By John Ingoldsby | Engagement Insider
As the first punter ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Ray Guy is the unquestioned Godfather of this group.
So what better way to pay homage to him than have a large group of them come to Canton to support their mentor, and then during the wonderful weekend, form a family that may now meet on a yearly basis.
“It was an incredible weekend, and just fantastic that 18 punters were there from across the country,” said former kicker Bryan Barker, who spearheaded the campaign to contact former NFL punters and get them there for Guy, for whom the phrase “hang time” was first applied.
“We were told that the biggest previous position group to attend was 16 quarterbacks, so the punters broke the QB record,” quipped Barker, the first-team All-Pro Punter in 1997 while with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who retains a role today with the team as an Ambassador.
And they weren’t just there, they stood out. After all, who wouldn’t notice an assembly of former NFL players comprised of Leo Araguz, Jason Baker, Bryan Barker, Darren Bennett, Mitch Berger, Maury Buford, Greg Coleman, Jeff Feagles, Jeff Gossett, John Kidd, Chris Kluwe, Sean Landeta, Brad Maynard, Chris Mohr, Scott Player, Kyle Richardson, Hunter Smith, and Bryan Wagner.
“We all wore black Hall of Fame golf shirts with Ray’s number 8 on them, so throughout the weekend people were saying, ‘There goes those punters,’” noted Barker, who had never before spoken to Guy. “We talked to people in advance to make sure he knew we were coming, which made sense to him and made sense to us.”
That sensible plan worked immediately when they kicked off the weekend on Friday night by attending the Gold Jacket dinner, which Barker said was the first time they saw Guy as a group.
Then on Saturday morning they put the golf shirts to good use when they hit the links. But the true treat came that afternoon when they got together as a group with Guy.
“We all sat with Ray for two hours and talked punting,” noted Barker, who kicked for six NFL teams during a 15-year career.
Then their profile and unique craft was really raised that night.
Master of Ceremonies Chris Berman gave them a shout-out during his induction introduction of the former Oakland Raider legend. And then the man himself acknowledged his newfound family during his acceptance speech. Both times the fraternity stood up and were caught by TV cameras.
“It was an incredible evening at the stadium,” observed Barker, who added that after the ceremony each inductee had a party, so they all went to Ray’s and got pictures with him and his newly-bronzed Hall of Fame bust.
Additionally, the League’s Player Engagement department brought in 18 Hall of Fame footballs, which Barker said they all got signed by Ray as well as each individual punter, so all of them took home a memento of their weekend.
But that was not the end, and in fact may be the beginning.
“We talked about getting together once a year as a group, and Ray recommended we come annually to Hattiesburg (MS) for his fundraiser,” exclaimed Barker of the budding fellowship.
“This was more than the first punter being inducted into the Hall of Fame,” stated Barker. “There are only 32 of us play in the League each year, so we are a unique brotherhood that have now become a family of sorts.”
A family with Guy as its Godfather, who spoke for NFL punters everywhere when he ended his induction speech by saying, “The Hall of Fame team is now complete.”