Every training camp, we hear stories about selfless veterans teaching rookies how to play in the NFL, even if that generosity someday costs that veteran a job.
Former Ravens kicker Matt Stover is not one of those players.
“The classic guy for that is Matt Stover,” Rex Ryan joked this weekend when asked about veterans sabotaging young players. “You bring another kicker in, the guy would be booming the ball? It was unbelievable. Guy would be killing it, every kickoff 8 yards deep, launching field goals. By the time Stover was done with him, you never knew if they were kicking right-footed or left-footed. He was legendary for it.”
Ryan wasn’t sure what, if anything, Stover did to his competition.He remembered Stover using his voodoo on Robbie Gould once.
"[Stover] had him all messed up. He was like the horse whisperer, just sitting back there. It was crazy. Literally, you’d come out there and be like, ‘oh, my, are you kidding me?’ He would kick the ball sideways or something, then Stover would come up there and barely get it over the goal post like he did for 15 years. He was a great kicker,” Ryan added.
So that’s why the Cowboys don’t have Stover in camp with David Buehler. By the time the Horse Whisperer was done with him, Buehler would be lucky to get a UFL tryout.