Smoothies to Kickoffs

Kicker Todd Carter just signed a one year deal to be the kick-off specialist of the Carolina Panthers. No big deal, right? Well there's a little more to it than that. Todd Carter was serving smoothies for minimum wage at this time last year. How can you go from smoothies to NFL kicker?

Carter was a soccer keeper in high school, and did some place kicking senior year. Then he was the Kicker at Grand Valley University. So Carter has a kicking background, but still, how did he get this contract? Was a scout for Carolina jonesin for a smoothie, then noticed that the guy making his delicious fruity frozen drink had the calves of an Adoneus? That would be the cool story, but frankly it's just not true.

The real story is this. Carter had been working with former Cowboys punter, Filip Filipovic. When Rhys Lloyd left to sign with the Vikings, it opened up a spot on the Carolina roster for a guy like Todd Carter, and with Filipovic's help, he got that spot.

I have to thank Yahoo! for putting this story up on their site, brought to my attention, so now I bring it to yours. Hard work and determination can pay off, so never give up kids. This local kid out of Grand Valley goes from making Bahama Mammas to making 300k doing kickoffs. He also could have a chance doing long field goals, because John Kasey, all be it reliable, has a noodle for a leg.

A nice heart-warming story to start off the day, I'll be pulling for Todd Carter this year.