University of North Carolina Athletics
CAR-O-LINES
May 11, 2000 | Football
May 11, 2000
By Rick Brewer
I noticed the other day that the Washington Redskins had signed Tommy Barnhardt to a contract for next season.
That's really not surprising, despite the fact Barnhardt has been in the National Football League almost as long as the instant replay.
Barnhardt, the former Carolina star, will be making his 10th stop in a 13-year pro career. In fact, this will be his second time in a Redskin uniform. He has also played with New Orleans on two separate occasions and twice been on Tampa Bay's roster.
Barnhardt has one of those jobs he could probably handle for another 13 years. He's a punter and one of the best in the business.
Last year with the Saints he averaged 39.8 yards per punt. In 1996 he set Tampa Bay records with a 43.1 average, a net average of 37.8 and 24 punts downed inside the 20-yard line. He injured a shoulder in the sixth game of the 1997 season and missed the rest of the year. His average was 45.0 at the time.
He had a career-best mark of 44.0 in 1992 during his first stay with New Orleans. That was the second-best figure in the NFL that year. He was at 43.6 the following two seasons before joining Carolina. In his one year at Charlotte he punted 95 times for a 41.1 average.
Overall, Barnhardt has now punted 811 times in his NFL career for a 42.3 average. He has killed 219 punts inside the 20, a percentage of 27.0, and only had three kicks blocked.
In his collegiate career at Carolina, Barnhardt was one of the team's most popular players.
That's often difficult for kickers because they rarely practice with the other players. They're on a separate field, away from everyone else except for kick coverage and kick return drills. Barnhardt, however, found a way to be one of the guys.
Many kickers are noted for being loners, eccentrics and nonconformists. That wasn't true for the 6-3, 208-pound Barnhardt, a native of China Grove, N.C.
It takes a certain personality to be a kicker and still be part of the team's mainstream. It's hard when the kickers aren't doing everything in practice that everyone else is doing. They know their preparation is different and everyone else knows it, too. But, Barnhardt bridged that gap pretty well.
One way he accomplished that was by being one of the premier punters in college football. He was one of Carolina's most important players and his teammates were well aware of that. They knew what a weapon he could be in quickly changing field position for his team.
He had a 43.6 average in 1984 and a career mark of 41.7, seventh-best in school history.
But, he also did it by making an effort to get involved in other aspects of practice.
A high school quarterback, Barnhardt attended East Carolina as a freshman before transferring to Carolina in 1982. Although he was ineligible to play that season, he still made himself a part of the team.
"I worked at quarterback on the scout team in practice that fall," he later recalled. "I went to all the meetings and did everything the other quarterbacks did. I also helped in practice sometimes the next three years by throwing to our receivers in certain drills. I think that helped me be accepted a little bit more because, let's face it, kickers are different from the other players.
"We worked on a field away from everyone else and I can understand the other players sometimes thinking we're not like everyone else. They're running drills or scrimmaging and they would look over and see us dropping balls and catching them.
Yes, dropping balls.
Barnhardt didn't simply kick in practice. In fact, he figured he probably punted only 20 to 25 times a day during the season and less than that on Thursday and Friday before games.
"At practice we broke down the whole punting routine," he explained. "We worked on all the stages -- drops, follow-through, catching snaps and molding the ball."
That practice routine has certainly paid off for Barnhardt.
Barnhardt is big, strong and has good flexibility. He's also been an avid weight-lifter, although many kickers are leery of lifting a lot. But, it's helped him.
Of course, so has simply kicking the football.
"My dad punted in high school and I guess he got me started as a kicker," said Barnhardt. In fact, at the age of eight, Tommy was a national semi-finalist in the NFL's Punt, Pass and Kick competition.
"During the summer in high school and college I probably punted 150 to 200 times a day," he said. "But, you've got to know your limits. If you get tired and keep punting, you can start forming bad habits."
What makes a good punter, besides the obvious leg strength?
"I think the most important aspects are placement of the ball and keeping your head down," said Barnhardt. "And, of course, you have to keep control of your emotions. Everybody else can get pumped up for a game, but a kicker can't get too excited. You have to stay calm and collected."
That's another reason most kickers are seen as a little eccentric by their teammates. But, that's a group to which Barnhardt never belonged in Chapel Hill.
And, as long as his NFL career has been, it's almost certainly been the case there, too.
