By Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
There was a day, about six years ago, that the people in the Warsaw Athletic Department will never, ever forget.
That day, the place kicker for the Tiger football team made a rather bold statement.
Harrison Mevis declared that he would someday kick on Sundays.
No one who heard him that day doubted him.
And last Sunday, it happened.
Mevis kicked for the Rams in a road game at San Francisco and made all six of his extra point attempts in a 42-26 win.
He did it! He’d made it. But the road to get there was hard.
Mevis surprised some draft experts by not being drafted at all in 2024. The Carolina Panthers swooped in and signed him to come into their camp and try out.
The Panthers cut him before the opening week of the season, and the waiting began.
Harrison signed with Birmingham in the UFL, and he made 21 of 23 field goal attempts for the Stallions.
And then the waiting began.
And in the waiting periods, Mevis went back to Columbia, Missouri. He’d go back there and kick footballs…over and over and over again.
Why there?
That’s where he went to college.
That’s where he became the all-time leading scorer in the football history of the University of Missouri.
That’s where he became “the thicker kicker” because he is most certainly not the prototypical 5-foot-9, 175-pound kicker.”
That’s where he became a legend and cemented that status by kicking a 61-yard game-winning field goal to help the Tigers beat Kansas State in September of 2023.
But it’s not the first place he earned that treatment.
As the Warsaw Tiger kicker, Mevis made 108 of 111 extra points, 16 field goals and had a touchback percentage of 73 percent in three years as a varsity kicker.
Who kicked when he was a freshman? His brother Andrew.
Eventually, the LA Rams called Mevis and invited him to come out west and be part of their practice squad.
The Rams were unhappy with their kicker, Joshua Karty, and Head Coach Sean McVay named Mevis the starter for last week’s game.
Harrison Mevis took the field and did exactly what everyone from Columbia to Chapman Lake expected him to do—make kicks and act like he belonged there…because he does. He always did.
But we are talking about the life of a kicker, which is full of uncertainty.
Mevis was called up from the practice squad to kick last week, and McVay was clear that Mevis would be their kicker again last Sunday. But NFL rules say that you can only call a player up three times from the practice squad before you have to sign him to a regular contract and give him a roster spot.
NFL teams only have 53 roster spots, so the last thing they want to do is use two of them on a specialty position like a place kicker or punter.
If they did, they would have to cut someone.
Now, common sense says that if Mevis just keeps making kicks and doing what he’s asked to do, he’s going to win that job…right?
Well, it’s complicated.
The Rams drafted Karty. They used a draft pick on him. That means they aren’t likely to just cut him and let him walk away.
The good news is that Mevis has put his name on the radar for other NFL teams to see if their kicker is injured or ineffective.
Again, this is the life of a kicker. The road traveled by a kicker is filled with potholes and land mines and it’s not for the weak of heart.
The old line “you’re only as good as your last…whatever…” totally applies here.
There are no guarantees.
There are no tomorrows, only “nows”.
But know this with 100 percent assurance — whether it is with the Rams or someone else, Harrison Mevis has prepared himself for this and he will be ready for it.
