Let us now praise Justin Tucker, the field goal GOAT

It’s entirely possible that there’s no player in the NFL who’s as good at their job as Justin Tucker is at his.

Tucker, who kicked the Baltimore Ravens to yet another win Sunday night, is a unicorn, an immensely entertaining and game-swinging kicker in a sport increasingly working to minimize and humiliate kickers. On the same day that kickers for both Cleveland and Arizona either cost their team the game outright or cost them a chance at victory, Tucker strolled in, swung that priceless leg of his, and strolled off the field with that “are you not entertained?” smile.

Kicking is a tough, thankless, humiliating job. Like umpire or airline pilot, the baseline expectation of you is a 100 percent success rate. And if you miss the kick, fans blame you, no matter how many penalties, peculiar coaching decisions or ill-advised quarterback slides led up to the moment when toe met leather. It’s an occupation where, in theory, nobody gets too high on the success of one kick, because football karma has a way of bringing you back down to earth in a hurry.

Which is what makes Tucker so much fun to watch, because he is so confident in his own skills he genuinely doesn’t appear to worry at all about nerves or feelings. After the game, Tucker got his own postgame interview. How many kickers get that? And, of course, he crushed it, just like he does those routine 55-yard kicks:

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The apex of Tucker’s career, of course, is the 66-yard game-winner he booted against Detroit last year:

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True to form, that wasn’t just a routine through-the-uprights shot. No, it had to pop up off the crossbar before going through. Nothing like a little added degree-of-difficulty to make things more exciting, right? That kick should’ve been worth 10 points.

Tucker is so dang good at his job that he made Bill Belichick cry. Well, not cry, precisely, but close enough. Back in 2012, Tucker booted a game-winner against the Patriots that sailed well above the then-30-foot-tall uprights. Belichick complained that it had gone wide, the league disagreed and popped him with a $50,000 fine … and then went ahead and added another five feet to the top of the goalposts just to be sure. (This extra length may well have ended up being decisive in a significant college football game a decade later.)

Here’s the thing about Tucker, though: you don’t need to add length to the goalposts to help him. He’s a phenomenally accurate kicker from every point on the field. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Tucker’s game-winner on Sunday crossed the goalpost at a point 26.52 yards from the left sideline. Why’s that significant? Because the midpoint of the field is at 26.67 yards, meaning if the goalposts were half a yard apart, Tucker would have still split them.

Besides being the most accurate kicker in the game, Tucker is the all-time leader in field goal percentage, converting more than 91 percent of his attempts. He ranks fifth among active players in points scored, and 33rd all time. (Yes, kickers disproportionately swarm the points leaderboard — the highest-ranking non-kicker is Jerry Rice, at 40th — but still.)

If he plays as long as fellow kicking god Adam Vinatieri, he’ll be smiling his way into the 2036 season. Long may he kick.

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Contact Jay Busbee at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

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