In the old days, kicking was an extra duty handled by one of the regular players. Most were not particularly reliable, but they could make up for a bad kick with a good run, catch pass, tackle, block or interception. They were multi-talented football players, not specialists. The first kicking specialist in the NFL was Ken Strong for the 1944 Giants, but the practice did not catch on fully until the 1960s. And with the advent of the kicking specialist came the stereotype of the kicker as oddball outsider. After all, if a kicker misses a kick, how can he make up for it? More practice kicks into the net on the sideline? Talk it over on the bench with his friend the punter? Strange behavior is a natural reaction to such a tense situation. If that's generally the case for kickers, then how odd should we expect a barefooted kicker to be?

 

Barefooted Tony Franklin first began to gain notice as a kicker for Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1974 when he set a Fort Worth schoolboy record with a 51-yard field goal during the regular season. In the city championship that year, his record was broken by rival kicker Uwe von Schamann, who booted a 53-yarder in the first quarter. Franklin got in the last word, though, with the 58-yard game winner in the fourth quarter. Von Schamann went on to star at the University of Oklahoma and for the Miami Dolphins. Franklin went to Texas A&M where two years later he set a college record with a 64-yard field goal in the second quarter of a game against Baylor, and then broke that in the third quarter with a 65-yarder. On that same day elsewhere in Texas, though, Ove Johansson topped both with a 69-yard field goal for Abilene Christian. The Swedish Johansson would play briefly for the Eagles the following season, but would make only one of four field goals and one of three extra points before being cut.

 

The Eagles' kicking situation was dire in Dick Vermeil's first few years. In 1977 and 1978, Johansson and other pretenders made fewer than 50 percent of their field goal tries and missed 10 extra points. Philadelphia squeaked into the playoffs in 1978, but lost 14–13 to Atlanta on a botched extra point and two missed chip-shot field goals. Vermeil addressed the weakness by picking Franklin in the third round of the 1979 draft. Tony responded with a big rookie season that culminated in a Monday Night Football clash with Dallas on November 12th. The Eagles beat the Cowboys for the first time in 10 tries that night, winning 31–21. Franklin gave the team a big lift and deflated the Cowboys right before halftime when his 59-yard field goal boosted the Eagles' lead to 17–7. That year, Franklin was successful on 74 percent of his field goal attempts and scored 105 points, both high points of his five-year tenure in Philadelphia.