MASON CROSBY

'Mason Walker Crosby' (born September 3, 1984 in Lubbock, Texas), is an American professional football placekicker for the Green Bay Packers. He was widely considered the best kicker in college football, as evidenced by his number one spot on ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.'s Top 5 Seniors by position. He was a unanimous selection as a First Team All American by the Associated Press, FWAA, The Sporting News, and Walter Camp for the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. He was the runner-up for Lou Groza Award, despite being heavily favored to win ^[1].

Contents

Field Goals

Kickoffs

NFL Career

Career Stats

Awards

Personal Information

Related Pages

References

External links

Field Goals

Mason Crosby is known for extraordinary leg strength, making a school record 60-yard field goal against Iowa State in 2004. Although some take Crosby's records with a grain of salt because he kicks at high altitude, he holds the NCAA record for the longest field goal without a tee at sea level, 58-yards against Miami in 2005 (elevation 7 feet). Crosby also displays excellent accuracy with his kicks, connecting on 58-76 in his career, and making 30-34 inside 40-yards. Unconfirmed reports from teammates and coaches put Crosby at having made an 80 yard field goal during a practice in 2006. He also would entertain fans by attempting 65 yard kicks and 70 yard kicks in warm ups (many of which he made).
^[1]
Crosby has developed a reputation for kicking in the clutch, making 12-13 field goals in the fourth quarter, and a perfect 10-10 in the final 8 1/2 minutes of games (through the 2005 season). This bent has been most evident when Crosby plays rival Colorado State University, against whom Crosby made kicks of 55 (2004), 48, and 47 yards (2005) in consecutive years to win the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
He is the first player in Big 12 Conference history to be named player of the week eight times.^[3] As of 2006, he is also Colorado's all-time leading scorer, with 275 points. The previous record holder was Eric Bieniemy (1987-1990) with 254. On November 11, 2006, Crosby passed the 300 point mark for his career.

Kickoffs

Crosby also served as the Buffs' kickoff specialist, where his knack for forcing touchbacks after touchdowns made him a fan favorite. Overall, 127 of Crosby's 184 career kickoffs were touchbacks, including an 87-yard kickoff touchback from the 20-yard-line against Iowa State in 2004.^[1] Crosby routinely kicked the ball through the uprights on kickoffs, a practice that invariably drew cheers from the home crowd.

NFL Career

Crosby was chosen by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft, the last of three consecutive picks for the Packers (and the third and final kicker overall). During the Packers' first pre-season game, against Pittsburgh, Crosby kicked a 52-yard field goal, the longest field goal in the history of Heinz Field, which is known to be unfriendly to kickers. Crosby beat out incumbent Dave Rayner, and will be the regular season kicker for Green Bay in 2007.

Career Stats

	Kickoffs								Opponent	Scoring / Field Goals
Season	Total	Return	Fair Catch	Touch Backs	Inside 20	Over End Zone	Out of Bounds	Onsides	Average Starting Position	PAT	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	FG-FGA	Pct.	Long	Points
2003	37	10	0	26	2	17	1	1	23	31-37	0-0	4-4	0-0	3-4	0-1	0-0	7- 9	77.8	44	52
2004	59	17	1	41	6	26	0	1	21	28-30	1-1	5-5	5-5	3-5	4-6	1-1	19-23	82.6	60	85
2005	61	18	0	43	4	33	0	3	22	31-31	0-0	3-4	5-6	8-11	5-7	0-0	21-28	75.0	58	94
2006	46	17	0	28	8	12	1	3	22	11-11	0-0	5-6	7-8	5-5	2-6	0-3	19-28	67.9	56	76
TOTALS	203	62	1	138	20	88	2	8	22	100-108	1-1	17-19	17-19	19-25	11-20	1-4	66-88	75.0	60	308

''Note'': Average Starting Yardline: Onsides, short squibs and free kicks are omitted in figuring the above - out-of-bounds are not.

Awards

★ 2006

★
★ Walter Camp All-American^[5]

★
★ All-Big 12 Conference⁵

★ 2005

★
★ Walter Camp All-American⁵

★
★ Lou Groza Award runner-up

Personal Information

Mason Crosby graduated in December 2006 from the University of Colorado, majoring in communication. He attended Georgetown High School in Texas. He is a Houston Astros and Dallas Cowboys fan.

Related Pages

★ University of Colorado at Boulder

★ Colorado Buffaloes

★ Colorado Buffaloes football

★ 2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team

★ 2006 Colorado Buffaloes football team

References

1. 2005 Colorado Football - Game 13 - Clemson
2. 2005 Colorado Football - Game 13 - Clemson
3. Big 12 Conference Records
4. 2005 Colorado Football - Game 13 - Clemson
5.

External links

★ University of Colorado Bio