Before he was banging 63-yard, game-winners and helping the Panthers’ Spanish-language radio announcers go viral (yes, there’s also a T-shirt), Graham Gano was just a guy trying to hang on to a job in Washington.
Barack Obama was still in his first term as president in the summer of 2012 when Gano was competing with veteran Neil Rackers for the Redskins’ place-kicking job, which Gano won — only to lose it the following day.
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Getting fired in Washington led to a 10-week hiatus for Gano, which led to a workout with the Panthers, which eventually led to Gano’s big kick against the Giants, which fell a week before the game Sunday against the Redskins.
In short, it seems a fitting time for Mr. Gano to go to Washington.
Gano says he has no hard feelings about getting cut by the Redskins because it resulted in his coming to Carolina, where he’s stabilized a kicking job that had been in flux after John Kasay’s release before the 2011 season.
But, yeah, Gano concedes his departure in Washington was “interesting.”
Gano had been the Redskins’ kicker since the end of ’09, after winning a championship with the Las Vegas Locomotives in the United Football League. He had a disappointing season in 2011, missing 10 of his 41 field goal attempts and prompting the Redskins to bring in Rackers to compete with Gano at training camp the following summer.
Gano held off Rackers and appeared to have won the job after Rackers was released. But the next day Gano got a call that Redskins coach Mike Shanahan wanted to see him.
“They called me into the office and before I could even sit down, they told me they were going to let me go,” Gano said. “And that was it.”
The Redskins had signed Billy Cundiff, who was coming off a shaky 2011 season (28 of 37 on field goals) of his own in Baltimore.
“They said they were going to sign Billy because he was better than I was. So that was kind of a jab, but you use that as fuel. You just want to become better,” Gano said Wednesday.
“I can look back at that and say I could’ve done a better job up there. But I’m also thankful for that time. They were the first team — besides Baltimore in the (2009) preseason — to give me a shot. I’ve got a lot of respect for them for that and learned a lot up there. So there was definitely some good times, as well.”
Graham Gano kicked for the Redskins from 2009 to 2011 and converted 59 of his 80 field goal attempts for 73.8 percent. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)About six weeks after getting let go, Gano flew to Denver to visit former Redskins punter Sam Paulescu, who was helping coach at Valor Christian High in suburban Denver. Paulescu introduced him to a stud sophomore at the school.
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“He was like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this player I think is going to be really good. His name is Christian McCaffrey,’” Gano said. “I was like, ‘Oh, cool. Nice to meet you.’ I was like, ‘Man, that kid looks put together. It looks like he’s a pretty good athlete.’”
McCaffrey, the Panthers’ first-round pick in 2018, say Gano made an impression that day.
“He was booting it. I just remember, being in the altitude, I’d never seen a kicker kick that far,” McCaffrey said. “I forget how (long), but it was just cool seeing an NFL kicker. It was awesome.”
Gano hasn’t forgotten how far he was hitting it in Denver’s thin air: There’s a YouTube video of him clearing the crossbar from 70 yards away, foreshadowing his monster kick last week against the Giants.
A few weeks after the Denver trip, Gano was back at his northern Virginia townhouse. He was still unemployed. And he and his wife, Brittany, were having a prayerful conversation at their dining room table about the possibility of life after football.
“We sat down and prayed and asked if football was still in His plan and to show us the way. And if not, show us what else He wanted us to do,” Gano said.
“Carolina called the next day.”
With Justin Medlock struggling, Panthers interim general manager Brandon Beane brought in Gano and former Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding for a workout.
Given Panthers coach Ron Rivera’s ties to Kaeding, Carolina long snapper J.J. Jansen figured Kaeding had the upper hand.
“When I heard those were the two guys working out, because of Ron’s relationship with Nate going back to San Diego, you just sort of assumed (it would be Kaeding),” Jansen said.
“Marty (Hurney) had just been let go, Brandon had just taken over. You really didn’t know what they were gonna do,” he added. “And then from my understanding, they kind of went shot for shot. And they both were really, really good. I think Graham hit like a 60-plus yarder and Nate missed it. And then kickoffs — as we’ve seen here for the last six years — was the differentiator.”
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Gano says then-quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey held for the kicks during the workout, during which both he and Kaeding shined.
“That was one heck of a tryout. Nate was pretty much making everything,” Gano said. “That was a fun one.”
Gano has been the Panthers’ kicker ever since — a span of seven seasons, two contract extensions and one Super Bowl appearance. The Redskins have used five kickers since letting Gano go; Cundiff lasted only five games in 2012 after supplanting Gano.
Gano has been solid during his Carolina tenure, leading the league in touchback percentage nearly every year and finishing No. 1 in the NFL last season with a 96.7 field goal percentage (29 of 30 attempts).
The lone exception was 2016 when Gano missed a potential game-winner in the Super Bowl rematch at Denver and ended up going 30 of 38 on field goals during an injury-plagued season. Gano had surgery on his plant foot after the ’16 season, but has never missed a game.
“The old line is the best ability is availability. And Graham’s been that way and he’s played through a lot of pain,” Jansen said. “There’ve been times where we sat here and he’s looked at me and said, ‘I just don’t know what I’ve got.’
“He’s been incredibly durable. You see him now in Year 10 and he’s still, in my opinion, the best kickoff specialist in the league. He’s obviously kicking field goals at a great rate and really has been for six years. There really hasn’t been much of a lull or dip at any time.”
Rivera says the 31-year-old Gano has gotten better with age.
Last year in a wild-card loss at New Orleans, Gano tied an NFL postseason record with his 58-yard field goal in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Kicking outside last week, Gano’s 63-yarder tied for the second-longest kick in NFL history (Matt Prater’s 64-yarder came in Denver in 2013).
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Panthers special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn thinks Gano’s kick would have been good from 68.
But it was good enough to slay the Giants and flood Gano’s cell phone with more than 350 text messages and dozens of voicemails. Gano, who kicked at Florida State, heard from a couple of former two-sport stars for the Seminoles — Charlie Ward and Deion Sanders, who interviewed Gano right after the game for NFL Network.
Gano says he hopes to respond to everyone who texted him. That might take a while.
In the meantime, Gano is trying to return to normalcy.
“It’s fun for a night or two to kind of relive it,” he said. “But at the same time we have a long season and we’ve got to move on to the next game.”
It just so happens the next game is against a team that by cutting him, helped him get where he is now — among the NFL’s strongest and most consistent kickers.
“Looking back, I was a young kicker there. I’d kicked one year in college. There was a lot of stuff I needed to learn. I’d missed some kicks I should have made,” Gano said. “I’m not going to stand here and make excuses. But I’m super thankful for that chance. I learned a ton up there that I’ve been fortunate to be able to apply here.”
“I was a little caught off-guard by (the decision to release him),” he said. “But without that happening, I wouldn’t be here. So it’s worked out really well.”
(Top photo of Graham Gano: Bob Donnan/USA Today)
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