Catching Up With the Detroit Lions K and Former Spartan Dave Rayner!

 The life of an NFL placekicker may be the most tumultuous of any athlete in the professional ranks. Going from team to team, living out of suitcases after

 

The life of an NFL placekicker may be the most tumultuous of any athlete in the professional ranks. Going from team to team, living out of suitcases after being traded (again), telling your wife that the family has to set sail toward a new destination -- life can become more hectic than kicking a leather ball through an upright.

But for some, like current Detroit Lions kicker and Michigan State alum Dave Rayner, life can come full circle and lead you back to the place where it all started.

After being signed and released by the Lions in a span of less than three weeks in August 2008, Rayner was signed by the organization once more in November 2010 after longtime Lion Jason Hanson went down with a serious injury. Rayner only went on to kick the first game-winning field goal in Lions overtime history, doing so against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on December 19, 2009. He also kicked a 55-yard field goal against the Minnesota Vikings a couple weeks later.

But any sports fan who doesn't live in the dark perils of an enclosed tower knows that the NFL is in a state of flux, one in which it has been for over 125 days and counting. That is, of course, because of the lockout that has plagued the state of the league and has put players' futures in hazardous condition. Besides the obvious loss of organized team sessions and being able to step into the locker room or team headquarters, the entire situation has made some players question their futures and what will happen once a new agreement is eventually reached.

Rayner is no exception, living the life of a kicker in a league where players at his position become expendable almost overnight. With the up-in-the-air status of longtime Lion (and fan favorite) Jason Hanson, Rayner is aware his future may not be in Detroit. However, he does trust in his leg and ability to help out any team which may potentially want his services.

“I’m in great shape,” Rayner told Spartan Nation Radio. “I’ve been kicking probably for the last three and a half months, two to three days a week. If it’s not Detroit, I like to think the shape I’m in and how I’m kicking the ball, I could get a job somewhere else.

“The things that comes out in the end and what really needs to be the main part of it is, it’s a job. When it comes down to it, I’ve got a family and (Jason Hanson’s) got a family and we’re both going for the same job. There’s no getting upset at the guy for trying to keep his job, and I think that’s what separates players in professional sports because I don’t think there’s any hard feelings and I don’t think anyone will take it personal. When camp starts, I’m in it to win it.”
The former Spartan’s prospects of retaining a job as the Lions’ kicker seem pretty good in relation to how he performed last year, and in terms of helping his outlook, OTA’s (organized team activities) don’t do much for kickers. Rayner said he is probably in the best shape he has been in his five-year career and that it’s the player’s job to stay fit when the league goes through a lockout.

And when it comes to his roots, Rayner is not as close to Spartan Stadium and East Lansing as he once was, but he is close enough. He likes to go back to the Spartans’ kicking camp and talk to the young players

“I think that stuff’s important, Rayner said. “When I was in college, I had Eddie Murray I spoke to a lot, just to kind of bump things off guys and pick brains and see what they did well. I try to get back as much as I can for one, to be part of the program and also [for] the players.”

Rayner plays a position which is underappreciated by many outside NFL circles, but as every true fan understands, kickers are just as important as most other positions on a team. And Rayner isn’t planning on letting someone be better than him anytime soon.