THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270422
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
You'd think kicking extra points and field goals was diamond cutting, where one slip could be worth millions of dollars.
For Chip Lohmiller, it might be. Redskins coach Norv Turner made it abundantly clear after Sunday's 27-20 loss to Atlanta that he's about had it with the Redskins' suddenly erratic kicker.
This morning, while Turner's team enjoys its day off, the coach and special teams assistant Pete Rodriguez are scheduled to sift through a kicking candidate or three.
If Turner sees something he likes, the Redskins might find a way to separate Lohmiller from his $500,000 salary and his six-year term as the team's primary point supplier.
Here's hoping Turner is just using the threat of unemployment to motivate Lohmiller to correct whatever is the matter with his kicking.
And something is most definitely wrong. He once had a streak of 213 consecutive extra points. Now he's missed three of his last 30, including one Sunday against the Falcons.
Against the Giants the week before, Lohmiller missed a field goal from 23 yards that sent Turner scrambling for something to coat his stomach.
But there are plenty of reasons to keep Lohmiller. And don't think this isn't an important decision for Turner.
He's about to send a message to his team, the same one he insists is improving from week to week and will only get better as time goes on.
Cut Lohmiller and you tell the players that even a player in his prime isn't allowed to have a slump. Keep Lohmiller and allow him to work his way out of this malaise - and history says he's too good not to - and you show you're willing to let someone with a track record of success work his way through the doldrums.
Here's something else. Waive Lohmiller and you'll never see him again, except on an opponent's bench. The way this guy kicks indoors, a team like the Vikings would be crazy not to dump Fuad Reveiz for Lohmiller, who happens to be a Minnesota grad.
Anyone you'd bring in would be a stopgap measure. Keep Lohmiller and you may have bought yourself another half-decade of solid, sometimes spectacular kicking. Fire him and odds are interviewing kickers will become an annual routine.
The Redskins use an star to highlight those portions of a player's career they believe are noteworthy.
Lohmiller has so many stars they take up half-a-page.
Most points by any player in NFL history after six seasons.
28-game field-goal kicking streak, second longest in NFL history.
First player to outscore an entire team - the 1991 Colts - over a season since 1945.
League's leading scorer in 1991.
NFC's leading scorer in '90, '91, '92.
Three times tied a club record with five field goals in a game.
Kicker of eight game-winning field goals.
Besides, who's Turner going to get? Is there a Zendejas in the house? Mark Moseley was at RFK Stadium Sunday for Throwbacks Day. Maybe in the spirit of nostalgia they could sign him?
The fact is that it took 30 minutes to come up with the name of one reasonably successful veteran kicker who's available.
Cary Blanchard. To be honest with you, they might as well have said Cary Grant. He has no pedigree; he's a name on a list.
Yes, Lohmiller is coming off a dismal 1993 - 28 field goals attempted, 16 converted. That's 57 percent, hard on the heels of five seasons in which his worst conversion percentage was 72.
This season, working with a new snapper and a new holder, he's 4 for 7. Is that so bad? It's like Haiti. Don't we have bigger problems elsewhere?
Besides, isn't Turner forgetting that Lohmiller's kickoffs have been a large reason why Washington's kick coverage team is one of the league's best?
Against Tony Smith of the Falcons, who last season finished third in the NFL in kickoff returns at 25 yards a return, Lohmiller's kickoffs were instrumental in removing him as a weapon.
On kickoffs Smith fielded, the Falcons started drives at their 17, 31 and 21. With Washington's defense suspect, making opposing teams drive as far as possible to score ought to make Lohmiller's value jump.
No one can kick the ball as high and deep as Lohmiller. He's an ideal weapon for negating the league's new 30-yard-line kickoff rule.
Turner has given John Friesz a second chance. Reggie Brooks, too. Neither of them can do as much for the Redskins as Lohmiller. by CNB