Toe-to-Toe With The NFL’s 7 Barefoot Kickers

The NFL, and football in general, is full of challenging tasks; one of the most challenging would be the art of being one of the barefoot kickers. Taking a tackle would leave most of us grounded up in the grass; practicing drills in 90-degree heat would give most of us a heat stroke; but kicking a ball barefoot? Wouldn’t that break your foot? How was that possible in the snow? These seven men did it and made it look easy. Let’s get into it! 

The First Barefoot Kicker: Chuck Ramsey

Chuck Ramsey is an interesting character. He talked with an accent straight out of Tennessee and carried around his spit cup, which he would frequently empty his tobacco chew into. Ramsey had his intricacies; he took 12 hours to build a cage that a ‘wild mongoose’ would pop out of to scare his teammates. He also did some babysitting when he was an out-of-work kicker. Ultimately, taking care of kids is what got him his NY Jets gig. One of the children called him in when his favorite kicker was gearing up to kick the ball far, and then that player, Duane Carrell, missed it. 

Ramsey made a quick call to the Jets, singing his own praises. He hadn’t fared well in the NFL so far, and this was his chance. He tried, and he failed. It took him two years before the New York team gave him the time of day. Ramsey didn’t exactly shine as a kicker with the Jets until he decided to take that shoe off. The kicker claimed the ball would go higher for longer if he was barefoot. It clearly worked because Ramsey was a Jet for eight seasons, with only four punts ever blocked. Some poor sports have called the kicker an imposter since he apparently wore socks occasionally. Socks are bare enough for us on this list.

#2 Kicker: Tony Franklin

Tony Franklin is said to be the first barefoot kicker in the NFL and the father of the trend that blazed through the NFL in the 1980s. That could be true; however, this list went off of the player’s first year in the NFL since ‘firsts’ can often be hotly debated. 

Franklin discussed his own barefoot journey, being quoted as saying: “I started kicking barefoot when I was 15 years old. I tried one day with a shoe on and I could kick the ball 35 yards, but I wasn’t very accurate. So I said, ‘I wonder what would happen if I took my shoe off?’ and I started kicking them 50 yards and was a lot more accurate.” That’s the kind of ingenuity we need in the world of football. 

Apparently, in the Texas heat that the future NFL star grew up in, shoes were often little ovens in an already hot environment. Freeing the feet was a liberating thing. Franklin also recalled lush, green grass that was soft for his dogs. The barefoot kicker was a bit of a hometown hero in Philadelphia, with people holding signs saying “Tony’s toes.” He was able to make the second longest field goal in NFL history in 1979—barefoot!

No 3. Kicker: Jim Miller

Jim Miller (no relation to the author, although she wishes) was known as the ‘barefoot boy of the 49ers.’ He never felt any pain in his feet, even with all the barefoot kicking, except for one time when a member of the opposing team accidentally stepped on his foot. He said his little toe didn’t move the rest of that day, but he was back in tip-top shape the following Tuesday. 

Although you will see tape of Miller on the sidelines with boots on, he never wore them on the field. He wanted to make sure his toes didn’t get crunched when he did spontaneous celebrations on the gridiron when someone did a good play. It was a little crowded to guarantee all of his pigs would go to the market and not under another man’s foot.

What made Jim Miller prefer the shoeless kicking style? According to him, everyone kicked things barefoot growing up in Ripley, MS, and he was no exception. Rocks, sticks, tin cans, and footballs. He had to don the foot coverings occasionally through his football career, especially when he was playing multiple positions at once, but he gave them up for good once he went to college and didn’t change his ways for professional ball. 

The NFL’s Fourth Barefoot Kicker: Mike Lansford

Mike Lansford is often described as the last barefoot kicker to play in the NFL, but we beg to differ. Despite that, he is still one of the best of the seven to ever do it. Much like Chuck Ramsey, he had a tough journey into the NFL, and overcoming that is one of the things he’s proudest of to this day. Much like some of the other brilliant men on this list, baring his foot is what saved his career.

After being cut from three teams, Lansford was still trying to make it work. He was practicing with other people when he got a blister from the shoe he was wearing, so he decided to go barefoot. He noticed that when he was kicking barefoot, the angle allowed him to achieve better height. This had been an issue since the tee that kickers had prior to the professional league was taken from him. Lansford retired as the all-time team lead scorer at the time in 1991 after nine seasons with the Rams. Things worked out for the kicker and Los Angeles, despite a rocky start.

#5 Kicker: Rich Karlis

Rich Karlis was known as the Broncos barefoot kicker. You probably best know him as the kicker who sealed the deal with a game-winning field against the Cleveland Browns in the 1986 AFC Championship. Ironically enough, in that year’s Super Bowl, he missed a 23-yard attempt, the shortest field goal ever missed in the Bowl at that time. He had 799 points during his nine seasons with the Broncos. He’s also very cool because he shares #3 with Russell Wilson, who also played for Denver. A time in Wilson’s career we are still trying to forget. 

No 6. Kicker: Paul McFadden

Tony Franklin was actually Paul McFadden’s predecessor before he got traded off the team. He was also McFadden’s inspiration in college to try kicking without shoes. McFadden got comfortable only wearing a sock at first, but like most of us, he decided soggy socks were not for him. He, along with some of the other barefoot kickers, thought that men would continue kicking shoeless and was surprised that it was not a trend. Not everyone kicks cans barefoot as a kid, McFadden. Franklin’s replacement was a two-time pro-bowler who truly made a name for himself. 

The NFL’s Last Barefoot Kicker: Jeff Wilkins

Mike Lansford, meet Jeff Wilkins. The other guy who kicked the last field goal barefoot, but this time in 2002, roughly 10 years after you retired. Wilkins has a hard time accepting his critical role in the NFL because of a technicality only he would consider. On that fateful day in 2002, he did have a full bare toe, but he had tape. There is a lot of tape. Tape is thicker than his shoe, he claims. We’re going to pause this list to make another caveat. Bare toes = bare foot. End of story, Wilkins. 

For some reason, a little over halfway through his career, in 2002, as a St. Louis Ram, he suddenly couldn’t kick right. All of a sudden, the spikes on his shoes were getting caught in the grass and affecting his kicking capabilities. He tried grinding down the spikes and other ingenious ideas, but nothing would work. As a hail Mary, he tried the tape. He had what he considered all the support of his shoe, without any spikes. And it worked! His career was saved. Wilkins would go on to play another five seasons and become the last NFL player to kick with a bare foot. What a perfect way to end the list.