ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -New York Giants kicker Josh Huston can’t get away from caddying.
He caddied most of the summer at Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield course in Ohio, and he will do it again Monday night when the Super Bowl champions play the Cleveland Browns in a preseason game at Giants Stadium.
Huston got an emergency telephone call on Wednesday from the Giants, after kicker Lawrence Tynes was sidelined this week by a knee injury. Huston was then signed on Friday after winning a kicking competition at the University at Albany.
The former Ohio State placekicker, though, knows he has almost no chance of being the Giants’ kicker this season.
“This is Lawrence’s job,” Huston said. “I am here to service these guys and give him an opportunity to rest up. It’s a good opportunity for me to go there and get game film. Hopefully, someone else sees it.”
A year ago, Huston and Tynes staged a great battle for the kicking job, and many felt Huston was the better kicker in the preseason. However, when the final cuts were made, Huston got the pink slip and the more experienced Tynes got the job.
It turned out to be a great decision by Tom Coughlin.
Tynes made 23 of 27 field goal attempts in the regular season. He was 5 of 7 in the postseason, highlighted by a game-winning field 47-yard field goal in overtime in the NFC title game against the Green Bay Packers.
“They won the Super Bowl,” Huston said. “They did what they had to do. There are no hard feelings in that regard.”
The Cincinnati Bengals signed Huston to their practice squad in October, but released him after five days when Shayne Graham recovered from an injury.
“It was a good experience to be there a week,” Huston said. “I would have liked to have stayed longer and been on the active roster, because I would have gotten some game film, but it didn’t work out that way.”
With NFL training camp roster’s reduced to 80 players, many teams have elected not to take a second kicker to camp.
“I have been living at home in Columbus (Ohio), working out and actually caddying at Muirfield, waiting for a call so I could get an opportunity,” Huston said.
The Giants called him when Tynes wrenched a knee after stubbing a foot on a kick.
Huston does not have to make many adjustments with the Giants. He has worked with snapper Jay Alford, holder Jeff Feagles and special teams coach Tom Quinn. He made 3 of 4 field goals attempts in practice on Saturday night, just missing on the fourth.
“Mentally, you have to put the misses out of your mind,” Huston said. “You can’t over think it and go home and beat yourself up. You have to work hard and make sure you are in physical shape and make sure you are swinging right, nice and easy, just like golf.”
The problem for the 26-year-old Huston is time. He has been trying to make an NFL team since 2006.
“I have been trying for a while and I’ve said if I don’t get something out of this year, then I am done,” Huston said. “It’s not a situation where I am nervous. I’ll just go out there and have fun. That’s what you have to do.”
If he is lucky, he will kick well and someone will offer him a job.
If it doesn’t work out, Huston has a marketing degree and plans to find a job in Columbus – but not as a caddy.
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