Doyel: He's with the Colts, but for how long?
ANDERSON – This is how his Indianapolis Colts career starts:
A phone rings Friday in Atlanta. Punter-kicker Michael Palardy has been home for maybe 48 hours after being released by the Baltimore Ravens. He’s doing laundry. On the line is Colts special teams coordinator Tom McMahon.
This is how that conversation went.
McMahon: “Can you be ready to play in Sunday’s game?”
Palardy: “Absolutely. Yes sir.”
McMahon: “Your plane leaves in two hours.”
* * *
This is how his first interview as a Colt starts:
Me: “There’s a Hall of Fame kicker here, and possibly a Hall of Fame punter.”
Palardy: “Correct.”
Me: “You didn’t come here to make this team.”
Palardy: “Correct.”
Me: “You came to make another team.”
Palardy: “Correct.”
And we’re off. For 25 minutes Michael Palardy is answering questions about being the longest of NFL long shots — a punter-kicker whose last game was in 2013 at the University of Tennessee, and who has spent the past two NFL seasons as a substitute teacher in South Florida.
This is his sixth NFL team without an NFL game, having (not) worked for the Jets, Raiders, Rams, Panthers, Ravens and Colts. This is his second time with the Colts, sort of. He was brought in last October because he’s left-footed and the Colts were preparing to play the New England Patriots and their left-footed punter, Ryan Allen.
Palardy was great at Tennessee, ranking among leaders in career punting average (42.9 yards, second) and field goals (37, seventh), but great isn’t good enough. Not in a job market where there are 32 positions and little turnover. Until Wednesday of last week, he was in camp with the Raiders. On Friday the Colts called. Pat McAfee, their nuclear-legged punter, had tweaked his knee in practice. They needed someone to punt on Sunday in Canton, Ohio, against the Green Bay Packers in the Hall of Fame Game.
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Palardy isn’t going to make this team. He said yes anyway. Here’s why.
“It’s a window of opportunity that doesn’t come very often,” Palardy says, “and when it does come, it’s really small and it doesn’t last very long.”
Friday in Atlanta, Palardy hung up the phone with Tom McMahon. He grabbed his sandals and cleats, his toiletries and some gym clothes, and left for the airport. A great game in Canton puts Palardy on the radar of any NFL team looking for a punter. This was his window of opportunity. It’s really small. It won’t last long.
The game never happened. It was canceled on account of paint.
“I’ve learned,” Palardy says, “everything is subject to change.”
* * *
By the time you read this story, Michael Palardy might already be gone. This is how seriously I wrote that last sentence:
On Tuesday morning I had told my bosses I wanted to write about Palardy. They said, fine. We will run it in the newspaper on Saturday. I said, fine.
Thirty seconds after finishing the interview with Palardy, I called my bosses and said: This story can’t wait until Saturday. Palardy might not be here.
Look, Palardy knows the deal. Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri – third all-time with 2,253 NFL points, owner of two Super Bowl-winning field goals – is a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. Palardy specializes now in punting and kickoffs, but he wasn’t beating out Vinatieri regardless. And he’s not beating out McAfee, eighth all-time in career punting at 46.0 yards per kick.
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But while he’s here, Palardy’s learning from both. And he’s being encouraged by the Colts’ other specialist, long snapper Matt Overton, who was cut twice by the Seattle Seahawks and played in two leagues you’ve never heard of — the UFL, and something called af2 — before making the Colts in 2012.
And making the Pro Bowl in 2013.
“It took him six years to stick here,” Palardy says of Overton. “He bounced around, and he got cut and he was in camps and did all those things. It’s refreshing to hear stories like that, because I hope one day I can look back and say, ‘I’m glad I put all I had into it, because it paid off.’ ”
After moving from South Florida, Palardy already has made inroads with a handful of high schools in his relatively new home of Atlanta, selling athletics directors and football coaches on his dream to play in the NFL and his willingness to tutor their kickers in exchange for the use of their fields. He hauls a bag of eight or 10 footballs to fields, punts them all, then goes and picks them up and punts them the other way. Repeat. And again.
He knows the NFL might not happen for him, but he’s comforted by his faith.
“I know at some point there may be a time where I say, ‘You know what, it’s not going to work out for me,’ ” Palardy says. “Realistically, that time may come. I just know football’s my passion, and something I’m going to pursue until the time comes, whenever it is, that I have to hang it up.”
Our interview ends and Palardy goes inside to get dressed for his first practice in Anderson. He’s a great guy, only 24 but one of those old souls, someone you meet and immediately hope it works out for him. But I call my bosses and tell them we need to run this story soon. A few minutes later my phone rings. It’s someone with the Colts. They know I just spoke to Michael Palardy. They ask how it went.
I ignore their question and ask one of my own.
“Did Palardy just get cut?”
No, comes the answer. The Colts are calling about something else. We hang up, and I start writing. I start writing fast.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.