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A poignant tale

By GARY SHELTON
Published February 1, 2007

MIAMI

The movie opens near the end of the story. The beginning, we'll get to later.

The camera focuses in tight on the goal posts, then the viewpoint widens until you can see the stadium is filled for Sunday's Super Bowl. The lights are bright. The noise is loud. The faces are wrought.

Pan to the scoreboard, and you notice that the score is tied and the clock is ticking. Ten seconds, nine seconds, eight. And finally, it freezes at seven.

Move to a shot of a placekicker in a Chicago Bears jersey. The snap comes back. The holder puts it down. And a ball sails long and high into the night in the direction of the posts.

And before you see whether the kick is straight enough, or long enough, the flashback begins. And the real story in the movie Good as Gould begins. Coming soon, perhaps, to a theater near you.

Hey, they made a movie about Vince Papale, and he caught one measly pass in his NFL career. They made a movie about Rudy Ruettiger, and he had only one sack.

So why wouldn't they make a movie about a budding star such as Robbie Gould?

"I think you and I should buy the rights right now," Gould said, grinning. "Ashton Kutcher could play me. The female lead? How about Eva Mendes?"

Call in the screenwriters. Sixteen months ago, he was swinging a hammer for 12 bucks an hour. Now, he's getting ready to kick in a Super Bowl. Call Central Casting. He is a Pro Bowl kicker. He's about to play against his mentor. Call Disney. Tell them to get a set ready.

"It's amazing the way things work out, isn't it?" he said.

Back to the movie. After the flashbacks, the credits roll over a construction site in Lock Haven, Pa. Oh, the truth be told, Gould wasn't there very long, and he never considered it his life's work.

The important thing, yeah, Gould was there. He woke up at 5:30, drove to work and put on his hard hat and worked in the cold. He ripped up a little flooring. He drove a few nails. After a couple of days, James Russo, owner of the company, moved him into the office. He was afraid something heavy might fall on Gould's foot.

"He knows how to handle a hammer," Russo said. "If he didn't, knowing him, he would have taken home a box of nails and practiced."

In Gould's story, that's the important part. Stardom never came easy. He had to walk on at Penn State. He wasn't drafted. He was cut by the Patriots and by the Ravens.

For most kickers, it works like that. You move around and audition until you find the right team in the right place before your name becomes stale. You hope for the right shot at the right time before everyone forgets about you.

That's why Gould was at M&R Contracting. He left Penn State with a degree in business management, but he wanted a job he could leave if he had the opportunity to kick. Maybe it would come in a few weeks. Maybe a year. He was willing to wait. After all, he had his own hard hat.

Turns out, the call came from the Bears who, evidently, were looking everywhere for a kicker. Four other kickers tried out, including Steve Christie and Martin Gramatica, who general manager Jerry Angelo knew from his days in Tampa Bay. As for Gould, Angelo didn't know how to pronounce his name (it's gold).

Still, Gould won the job, and he left M&R so fast he never collected his paycheck. "I told him I couldn't believe he was leaving a lucrative career with M&R for the NFL," Russo said, laughing.

Oh, it's working out for Gould. He hit his first 24 field goals this season, and his overtime kick to beat Seattle was the biggest in franchise history. And as brief as it was, his time as a laborer seems to have forged a bond with Chicago.

"It's a blue-collar town," Gould said. "People work hard there. I think they appreciate someone who had a real job."

Also, they appreciate someone who can kick the ball like Adam Vinatieri.

Now with the Colts, Vinatieri was with the Patriots during Gould's first training camp, and everyone knew how that story was going to end. He wasn't going to beat out Vinatieri. He just wanted to learn, and he wanted to be seen.

"I was a sponge," Gould said. "I watched everything he did."

That meant changing from a three-step kicker to a two-step kicker. It meant following Vinatieri around a practice field. And, yes, it meant running a few errands.

"I used to have to go get plates of warm cookies for him and Brad" Seeley, Patriots special-teams coach, Gould said. "That, and glasses of cold milk. Just the usual rookie stuff."

In the final reel, the ball carries straight and true. It clears the crossbar from 50 yards away. Gould dances. Across the way, Vinatieri manages to smile at his protege's success.

Hey, it's Gould's movie.

Didn't you expect a happy ending?

Gary Shelton can be reached at (727) 893-8805.

[Last modified February 1, 2007, 07:10:59]