The Mount Rushmore of Browns Specialists

The Mount Rushmore of Browns Specialists – Handing out credit where it’s due

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy players – the best players – in Browns history. Today we look at specialists, which is a fancy name for long snappers and holders.

By STEVE KING

The players who long snap for punts and field-goal attempts, and those who hold for those field-goal tries, have never gotten their due.

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When teams try onside kicks, which may soon go the way of the Edsel, eight-track tapes and dial-up internet in terms of being extinct because of rule changes, the players on the receiving team who are stationed on the front line, trying to grab the ball before those on the kicking team re-claim it, are called “the good-hands people.”

That’s true. They are certainly that – very good, really. They own some of the best hands on the team.

But they’re not the only ones.

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The long snappers and holders are also part – a huge part, in fact –of “the good-hands people” on the team. If they don’t do their job correctly – that is, if their hands betray them – then it could, and often times does, spell disaster – on a grand scale, no less — for the entire team. That’s not a good way to win games.

Indeed, think back to Part 1 of this Mount Rushmore series, about kickers, four very good Browns in Lou Groza, Don Cockroft, Matt Bahr and Phil Dawson. Every time they hit a game-winning field goal, it was also as the result of a great snap and placement.

And in Part 2, with punters Horace Gillom, Gary Collins, Chris Gardocki and Dave Zastudil, every one of their kicks that went high and far and landed in just the right place, pinning an opponent deep in its own end of the field late in the fourth quarter with the game on the line, was also as a result of a great snap.

So while those long snappers and holders aren’t household names with the fans, they are so with kickers and punters.

Just as with the kickers and punters, the Browns have had a number of outstanding long snappers and holders. To make it even, I put two of each on the Mount Rushmore of Browns specialists – the most special of these special good-hands people.

The long snappers are Scott Nicolas (1982-87) and Ryan Pontbriand (2003-11), while the holders are Bobby Franklin (1960-66) and that same Chris Gardocki (1999-2003).

Here’s a little about the Mount Rushmore of Browns specialists:

BOBBY FRANKLIN

Franklin, who doubled as a safety after being taken in the 11th round of the 1960 NFL Draft out of Mississippi, where he had been a quarterback, played with the Browns for seven seasons and served as Groza’s holder for the last six of them. He was as solid as a rock, making sure that the ball was held in just the right way for “The Toe’s” foot.

Franklin was also pretty good on defense, getting 13 interceptions, all in his first four years, including eight as a rookie, which tied him for most on the team with Jim Shofner, who would on and serve as Brian Sipe’s quarterbacks coach 20 years later.

There was another cool aspect of Franklin. He was good friends with his former college teammate, Browns Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Gene Hickerson. Franklin, whom Hickerson nicknamed “Wavy” because of his thick black hair, could reason with his sometimes stubborn buddy when no one else could.

CHRIS GARDOCKI

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Gardocki becomes the first player to make two Mount Rushmores. He deserves it, for make no mistake about it, as good of a punter as he was – and he was very good – he was just as proficient, and perhaps even more so, as a holder for the first five seasons of Dawson’s great career. So, then, he did a lot to help get Dawson off to a fine start.

RYAN PONTBRIAND

The third member of that outstanding triumvirate in 2003, and then with Dawson for eight more years after Gardocki departed in free agency following that season, Pontbriand had the distinction of being drafted – drafted! — in the fifth round in 2003 out of Rice. After losing Ryan Kuehl, another talented long snapper, to the New York Giants in free agency following the 2002 season, the Browns knew they would need a long snapper and scouted high and low to find one.

Pontbriand was far and away the best guy available, so they grabbed him – to the astonishment of many. But he proved his worth right from the get-go. Until he got the “yips” late in his career for whatever reason and lost his edge, his snaps always hit the bullseye.

SCOTT NICOLAS

Nicolas, who had played linebacker at Miami (Fla.), was drafted in the 12th – and final — round, at No. 310 overall, in 1982. It was quite a find for the Browns. Just ask Bahr, for whom Nicolas held for his first 4½ seasons before the former broke his leg making a touchdown- and game-saving tackle on a kickoff return in a big win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1986, and then again late in the following season after he returned. Like Pontbriand, Nicolas was right on target with his snaps.

NEXT: Special teamers.

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The Mount Rushmore of Browns Specialists