journey."
Graham retired after a successful career in the AFL with the Geelong Cats last year, and the Jets signed him to a free-agent contract in January. But New York has had its eyes on Graham since 1997, when former Jets assistant Eric Mangini scouted the 1.96m, 103.5kg in Australia and offered him a chance to try out for the team. Graham briefly flirted with the idea of joining fellow Aussie Darren Bennett in coming to the NFL.
"It was something I intended on doing down the track," Graham said. "Now, if I had been a player in Australia who wasn't having a great career or was at the crossroads, I would have probably jumped at it when I was 25 or 26. But my career went the way that I would have liked it to have gone."
Graham played in 219 games -- only about 1 percent of AFL players reach the 200-game milestone -- and captained Geelong for three seasons. He was known for having one of the strongest legs in the league, with his longest kick traveling about 95 yards.
"The crowd loved it when I kicked the ball long all the time, so every opportunity I got I would do it," the personable Graham said. "I had a deal with the coach that when we were a certain amount up in the game late in the quarter, and I had the opportunity, I'd let it fly."
He's certainly doing the same in training camp with the Jets.
"He does have a big, strong leg," special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said. "He's kicked it up vertically -- and he can hit it. He can hit quite a ball with distance."
Graham is still adjusting to the size of the balls used in the NFL compared to those used in Australia.
different balls
"The [AFL] ball is slightly different," he said. "It's made of a different leather. It's designed for kicking, whereas this ball is designed for throwing. But it's really not that different."
Graham also isn't used to wearing any protective gear while playing.
"When they first handed me my helmet and pads, I jokingly asked, `Do I have to wear these?'" Graham said. "Without being up close to the game -- television is so far away -- is that you don't appreciate how physically fast and tough and strong and how much more they can impact the body because they have got shoulder pads and helmets. Ours is a different physically tough game."
He also had to learn how to take snaps and hold the ball on field-goal attempts, something Graham picked up quickly but continues to practice regularly.
"I'd never done it before, but to play our sport we have to have good hands," Graham said.
The competition between Graham and Knorr, who has played five seasons for Dallas and Denver, has been decidedly even so far. The real test will come when Graham has to kick in actual games.
hang time
"We just have to hope that he is consistent enough because it is very different," Westhoff said. "Basically for his whole life, he has caught the ball, ran with it and then punted it with the pumpkin that they use -- and they're tremendous."
Graham's punts generally have tremendous hang-time and the technique he uses -- he kicks across the ball -- causes it to go end-over-end and then spiral down at returners with a unique backspin.
"When I first got out here, I was like, `Where is he kicking the ball to?'" said rookie cornerback Justin Miller, who'll be the Jets' punt returner. "But it's an adjustment thing. I had to learn how to read the ball and work with Coach Westhoff to help me kind of read his ball."
If Graham does beat out Knorr to make the team, the Jets hope opponents have as difficult a time adjusting to the Aussie's booming kicks.
"There's going to be great competition there at the punting spot," Edwards said. "[Graham] has done a great job so far and now it's a matter of just transporting that on the field of play."
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS