Boswell is rewriting team’s kicking records

another 15 yards, to the Cincinnati 17, with 18 seconds left.

Enter Boswell, Berry, and then long-snapper Greg Warren. Steelers 18, Bengals 16. That’s not the only thing that makes the venue and opponent special Monday night to Boswell. In December 2016 he walked in there and launched six field goals in a 24-20 Steelers win, five of ‘ em from 40 yards or longer, the franchise’s onegame record. Now he can’t seem to stop himself. He kicked five more against the Bengals Oct. 22 at Heinz Field, meaning he’s 17 for 17 against Cincinnati in his three NFL seasons, 21 for 21 if you count the postseason, and we do.

As Boswell prepares to renew his Ohio nemesis license before midnight, it’s probably time to remind ourselves that the 26-yearold soft spoken Texan has established himself as among the best in this highly specialized profession, at least based on a regular season accuracy rate (88.2 percent) that puts him No. 1 in Steelers history.

Boswell says he doesn’t think much in those terms, or in terms of the club and league records he already holds after barely two seasons, perhaps because he’s just as likely to think about how close he came to the NFL cliff.

“That year I got here, I was probably going to give myself that year and that was it,” he said about those days after the Giants became the second team (the Texans were the first) to release him without ever letting him kick in an actual game. “I’d have been two full years being out of college without makin’ it, and with how many kickers are coming out every year, it’s hard to stay in the loop.

“I was close to pullin’ the plug on it, really.”

That was about a month after Sean Suisham, the beloved Sweezy Money, now the second-most accurate kicker in Steelers history, shredded his knee on a Canton, Ohio, field so substandard it led to the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game the following summer. Suisham’s careerending injury plunged the Steelers kicking situation into a kind of 21st century Gong Show.

To replace him Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert looked at Kai Forbath, then arranged a Heinz Field audition that included Garrett Hartley, Jay Feely, Alex Henery, and, I believe, Steely McBeam. Hartley was the winner, but was injured in a preseason game at Buffalo just weeks thereafter. Desperate, Colbert sent a sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for Josh Scobee, who lasted until Week 4, when he missed two field goals in the final three minutes against Baltimore in a 23-20 loss. It was time for Scobee to gobee, and that was the break Boswell needed.

Boswell had never kicked in a game, Berry had been a Steeler for all of one quarter of a season, and in this, their third year, they got a new long-snapper, Kameron Canaday. Yet for all their value — Boswell has more points this season than Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell combined — these are three Steelers who could plop down next to you on the 61C McKeesport and never cause a chin to rise from a phone screen.

“Nobody recognizes me, nobody,” said Canaday, the 25-year-old Oregonian and a long-snapper from his Pop Warner days. “And I’m good with that. I’m lucky to be here and those guys, Chris and Jordan, have been great to me. They’re great guys.”

Even Boswell, who tends to win games in the closing seconds, still moves about the community pretty freely.

“I’m not a high profile guy,” Boswell said. “I can go into LA Fitness and get some, ‘Good jobs,’ and stuff like that, but that’s about it. People here are crazy fans but they’re also respectful.”

He might have felt a less respectful vibe had he missed that playoff kick on his visit here, but for the moment there’s no limit to where Boswell can take the Steelers or to where they can take him. He never gives the coaches a number on how far he can kick one in any particular circumstance.

“However far they need,” he says, “however far they ask.”

No one anywhere is 100 percent comfortable when the field goal unit trots out there, but Pittsburgh should be as comfortable as it has ever been.