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He caught no winks on the flight, either. Arriving at 8:30, he was on the field an hour later, warming up under the glares of DeCamillis and his assistant, Tony Coaxum.
Then, "I just kind of shook it off and zoned in on what I needed to do and muscle memory takes over," Schmitz said. "I've been doing this forever, you know?"
Knowing of this British citizen's American dream, neighbors didn't call police.
Still, no NFL scouts called.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The labyrinthine path that 28-year-old punter Karl Schmitz took to the cusp of the NFL routed him from the soccer pitches and beaches of Bermuda to being a YouTube sensation and finally a legitimate pro prospect.
How would you like to sign a futures contract, Elway asked?
The pressure off,China NFL Jerseys, he turned heads at Gary Zauner's kicking combine in Arizona, then caught a red-eye home. No sooner had his head hit the pillow when Broncos special teams coach Joe DeCamillis called offering him a tryout in Denver the next morning after another red-eye.
He had promised himself that this year was his last try. If no one called,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, he'd give up on his football fantasy.
While in Jacksonville, however, he met then-Jaguars kicker Mike Hollis. Schmitz reached out to him after graduation and Hollis helped him realize he didn't have to muscle every kick.
"That night I didn't sleep a lick," Schmitz said. "I had like 18 alarms set to make sure I'm at the airport at like 5."
"I always believed in my ability," Schmitz said. "So, in the back of my mind I knew at some point I would be here."
And in a twist on the seven-year itch: Schmitz's last in-game kick came in 2008,Wholesale NFL Jerseys China.
While managing his father's tapas restaurant, Schmitz often bartended, the tips jar funding his trips to kicking camps and combines.
Yet, here he is, amazingly, with a shot at making the Denver Broncos — after he turned the head of chief executive John Elway.
"I think mentally he just needs to convince himself and be confident, you can perform under pressure," Hollis said this week. "But he obviously believes in himself and what he can do."
He played one half of one high school football season in St. Louis after recovering from an auto accident just before his senior year and a single season in college after bouncing around to three universities, one of which didn't even field a football team.
Yet, here he is with a shot,Wholesale NBA Jerseys, however long, to unseat punter Britton Colquitt and kickoff specialist Brandon McManus this summer after wowing Elway in a blurry-eyed tryout that was just as outrageous as the rest of his journey.
His dream at long last is within reach.
His friends started to joke that he was getting too old to keep doing this, like that chap who can't bring himself to throw away the love letters from his high school sweetheart.
Of course, he said, racing upstairs to sign a contract that will pay him $435,Cheap NFL Jerseys,000 this year if he makes the team.
Carl Schmitz.
It's just Karl again. Go back to sleep.
Before he knew it, the tryout was over and he was showered and sitting down for a quick breakfast in the team cafeteria when Elway called him over to his table.
For years, Schmitz returned to Clayton High School in St. Louis, often after getting off work at 2 a.m. — not to pine over the state championship he helped win in 2004, but to practice on a field illuminated only by the lights of his Volkswagen.
Soon, he was an Internet sensation, this 6-foot-4, 210-pound athlete pounding punts and coolly splitting the uprights from 70 yards.
His time there consisted of 11 kickoffs and no punts. It was so forgettable that the school's website doesn't even spell his name correctly.
Schmitz's dogged determination took him to Arizona State, where he walked on but was ruled ineligible because of a problem with his transcripts. He transferred to Missouri-St. Louis, where there's no football team. Then, after redshirting a year, he played a season at Jacksonville University.
"And I know it's like the biggest stretch of a dream that anybody else can realize, but in my heart of hearts, I felt like it was always possible," Schmitz said.
"And out the corner of my eye,China Jerseys, I see, I mean, it's pretty easy to recognize who John Elway is," Schmitz recounted, still awestricken two months later. "So, I catch that punt, I stop the Jugs machine, I run over, introduce myself, shake their hands, say 'Thank you for the opportunity.'" |
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