Young kicker tees up record attempt
Parker Hannon, a 15-year-old from Roswell, Ga., isn’t claiming he’s the best kicker in the country, but he thinks he can knock a longtime NFL kicker out of the Guinness World Records book.
Four-time Super Bowl winner Adam Vinatieri set the mark for most 20-yard field goals in 60 seconds with 28 during Super Bowl week in February. Hannon will attempt to break that mark Friday at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. The Hall of Fame will live-stream the event, which begins at 11 a.m. ET, on its social media accounts.
“My dad thought it would be cool to get exposure and reach out to colleges, and I thought it would be pretty neat,” Hannon said. “It would be cool to be in the world record book.”
Beyond the record, Hannon and his father, Jim, are hoping to raise $20,000 for Kids & Pros and the Pat Tillman Foundation. Vinatieri’s record led to a $15,000 donation to the Tillman Foundation to help military families.
The genesis of the idea came in March when Hannon and his father went to see what would happen if they tried what Vinatieri did.
“We saw ( Vinatieri) kick and watched that video, and he was taking three steps,” Jim Hannon said. “I didn’t think we would have to. We took a video off the phone with a timer so we could tell exactly. We only had 10 balls, and he kicked all 10 in 12 seconds. That told me he was pacing 50. We’ve done it a few times since then with more balls.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t be trying to do it if we didn’t think we could.”
Parker Hannon loves football but is not very big (5-9, 140 pounds). That led to kicking. His father got to know Buddy Curry, the 1980 NFL defensive rookie of the year with the Atlanta Falcons through Curry’s Kids & Pros football camps. When he asked Curry for a suggestion on a potential instructor for Parker, Curry provided a phone number.
“He said, ‘Give this guy a call,’ and he gave me Morten Andersen’s number,” Jim Hannon said. “The first thing Morten said is, ‘Can he kick full-size balls?’ He told us he’d meet us over at this field. It was 2 o’clock in the afternoon and the temperature was 105 degrees on the turf. But he stayed out there and took a liking to Parker.
“Morten made him one of the best kickers in the country in six weeks. Morten really went out of his way to help us, and turns out Parker has a real knack for kicking.”
Parker Hannon has been practicing almost daily to break the record, continuing to work on the speed he said he needs to get enough balls up.
Asked about the pressure and the TV cameras expected, he says matter-of-factly, “You can’t really be a good kicker if you do bad under pressure.”
“My dad thought it would be cool to get exposure and reach out to colleges, and I thought it would be pretty neat.” Parker Hannon, on his world-record try