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Darren Zary has talked to CFL kickers though the years, both past and present, about the art and pressure of putting foot to ball.
Published Nov 14, 2025 • Last updated 4 minutes ago • 14 minute read
lauther
Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther in action during the 2024 CFL season. PHOTO Liam Richards / Saskatchewan Roughriders
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So you want to be a kicker in the Canadian Football League?
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Many have tried.
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So many have failed.
It’s a high-pressure job with limited employment opportunities.
How tough is it being a CFL kicker?
“It’s probably as tough as you make it, right?” embattled Grey Cup-bound Saskatchewan Roughriders’ placekicker Brett Lauther was saying back in training camp prior to the start of the 2025 CFL season.
“Something you dreamed about when you were younger. I’m just thankful, every day, that I get the opportunity to go out there and compete, and wear Green and White. I’m just very thankful to be playing in this province. I try not to put a lot of pressure on myself, and just go out and have fun and do my best.”
While the veteran Lauther has tried to do his best, it has sometimes not been good enough in the eyes of some Rider fans.
Like many field-goal kickers before him — including one of the all-time CFL greats in former Rider kicker Paul McCallum — Lauther has found himself in the hot-seat, despite starting the season with the team’s best all-time field-goal percentage of 82.3 per cent.
That ranked him ahead of Chris Milo (79.1), Luca Congi (79.0), Dave Ridgway (78.0) and McCallum (76.7), with a minimum of 100 attempts.
Lauther has made 39 of 54 tries this season for a 72.2 clip. In the playoffs, however, he was good on three of three attempts in the Western Division final against the B.C. Lions.
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Lauther has kicked his way through some adversity.
He and his wife welcomed their first child in late August. He has also dealt with a nagging injury.
Meanwhile, the Riders have auditioned a pair of youngsters in 22-year-old American Michael Hughes (all-time leader in field-goal percentage, at 83.3 per cent, at Appalachian State) and 25-year-old Canadian Campbell Fair, a University of Ottawa product.
“The kicking game, the standard has been raised and that’s not a slight on any of the (former kickers) that we’ve followed,” McCallum, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee, said prior to his retirement in 2016. “If you look at the statistics, consistently, the (field-goal) kicking percentage has been getting higher and higher. And I think the expectations for the kicker to make kicks is getting higher and higher and they’re more crucial.
“So if guys aren’t making their kicks, the teams have to get rid of them a little easier than they might have in previous years.”
It may take a while to become established as a CFL kicker, if you’re even given ample opportunity in the first place.
Kickers can be on a short leash, especially if you are new and unproven.
Lauther, for example, kicked many CFL tires before hitting his mark in Saskatchewan.
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“Definitely a lot of ups and downs,” Lauther said before the current season kicked off. “I wouldn’t change a thing. It brought me here. A lot of thanks to family and friends and a lot of people who supported me, even coaches and people in my corner. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
To be a kicker in the CFL, you need to be a survivor.
Lauther is a survivor.
“There are nine professional jobs,” Lauther says while describing the plight of the CFL kicker. “Usually, when a guy is pretty good — and a lot of guys in this league have been good for a while — there isn’t much change. It is difficult. I like to encourage the young guys. I was in their shoes and bounced around and had multiple workouts with teams, but if you really want to do it and put the work in, you usually can do anything.
“I’m just thankful and lucky that it worked out.”
While doing so, Lauther has kicked his way through some scoring slumps. He had a bit of a kicking drought last year and for stretches again this year.
If he had been a younger, unproven kicker, who knows? He might have been sent packing. Lauther knows that.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” Lauther said. “I’m very thankful to be given the opportunity to play again the next week. It was definitely difficult, letting the guys and the fans and everybody down, but I knew I was going to come back to work. The sun was going to rise the next day. Work hard, and hopefully things would go.”
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Lauther, who turned 35 this past week, entered the 2025 season with high expectations for the team. There was a feeling, already at training camp, that the Riders had assembled a special group with a better outlook.
