BROTHERS ATTACHED AT FOOT
Townsends punting their way to the top in college, NFL
Johnny Townsend, left, is now an NFL punter for the New York Giants and brother, Tommy Townsend, is a redshirt senior punter for the Florida Gators.
As Clay Townsend Jr. toils away in his fourth year at UCF Medical School, making his way through the demanding student surgical rotation on 12-hour shifts at Orlando Regional Medical Center, he may sometimes mutter under his breath that he wishes he had tried kicking a football back when he was at Boone High.
Clay, however, had a definitive reaction to that suggestion in high school.
At the time, he said kicking and punting was for wimps. The following week, he blew out his knee playing defensive back and never played football again.
Perhaps he could have been just like his two younger brothers: Florida Gators punter Tommy Townsend and New York Giants punter Johnny Townsend.
Clay, of course, is working to become a surgeon. He chose his path and has no regrets, but he does relish the time he spent growing up with his two kicking brothers and loves watching them succeed now.
Questions don’t usually stump Tommy, a redshirt senior at Florida who returns to Orlando this weekend during the Gators’ season opener against Miami at Camping World Stadium, or Johnny, a second-year NFL player who just signed with the Giants after being waived by the Oakland Raiders. The two are very much alike in about every way imaginable.
They kick footballs, for one. They were both Army All-Americans out of Orlando Boone High. They are also both eagle scouts, as is Clay, in the Boy Scouts of America. They’re all very much in touch with their respective communities and carry themselves quite well. But ask them to provide some sort of detail into their differences and they just stare at each other. They struggle to come up with anything that sets one apart from the other.
Actually, everyone struggles with that question.
“Johnny and Tommy definitely have more similarities than differences. They have some personality differences, but are both very similar athletically,” said Clay, who also played football and baseball, like his brothers at Boone High, and ran track. “Both are extremely technically sound punters that play fast and physical.
“Even though they punt, you can tell they still play with the mindset of a safety, which they both played in high school. They were those type of athletes growing up that could pick up any sport effortlessly and be great at it.”
The one part that is immediately obvious is Tommy’s hair. It’s long and sometimes tied off in a ponytail. On occasion, it hangs out the back of his UF football helmet.
Johnny’s hair, however, is short and has been coiffed into a perfect crop since as far back as anyone can remember.
But that’s about it. Offer up suggestions like music, TV shows, movies and they pretty much just laugh. No, nope and no again. They like the same things.
But dig deep enough and we find that Tommy carries himself a little differently than the rest of the brood. He’s emotional and very aggressive for a punter. He even has the notorious honor of getting flagged for two personalfoul penalties in the same game last season at Missouri.
Johnny sees it in his brother when he’s watching a game.
“If you watched him during Gators’ games last year, you’d see him, after he’d punt the ball, fly down the field and almost get targeting fouls and personal fouls,” Johnny said while laughing. “He takes what he did in high school playing safety, that hard-nosed football aspect, he takes that to the punter position, which is cool.”
Tommy has tried himself apart a bit.
He signed with Tennessee out of high school, breaking the family’s Florida Gator tradition. That, however, didn’t work out so well and he was soon kicking balls at the Swamp right alongside his brother in Gainesville in 2016, transferring after one year at UT.
“Yeah … I obviously wanted to go to Florida my whole life, but I couldn’t because Johnny was there,” to set Tommy said of his brother having already established himself as the UF punter of the future. “So, I kind of looked at it as my opportunity to be different, do something different and so I went to rival Tennessee, of course.
“But I obviously made the switch back home and I’m happy I’m back.”
Johnny, of course, welcomed Tommy with open arms and the two lived together during Johnny’s final two years at UF.
“It was fun. … Obviously we had a great time off the field, as well, and it was just cool getting to play on the same team as him because we never really had the opportunity to do that in high school just because of our minor age gap.”
The Townsend family is close-knit. Clay Townsend Jr., the son of Clay and Susan Townsend, earned his undergrad degree at UF, as did his father and mother. Johnny did, as well, and Tommy is on his way to earning his degree.
Clay Townsend Jr. remembers the times when the boys were always outside playing sports.
“Growing up, we were playing outside pretty much every day it seems like. We’re each about one-and-a-half years apart in age so we all shared the same interest in sports and were each other’s best friends,” he said. “We played everything from home run derby to ‘kicking field goals’ between two close trees in the front yard. I think one time when we were small, Johnny dressed Tommy up in football pads to practice his tackling on him in the front yard — I’ll have to fact check that story with mom.
“But once they started punting, it became their obsession. They kicked several times a week and on their off days they’d work on stretching and technique drills for hours. Considering their natural abilities and the amount of work they’ve put in, I’m not surprised at all at the success they’ve had in football.”
If Tommy can make it into the NFL, they will become only the second brother combination to punt at that level, joining the Colquitt brothers Britton and Dustin, whose father, Craig Colquitt, was also an NFL punter.
“We’ve kind of always done the same thing growing up, so naturally we just kinda like fell into punting together,” Tommy said. “Once I saw he was doing well with it and picking up some offers, I was like, ‘I might as well try it to.’ ”
Now Johnny is just hoping Tommy gets to the highest level.
“It makes it very realistic when he’ll crush me in punt days and it shows he’s an NFL-caliber player and it’s only a matter of time before he’s on that stage,” Johnny said.
Their names both dot the Gators’ record books in all punting categories, but one doesn’t try to be better than the other.
“I had an OK [season] this past year, so this year I’m hoping to have a really good season and go out and have some good workouts and maybe get some invites and see what happens,” Tommy said.