When he first set foot on the University of Hawaii campus, Rigo Sanchez had to beat out a veteran place-kicker from the University of Nebraska and assorted punters. ADVERTISING When he first set foot on the University of Hawaii campus,
When he first set foot on the University of Hawaii campus, Rigo Sanchez had to beat out a veteran place-kicker from the University of Nebraska and assorted punters.
Then, when he got to the Indianapolis Colts camp as an undrafted free agent, he had to try to take away a job from a four-year pro in whom the team had just invested $1.25 million in guaranteed free-agent money.
Now comes the easy part. All Sanchez has to do is make Colts fans forget — or at least not openly long for — two-time Pro Bowl punter Pat McAfee.
Oh, and learn to be a holder on place-kicks.
In Sanchez’s mind there is only one thing to do: “Just do my job, keep working at it every single day to get better and help the team.”
It is the same painstaking, focused dedication with which he approached things at Hamilton High in Hamilton City, Calif., at Butte Community College in Oroville, Calif., and at UH.
“It is special. I’m really happy and thankful for the opportunity,” Sanchez told reporters after the Colts released Jeff Locke, the favorite and his only remaining competition for the job, earlier in the week.
The timing, with the final exhibition game against the Bengals still remaining, surprised Sanchez. “I mean, yeah, it did since I didn’t think the cuts (would be announced) until Saturday.”
But the Colts had plainly seen enough.
As head coach Chuck Pagano told reporters, “We feel like we have a young, really talented football player in Rigo.” Pagano added, “We love the leg, love the talent and love the youth.”
The key word here in divining the Colts’ plans for Sanchez is probably the last one, “youth.”
He is 22 — the same number of years that the Colts’ place-kicker, three-time All-Pro Adam Vinatieri, has been in the NFL. Vinatieri is 44 and Sanchez, whose initial duties the Colts said will be confined to punting, kicking off and holding, is probably Indianapolis’ short-term insurance policy and its long-term future.
At UH, where athletes, unlike their coaches, don’t have the benefits of union representation, Sanchez was a scholarship bargain, kicking field goals and extra points, punting and kicking off. The mastery of those across-the-board disciplines — including making 13 of 13 field goals in 2016 — resonated with the Colts, who not only have Vinatieri getting up there in years but also lost McAfee to retirement in February.
Soon after, they signed Locke, a former Vikings punter, to a two-year deal. But they also were intrigued enough by Sanchez’s possibilities to offer him a reported $12,000 bonus, the most of any of its undrafted free agents, according to the Indianapolis Star, to eschew other suitors and sign with them as an undrafted free agent.
Sanchez’s first punt, a mis-hit 35-yarder against the Lions that helped set up a Detroit score, was his “mulligan.” Overall, in 10 punts across three exhibition games, he averaged 47.2 yards compared to Locke’s 43.5. Sanchez’s longest was 63 yards and Locke’s 54.
But it was pinpoint angling last week against the Steelers that Pagano said sealed the deal. Sanchez boomed a punt 51 yards, landing it a yard or so out of bounds, pinning Pittsburgh inside the 15-yard line with 44 seconds remaining. “It doesn’t get any better than that,” Pagano told reporters.
Sanchez, the one-time soccer player who was a training camp addition at UH in 2015, could say the same thing.
