Remembering Tony Franklin, the best-ever barefoot kicker.
In NFL football, the 1980s was the era of the barefoot kicker. The best of the best was Tony Franklin, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles among other teams. He was short and not very buff, but he could boot the ball!
The big issue for Franklin–and all barefoot kickers–is foot care. For Franklin, that meant keeping his toenails trimmed. Kicking shoeless was the only way Franklin knew how to kick, too.
Courtesy: My Aggie Nation
In high school, he kicked with a sock on his foot. But once he got to Texas A&M, he took off the sock before going out on the field. There, Franklin set an Aggie record by booting a 65-yarder. NFL scouts took note, and Franklin was drafted high (for a kicker) in the 3rd Round of the 1979 NFL Draft.
The first year in the NFL, fans made fun of him. That changed when Franklin began making field goals. He became a celebrity. Franklin played for the Eagles the next four years, then played for the Patriots (where he made the Pro Bowl), before finishing his career with the Dolphins.
Tony Franklin retired from the NFL in 1988, but he remains the all-time scoring leader for barefoot kickers with 872 points. In 1990, Mike Lansford kicked the last field goal with a barefoot.
Will the barefoot kicker make a comeback? Time will tell. And even if they do, they’ll have to be special to surpass Tony Franklin–the best of them all.
Today, Franklin lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he drives an Accord with the license plate, “No Shoe!”
