8703020571
DETROIT FREE PRESS
871220
Sunday, December 20, 1987
METRO FINAL
1E
MITCH ALBOM
SEE ALSO STATE EDITION, Page 1E
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
THROW JIM ARNOLD'S HAT INTO THE PRO BOWL RING
You should hear Jim Arnold do Pee-Wee Herman. Right at the lunch table.
That crazy laugh. Huh-HUHH! Perfect. Or Howard Cosell. Or Elmer Fudd. You name
it. I mean, the guy is good.
This, of course, fellow NFL players, is no reason to elect him to your
Pro Bowl. Unless you want some post-dinner entertainment. After all, how long
can you do the hula? But there is a better reason to invite this tall,
bearded stranger. Simple. Basic. And here it is:
Right now, he is the best punter in the NFL.
I'm serious.
Now, it may not say much for the Lions that 1) their best player this
season is their punter, and 2) that punter was cut during training camp. "I
went back to Nashville and I didn't even have a place to stay," recalls
Arnold, the 26-year-old foot specialist. "So I watched the first week's games
at a friend's house. And that night, I got a phone call from the Lions. They
said (Russell) Erxleben had been injured and they wanted me back. I got in my
truck and drove up that night."
So began his "magical" season. In a truck. Just the same, on a Lions team
that has won just three games and lost 10, Arnold is averaging 44.2 yards a
punt (second best in the NFL). More incredible is his net average of 40 yards
(which means opponents have as much luck with returns as shoppers will on Dec.
26). Nobody has a higher average in that area.
No one is even close.
So OK. The Lions may not have much to celebrate these days. But this man
deserves his due. And I am going to give it to him. That is my new campaign.
SEND A PUNTER TO HAWAII. The following is a public-service announcement:
Follow the bouncing punter
Here is a guy for whom "bounced around' is too weak a term: He was cut by
Kansas City, was out of work last year, was brought in to Detroit for a
tryout, then passed over, then called back a month later, then signed, then
cut from training camp, then called back. Perseverance. That should be worth a
few votes, right? Besides, he holds a degree in sociology, and a real estate
license ("in case football doesn't work out"), and is a lanky, polite
Southerner who says things like, "Shoot, ah'm not worried" yet can mimic
Sammy Davis as if he were born with 10 rings on his fingers: "Mmmm, cat,
babe, you're cook-in!"
Still not impressed? Try this: How many guys have to practice punts
sideways? It's true. Because the Lions share the Silverdome with the Detroit
Pistons, they often have just 40 yards of field to work with (the rest
devoured by the basketball court). And because the offense and defense need
that precious field, Arnold stands on one sideline and punts over to the
other. Sometimes he reaches the seats. Sometimes he doesn't. "One time I
kicked it and the linemen were practicing off the far sideline. The ball was
coming right down into them. I yelled, 'HEADS UP! HEADS UP!' "
He sighs.
"You don't want to upset your linemen."
Right. He's sensible, too.
Who knows how bad the Lions' season might have been if not for Arnold's
punts? He at least slowed down opponents. Forced them to start way back. Gave
his team a few morsels of inspiration with each good boot.
Sure, he's a little kooky. You would be, too, if you kicked footballs all
day. But Arnold is not your wimpy-kicker-with-an- accent type. He's an
athlete. Even has a mean streak. "I don't even want to see the return man," he
says, in mock toughness, "unless I'm picking one of my guys off him."
Yeah.
A dark-horse candidate Like most punters, Arnold spent a chunk of his life
kicking lonely footballs into the air, then chasing them and kicking them
again. As a kid in Georgia, he measured punts by the trees ("'cept when they
got stuck in the branches").
He kicked through high school, college (Vanderbilt), the pros. And now he
is finding success on a team that needs good, long punts the way most people
need liquids. A team that could boost morale by sending at least one player to
the. . . .
Pro Bowl, which is where we began this little story -- and where Jim
Arnold should end up come February. It takes the votes of the other NFL
players, and that could hurt, because not many teams see the Lions. Sometimes
not even the ones they play. But if they study the facts, they will find, in
Arnold, a truly deserving candidate.
"I don't like to bring it up," admits the punter, ever the gentleman,
"because I'm just one guy, and I think if I went, the whole punt team should
go. They're awesome.
"But, oh, yeah, it would be a great honor."
So what do you say, NFL? Wipe the stardust out of your eyes and look down
here, in the lower echelons, where stands a gem. Invite him. He deserves it.
And after the game, maybe Jim will do his Pee-Wee Herman.
"My feet should do the talking," he says.
That'd be a neat trick.