Chris Kluwe

Christopher James Kluwe (born December 24, 1981) is a former American football punter and writer.

Kluwe played at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California, where he was a 1999 USA Today High School All-American, and then attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played college football for the UCLA Bruins.

He set school records for both total punt yardage and total number of punts in a season in 2003.

He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2005 and played professionally in the National Football League for the Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders.

Kluwe is widely known for his eight seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, where he set eight individual team records.

During this period, Kluwe became an outspoken advocate on social issues, including same sex marriage and gay rights, which ultimately led to tension between Kluwe and coaching staff.

He graduated in 2005 with a double major in political science and history.

Kluwe was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks in 2005.

Kluwe had been notified by both the Seahawks and St. Louis Rams that either team might draft him in the late rounds.

As soon as the draft ended, Kluwe signed a free agent contract with Seattle.

Kluwe had an excellent training camp with Seattle, to the point where Donnie Jones was released after the first week of Organized Team Activities, leaving Kluwe and Leo Araguz splitting time during the pre-season games for the punting duties.

Kluwe was told by the Seahawks prior to the final pre-season game they were going to take him to the practice squad and the Seahawks wanted Kluwe both as a potential back-up and for developmental reasons.

Due to NFL rules, the Seahawks had to place Kluwe on the waiver wire for 24 hours prior to signing him to a practice squad contract.

The Seahawks waited until the last minute to place Kluwe on the waiver wire as they knew three teams had been scouting Kluwe as a potential punter for their team.

The Seahawks concerns were well founded as Kluwe was claimed off the waiver wire early the next day by the Vikings.

Kluwe became one of the most surprising pickups for the Vikings, finishing his first season with an average of 44.1 yards per punt, ranking second in the NFC and sixth in the league.

He punted 71 times during his first season.

Kluwe was also named NFC special teams player of the month for September 2005 – a first for any Vikings special teams rookie.

During a Week-13 game in Detroit, Lions safety Vernon Fox dove towards Kluwe during a punt and collided with Kluwe's plant foot.

Although initial concerns were that Kluwe had a broken ankle, tests showed Kluwe had a sprained ankle.

What the tests did also show was that earlier in the game when the ball was snapped over Kluwe's head and he had to make a running and jumping rugby style kick to avoid being blocked, he tore his right ACL when he landed after the kick.

Kicker Paul Edinger was the punter for the remainder of the game, but a few days later the Vikings signed 42-year-old veteran Darren Bennett for 1 week.

Kluwe then returned to play the final 3 games of the 2005 season with a torn ACL in his kicking leg, which prompted his then coach Mike Tice to reply to a reporter's question about Kluwe's injury that "My punter is a tough guy."

As Tice was not known to be sympathetic towards punters and kickers, this showed the amount of respect he had for Kluwe's willingness to play with a serious injury.

During the 2006 off-season Kluwe had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair the ACL.

In his senior year, he ranked 3rd in the Pac-10 and 12th in the NCAA in yards per punt (43.4).

He was selected as special teams player of the game in the Silicon Valley Football Classic against Fresno State after averaging 44.3 yards on nine kicks.

He also tied the bowl record with his nine punts and placed three kicks inside the 20-yard line.

Kluwe was a finalist in his senior year for the Ray Guy Award that annually recognizes the best collegiate punter.

Kluwe was released by the Vikings after the 2012 season, signed with the Oakland Raiders prior to the 2013 season, and was subsequently released.

Kluwe was unable to find another NFL team with which to sign and retired from professional football in 2013.

Following his departure from football, he has pursued a writing career and was a humor columnist for the sports website Deadspin.

Kluwe played three years of varsity football for coach John Barnes at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California and was selected to play in both the California-Texas Shrine game (where he kicked a 57-yard game-winning field goal with no time left) and the CaliFlorida Bowl.

He also made the USA Today first-team All-American as a punter.

He kicked an Orange County and CIF Playoff record 60-yard field goal vs. Loyola to force overtime in an eventual 30–23 victory.

Averaging 46.6 yards as a punter, he had 10 punts of at least 60 yards and placed six kicks inside the 10-yard line.

As a placekicker, he made 16 of 22 field goal attempts and 39 of 41 PATs.

Prior to his senior year, he won the punting competition at the National Kicking Invitational with a 63-yard punt that had 4.98 seconds of hang time.

Kluwe also played one year of baseball as a pitcher.

Kluwe enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he developed into one of the top punters in the Pac-10 Conference.