“It’s the second year with (head coach Corey) Mace and the staff and they’re unbelievable — kind of the best staff I’ve been around,” Lauther said at the time. “The team we have, you can see the skill and stuff on the field. I think it’s shaping up to be a really good year … One (game) at a time this year and hopefully we’re there at the end.”
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Paul McCallum
Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Paul McCallum boots a CFL-record 63-yard field goal against the Edmonton Eskimos in 2001. Photo by Don Healy
To kick or not to kick?
To kick or not to kick, that is the question.
Some coaches have become wary of attempting longer field goals. They may be afraid of lengthy run-backs for TDs, or a loss of field position.
That, too, is putting more pressure on the kickers.
Ridgway — who made the memorable Grey Cup-winning field goal for the Roughriders in 1989 — was asked, a few years back, about coaches’ potential reluctance to try longer field goals.
His reply?
“Perhaps the younger coaches are more conservative nowadays,” offered Ridgway. “Although we did try a lot of long field goals during my career, I think coaches nowadays have adopted Joe Faragalli’s mantra of ‘you have to make the ones that count, the ones inside the 40-yard line.’ He used to tell me that all the others were like a bonus, but you HAVE to hit the ones inside 40.”
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Ridgway’s game-winner in 1989, by the way, was from 35 yards out.
As a kicker, what would you think if your coach wouldn’t let you attempt a field goal beyond, say, 45 yards?
“When I was younger, it used to bother me when they wouldn’t try certain field goals,” replied Ridgway. “However, as you mature into the position, you begin to understand that they will attempt a field goal based upon their estimation of your ability on that particular day. That is why, during pregame warm-up, they will have you try kicks both with the wind and against the wind … to gauge your ability.”
Was he ever afraid of somebody running back a missed field-goal attempt?
He laughed.
“No, not really, I tried to make them so I didn’t have to make any tackles” Ridgway said. “Actually, whether it’s a kickoff or missed field goal, there is always the threat of a kick being returned. I always used to joke that during my career, I had to make about 12 tackles and nine of them put me in the hospital!”
McCallum explained that coaches tend to make their decisions based on the kicker’s performance, whether he is in a groove or not, while kickers feed off the confidence of coaches.
“I think it kind of goes hand-in-hand,” he said. “If your coach is willing to try longer field goals because you’re doing well and you’re making them, it’s kind of a domino effect. If you’ve got the confidence from the coaching on the team and you go out and do your job, then it’s just a ripple effect.”
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If there’s anybody with a reluctance to attempt 50-plus-yard field goals, Lauther isn’t one of them.
“I’m always trying to go for it,” he says. “I’d like to go out and swing them all. You know, it may work for worse field position and other teams might pass up on them, but at this level, I think kicking 50, you should be going out and trying to kick them all, basically.”
New generation of kickers
Remember the good ole days when kickers always seemed to stake out lengthy careers in the Canadian Football League?
Remember those names of yesteryear, like Dave Cutler (1969-1984), Don Sweet (1972-85), Lui Passaglia (1976-2000), Paul Osbaldiston (1986-2003), Sean Fleming (1992-2007), Mark McLoughlin (1988-2003, 2005), Troy Westwood (1991-2007, 2009), Noel Prefontaine (1998-2013) or even Jack Abendschan (1965-1975)?
More recently, there were the likes of Sandro DeAngelis (2005-2013), Luca Congi (2006-2010, 2012-2013), Swayze Waters (2012-2017) and Justin Medlock (2016-2019), just to name a few.
Well, surprisingly, things haven’t changed that much.
Today’s kickers, for the most part, are also experienced vets much like Lauther.
Sean Whyte (2009-2025, 16 seasons) and Rene Paredes (2011-2025, 14 seasons) are both 40 years old.
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Sergio Castillo is 35. So is Lirim Hajrullahu.
As his career wound down, McCallum witnessed a new wave of kickers entering the league.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “The older ones had been around for a while. We’re all getting older at the same time. This is just an influx of newer kickers at the same time.”
McCallum’s retirement in 2016 marked an end of an era. He was one of the CFL’s longest-serving kickers, with a remarkable 24-year career. Yet when he played for the Riders, he was the victim of vandalism at his home following a 27-25 overtime loss to the B.C. Lions in the 2004 West Division final.
