Patriots Reportedly Welcoming YouTube Trick Shot Kicker Josh Gable In For Workout
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- In the wake of Stephen Gostkowski's season-ending IR placement on Wednesday, the Patriots are likely to choose their next kicker on Thursday. While the list of candidates includes a number of names, there's only one that could be considered fun.
That name would be Josh Gable, known mostly (or entirely) for his trick shot kicking videos on YouTube.
According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Gable is being brought in for a workout in Foxboro on Thursday.
The #Patriots are working out more kickers today, bringing in FA Younghoe Koo and... this guy: Josh Gable, whose YouTube videos are bananas. The former kicker for the Nebraska Danger of the IFL spent one rookie minicamp in NE. https://t.co/FcHhYpVXPt and https://t.co/igu3Gffj6I
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 3, 2019
This isn't Bill Belichick's first foray into the world of the YouTube trick shot artist, as the Patriots invited Gable to minicamp in 2017.
A former professional soccer player, Gable did not play college football, but he has since done some professional kicking in the Indoor Football League. According to the IFL's website, Gable successfully kicked just 57 percent of his 28 field-goal attempts in 2017 while going 40-for-47 (85 percent) on PAT attempts.
Those stats don't sound great, but we're no experts on Indoor Football League kicking averages. Those goalposts are pretty tight, you know?
What we are experts on is watching totally sweet YouTube videos. And when it comes to Gable's YouTube videos? Oh, are they ever totally sweet.
Roll it!
Oh man. If ever the Patriots need someone to use a tee and kick a ball off a light post, Gable is their man. (Why did Lit start playing at the end of that? The world may never know.)
Most of those kicks would appear to have absolutely no value in a football game. But that's neither here nor there, now is it?
Now, with nobody else on the field looking to block his kick, without 70,000 fans hooting and hollering, without wind/rain/snow to make life difficult, that video doesn't necessarily mean that Gable can kick field goals from his own 30-yard line.
If more traditional kicking videos are more your thing, he's got that, too.
OK, OK, OK, I hear you. I can hear you all screaming: "But what about his videos from the Tucson Sugar Skulls?!" I know, it's been egregious to not have included the obvious footage thus far. But fear not, it's online.
(Gable went 6-for-16 on field goals with the Sugar Skulls, and 50-for-57 on PATs. Again, that doesn't sound great, but the Sugar Skulls' other kicker went 1-for-14 on field goal attempts, which is ... decidedly worse.)
Gable also has an Instagram page, full of sweeeeet videos (including some hype videos for his kickoffs, which were particularly enjoyable). Like this one.
If doing that in a game is not technically illegal, it's easy to envision Belichick calling for it on Monday Night Football.
Eh. Never mind. Doesn't seem like a high percentage play anymore.
Did you catch that caption? It said "wind-aided." That's the type of humility that will play well in the Patriots locker room.
Again, some of these kicks aren't really legal in the NFL. Not necessarily. But maybe instead of kicking into a net, Gable could reinvent the game of kicker practice on the sidelines.
Jokes aside, there's no denying that the fellow has himself a strong leg. And he likes the Backstreet Boys. There's really no reason for him to not be in the NFL already.
Realistically, the Patriots are likeliest to sign an NFL kicker. But with Belichick still running the show -- the same Belichick who drafted a rugby player, who converted an All-American wrestler into a solid offensive lineman, who converted Julian Edelman from a college quarterback to a dynamic receiver, who used kick returner/wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson as an effective running back, who gleefully instructed Doug Flutie to pull off that dropkick that one time, and who currently employs a Division II defensive back as his punt returner/wide receiver in Gunner Olszewski -- an outside-the-box move like this one cannot be ruled out.
Even an old school football guy like Belichick can admit that those videos are sweet.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
UPDATE: Unfortunately for everyone, it looks as though the Patriots have gone the boring, totally-not-sweet route by signing veteran kicker Mike Nugent.