Kicker is the only position in football I would allow my frail body to play at any level beyond the pee-wee league.

Senior kicker Thomas Kinney said he’s been hit in games before, which made me reconstruct that statement, but did not stop me from challenging him to a no contact field goal competition.

We each teed up three balls at the middle of the 20-yard line and attempted to split the uprights. Since it was a windy day, Kinney used his index finger to steady the ball for my kicks, but it did not help me much.

None of mine even got off the ground. Kinney said they had a spiral and he was slightly jealous, but it didn’t seem like a good thing to me. After my final kick, he said I kicked his hand.

Kinney made his first kick attempt and missed his second. He told me if I made mine, it would be tied. Who was he kidding?

In movies and television, kickers bring the personality to a team. Nigel “The Leg” Gruff from “The Replacements” and Harmon Tedesco from “Blue Mountain State” are two of the wittiest characters in any football movie or television show.

Kinney has the same witty personality. When I told him it would be my first time attempting field goals he said, “You’re wearing a Robbie Gould jersey, and you’ve never kicked field goals?”

He said I should hang up the jersey; he was joking, but he’s right.

Gould has scored the second most points in Chicago Bears history. Kinney said his favorite kicker is Gould, and that I poorly represented him.

Instead of actually doing kicking warm-ups, I just played a few games of Madden against my co-worker Alex Merchant. It didn’t matter whether it was first or fourth down, if my kicker was in range, I was attempting to get three points.

Coach Dale Lennon said kickers have to do the same drills as the rest of the team.

Kinney has a career-best field goal of 52 yards and made 75 percent of his kicks last season. He was selected to the All-Missouri Valley Football Conference second-team and the All-MVFC newcomer team. He said a kicker is someone the team should trust to get the job done.

Kickers are an underrated position in football. A lot of games end up being within a couple of points, where a kicker can make the difference between a win and a loss. Kinney said if he was a big fantasy football player, he would draft all kickers even if his team would have empty slots.

The NFL has considered eliminating kickoffs. Kinney said that would ruin the game, and I could not agree more. It’s how football games are supposed to be started. Players like free agent return man Devin Hester would not be in the NFL without the kickoff.

Kinney said he would not kick anywhere near Hester, but he would still be ready to make a tackle.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t returning one of his kicks, or this article would have been written from a hospital bed.

The Saluki football team has begun spring practice and has its first kickoff at 7 p.m. Friday for the annual spring game at Saluki Stadium.

Aaron Graff can be contacted at [email protected], on Twitter@Aarongraff_DE or 536-3311 ext. 269.