His house was pelted with eggs and a load of manure was dumped off, along with nasty notes directed at McCallum — all after the kicker missed two field goals, including an 18-yard attempt in overtime.
McCallum went on to play for the Lions during his otherwise-decorated CFL career.
“I’m fortunate to have played as long as I have,” said McCallum., who returned to the Roughriders mid-season, at age 45, before retiring with the Lions.
He had also been parachuted mid-season into Saskatchewan once before, in 1995, when he replaced legendary Ridgway for a gig that lasted until 2004.
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Dave Ridgway
Dave Ridgway of the Saskatchewan Roughriders kicks the field goal that clinched the 1989 Grey Cup against the Hamilton Tiger Cats in Toronto. MIKE CASSESSES/ Toronto Sun/QMI Agency
Ridgway certainly knows the drill.
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If CFL kickers are putting their toes into a hot potato these days, Ridgway refuses to toe that line. He shares little empathy.
“No, I don’t feel for today’s kickers at all,” he replied when asked years ago. “There were plenty of guys during my era that only managed two or three-year careers, too … If a kicker is good enough and wants to have a lengthy career, he has to realize that consistency is the key to that longevity. If your production drops, they will bring someone else in to take your job. If you are good, you will stay in the game.”
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Paul McCallum and B.C. Lions
Paul McCallum greets fans prior to playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a game at BC Place in 2016. Photo by Gerry Kahrmann /PNG
Grant Shaw (2010-2016)
Shaw played in the CFL for seven seasons in both Toronto (2010-2011) and Edmonton (2012-2016).
He played college football for the Saskatchewan Huskies, where he was named a Canada West All-Star as a defensive back in 2009.
Shaw grew up in Edmonton, where he was a football fan and never aspired to be a kicker. He didn’t have any kicking idols. Instead he was a huge fan of Randy Moss and Charles Woodson in the NFL.
He watched a lot of CFL, too, but he didn’t have any standout favourites — “I was never really a ‘favourites’ type of guy.
“To be honest, I couldn’t pinpoint one (kicker) who really stood out to me,” Shaw said during his CFL playing days. “I did obviously follow Sean Fleming a little bit. When I was younger, I wasn’t really a kicker so I never really paid too much attention to it, to be honest.”
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Shaw entered the CFL when it was drawing an influx of younger kickers.
“It comes in waves a little bit,” he said at the time. “There are only nine teams and I guess some teams have one person do either kicking or punting. Generally there are only one or two new ones every year, and there’s only nine to 15 in total. There’s definitely a new wave.”
After years of the same kickers in the league, there was a bit of a revolving door.
“There was probably less competition (in the olden days),” assessed Shaw. “I think there are more people who are getting into kicker now at a younger age. It’s not necessarily who has the strongest leg in high school who’s going to be the kicker.
“Today, there’s more specialized training, more people aware of it and what-not. There’s definitely more competition.”
Was there increasing pressure, too?
“I’m sure there was pressure on them in all decades and all times,” replied Shaw. “This day and age, coaches are a little more reluctant to kick long field goals. A lot of that, though, has to do with the returners in the league are so much better than they used to be, and the blocking schemes.
“Coaches now see what an advantage it is for the defence on a missed field goal, just the personnel match-up wise. With the quality of returners, if you miss, there’s a high likelihood that there could be a big play. Coaches are a little more hesitant, but I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with the kickers.”
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Shaw said he tried not to think about the coach’s decision whether to try or not try a field goal. He said he just tried to “be ready whatever the call may be.
“If they want to kick it, you go out there and try and do your best. If the coaches have the game plan or mentality that it may be better to punt and try and pin them deep, then you’re going to try and execute that play. So you just help the team however you can.
“Different coaches are going to have different philosophies. You buy into what they’re preaching, and what their philosophies are. Like I said, the advantages for the defence are pretty huge if you do miss a long field and … you have six or seven offensive linemen trying to cover against a defence full of a little more athletic body types, and with the quality of returners that are in the league.”
