Giants' Feagles meets his fans in Parsippany

PARSIPPANY -- Before he could get to his seat where he would sign autographs at Sunday's Kidstock at the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel, New York Giants Punter Jeff Feagles had to maneuver through a crowd that mostly came up to his waist, and with a lot less protection than 10 blockers trying to keep an opposing defensive line from trying to block his punts.

Feagles did not seem to mind. Just the opposite, the father of four boys understood.

"I'm not used to about a thousand kids coming at me, but I have four kids at home so I am used to a lot of activity and noise so this is not anything different," said Feagles. "This does remind me of when they were younger, because I used to take them to events like this. You look for events like this because it makes their day. After what we have been dealing with around here with all the snow, it is good to get them out of the house as opposed to sitting home all day."

The old saying of "If you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life." certainly applies to Feagles. Feagles, who will turn 44 on March 7, will be going into his 22nd year as a NFL. punter this coming season. While he has no thoughts of retiring yet, he does realize that his career is in the homestretch, and how fortunate he has been.

"Growing up, I never imagined, any of this, and even in college, I never imagined myself playing pro football, and then after I came into the NFL, I would never have saw myself playing this long," Feagles said. "My life has been an unbelievable journey. I never would have thought that 22 years later, I would still be talking about playing football."

Feagles grew up in Phoenix Arizona. In high school it was baseball that was his favorite sport, as he pitched and played third base for Gerard High School in Phoenix. He did not play football until his senior year of high school. But once he started, he excelled as a punter, earning a scholarship to the University of Miami where he won a national championship in 1987.

"I have had an awsome football career, I doubt I would be playing professional baseball for 22 years, let alone make the major leagues," Feagles said.

His NFL career began as a free agent with the New England Patriots in 1988 where he was for the first two years of his career. From there he went to the Philadelphia Eagles (1990-1993), the Arizona Cardinals (1994-1997) the Seattle Seahawks (1998-2002), and from there to the Giants, signing as a free agent in 2003.

The longevity of his career has enabled him to set a number of NFL records. He holds the record for most consecutive games played at 352, breaking the old record of 283 held by Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Jim Marshall in 2005. He has been kicking in the NFL, since Ronald Reagan was president, and his career has encompassed or outlasted that of five presidential administrations (Reagan, George Bush (41), Clinton, George Bush (43), and Obama.

In addition to the record formost consecutive games played, through the end of the 2009 NFL. season, Feagles holds the records for most punts in a career at 1,713, most punts inside the 20 at 497, and most punting yards at 71,211. He has twice been named to the Pro Bowl (1995 with Seattle and 2008 with the Giants)

With numbers like those, If football was like baseball where putting up numbers is a ticket to the Hall of Fame, Feagles would have his ticket already punched. However, no punter has ever been enshrined in Canton, and considering some of the legenday punters the NFL has had like Ray Guy and Sean Landetta, it is something that Feagles feels is long overdue.

"Punters clearly belong in the Hall of Fame," Feagles said. "I do not care who gets in, but someone needs to get in because it is a position that has become an integral part of the game position wise. But it is going to be tough because there are still people out there who see punters as only part time players."

While Guy was the punter everyone remembers for his legendary career with the Raiders, the punter that Feagles grew up admiring was Danny White, the former quarterback and punter of the Dallas Cowboys.

"White played at the University of Arizona which was the college I liked growing up in Arizona, so I looked up to him," Feagles said. "I've seen Ray Guy on tape, and met him a couple of times and talked about punting. If any punter should be in the Hall of fame, it is him."

While off season training and working out is the norm in the NFL and punting has remained a constant for Feagles, his training regimin has changed as he has gotten older.

"You always have to stay in shape and keep training, but as I have gotten older the training changes," Feagles said. "I'm not running as much as I used to. I'm doing more swimming and stretching now because it is not as hard on knees and joints."

The longevity of Feagles career has given him the opportunity to do something that most N.F.L. players do not get: The opportunity to have his children see him play and experience his time in the N.F.L.

"It is truely a blessing to have my kids see what their dad does," Feagles said. "Most NFL players have their kids at the end of their careers because they are either single or young in the beginning," Feagles said "If they do have kids while playing, they (the kids) probably do not remember it. My kids have been able to experience the Superbowl in Phoenix, and to know that is really important to me."

Two of Feagles sons have taken up the family business. His oldest Christopher (nicknamed C.J.) redshirted his freshman year at the University of North Carolina and is getting ready for spring practice where he will compete for the starting punter job. His second son Blake, 16 is a punter on his high school team. Feagels has two other sons Trevor, 13, and Zachary 10)

"I've tried to teach them the fundamentals of punting," Feagles said. "You have to work on the drop, consistency and technique. C.J. took to it naturally. Like me, he did not start punting until his junior year in high school, so he is fairly new at it, but he has progressed very quickly. I went down to North Carolina two weeks ago to work with him, and to get him ready.

Feagles calls being a part of the Giants Super Bowl 42 (XLII) team the biggest thrill of his career. While the 2009 season did not go as his teammates and he expected, he is not looking for his time with the Giants, or his career to end anytime soon.

"It took me 20 years to get to the Super Bowl and to win it was the biggest thrill of my career," Feagles said. "We had a lot of expectations in 2009, and the season admittedly did not go as we expected. The one nice thing about the offseason is youl get the time to put the last season behind you. There is going to be a lot of guys coming back into the locker room and the weight room rejuvenated with the goal of redeeming ourselves. We still have a really good football team, and with some minor changes, we can get back to competing for a playoff spot again."

And while he may be a year older, he is no less competitive now than when he entered the league back in 1988. His 2009 numbers prove that. In 2009 he punted 64 times for an average of 40.7 yards a kick, just below his career averageof 41.6. His percentage of kicks within the 20 yard line of 35.9% was better than his career average of 29%. Those are numbers that most N.F.L. teams, and certainly most punters would be happy to have.

For Feagles, it is just a small part of a long career, that he has no desire to end at this time.

"I'm just taking it one year at a time, come training camp, I'll be ready," said Feagles

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