If anything, Shaw says he developed ‘tougher skin’ as a kicker. He doubled up on that after playing defensive back with the Huskies.
“Whether you’re a kicker or a cornerback … you’ve got to have thick skin and a short memory, so you can go back out there and perform for the next play. It is a little more of a black-or-white thing for a kicker. Either you make it or you don’t. It’s pretty easy for the average fan to see that, and there’s a statistical number that emphasis can be placed on.
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“If a receiver drops a ball, it might get washed (out) a little more but it could still be as damaging of a play.”
As a former DB, Shaw didn’t shy away from contact on kick coverage.
He took pride in his tackling ability. He said if the opportunity for a tackle presented itself, he prided himself “in being there for the guys.
“I think the guys recognize that on the cover teams, too, and allows them to be a little more aggressive, knowing that there will be sort of an extra safety behind them just in case somebody slips by.”
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Grant Shaw
Edmonton Eskimos’ kicker Grant Shaw attempts a field goal during the first half of a CFL game against the BC Lions in 2014. PHOTO BY CARMINE MARINELLI/ QMI Agency
Chris Milo (2011-2017)
Flashback to 2014.
After helping the Riders win a Grey Cup in 2013, Chris Milo struggled to start the 2014 season. He ended up being released in 2015
“The guy I looked (up to) the most was (NFL kicker) Adam Vinatieri,” Milo said when he was still with the Riders in 2014. “He was my guy. He’s a guy who has always come through in the clutch and he’s one of the most accurate in the NFL.”
Milo tried to make his swing like Vinatieri — with consistency every time, always the same thing.
Milo credited Montreal Alouettes great Don Sweet, who played in the league for 13 years, as his personal coach and mentor.
“I don’t know how many times he was player of the year, special teams-wise. He’s got a few Grey Cups. He’s a guy who, back then, was as accurate as you can get so it’s good to have a person like that in your corner.”
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Milo stressed that football has become a results-oriented “production” business.
“Obviously we’re here to entertain and all that stuff. It’s become more and more popular. People expect the best of you. That’s why we’re here every year, to strive for excellence.”
He wasn’t surprised by the new wave of kickers during his time. That included guys like Paredes and Whyte back then.
“At every position, we have young guys stepping in. Every position (is) evolving to do something different. We’re just young bucks, trying to establish ourselves.”
With admiration, Milo called McCallum “the dinosaur” in the group. McCallum went on to finish out a 24-year CFL career.
“He’s been around longer than some of us have been alive. He’s such a great guy. That’s someone you have nothing but respect for; he’s been nothing but money. He’s kind of like a fine wine. He gets better with age. You only hope to have a career half as long as that.”
Yet many fall short of that.
Is a kicker only as good as the last kick?
“That goes without saying,” Milo said. “It’s a production business. We’re out here to produce and put points on the board when we need them. When we don’t, obviously people start asking questions, no matter what you’re doing, whether you’re kicking footballs or making bread. It is what it is. You’ve got to produce. You’ve got to do things the right way.
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“It’s not so much pressure. It’s going out every day, trying to get better and trying to be the best you can be on game-day.”
Chris Milo
Ottawa’s Chris Milo reacts after making a field goal against the Calgary Stampeders in 2016. PHOTO BY AL CHAREST/ Postmedia
Milo kicked 28 consecutive field goals, yet found himself in the hot seat after his miss from 39 yards out resulted in a 123-yard TD the other way.
“As much as Chris may be saying the right things in the media,” Ridgway would say at the time, “I’m sure that Chris isn’t too happy about it. He can’t be. (Justin) Palardy is trying to take his job. However as a professional athlete at any position, you know you are only as good as your last game, and it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you did last season.
“I experienced similar situations during the first four or five years of my career. They either make you better, or they break you.”
Indeed, would you rather kick, and fail, than not kick it all?
Is it kind of like it’s better to have loved, and lost, than never to have loved at all?
Oh, the life of a kicker.
dzary@thestarphoenix.com
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Chris Milo
Chris Milo kicks a field goal against the Edmonton Eskimos during the 2015 Grey Cup. PHOTO BY AL CHAREST/ Calgary Sun
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