- Does the name Chester Marcol
mean anything to either of you?
- Oh yeah, Chester Marcol.
- Yeah my good buddy.
- Yeah, we go way back.
So no.
- Not at all.
- Don't feel bad, even Alex Rubenstein didn't know
who Chester Marcol was.
- Oh, our like human computer brain?
- The human computer.
But, he is the kicker who kicked a touchdown to himself.
- That's dope.
- You can do that?
- So Chester Marcol was a kicker for the Packers in the 70s.
He started in 72, he won offensive rookie of the year,
he led the league in scoring,
so he was like a pretty good kicker.
The Packers sucked in the 70s though,
and he kind of tailed off, had some injuries,
but in 1980, week 1, this is all that matters.
Week 1 they were playing the Bears at Lambeau,
and it was six-six in overtime.
- Oh what an ugly score.
- It was just a better game back then though,
just all that defense?
- Sure, yeah.
- Packers and Chester Marcol are lined up
for a 35 yard field goal, and this would win the game.
When I say a kicker kicked a touchdown to himself,
how do you envision that actually happens?
- So, okay, right off the top I'm thinking
where I think most of our minds are going,
is it goes up and it just goes up so high like a cartoon,
that it just kind of like Wile E. Coyote's in the air
for a little bit, and he's able to run into the end zone,
and then it comes down and he catches it for a touchdown.
- I think he just kicks it off the center's butt,
and it comes back to him,
and he just stands there for a second,
and is like "did I just do that?"
and then he looks at the ref, and the ref's like:
"plays not dead."
And the music montage starts to play.
- Right, right, Benny Hill theme comes in.
Kofie, you're close, you are close.
But, because it is entirely legal,
the Bears were the ones that touched it.
So he kicked it, the Bears immediately block it,
and it goes straight back into Chester.
- Cool.
- Like, in the perfect way
where it's not even like he had an amazing reaction time
to catch it,
it was just like it came to him in a way
that his body could do nothing but catch it.
- It's one of those things where
you're almost sort of instinctively trying
to stop something from hitting you,
you also happen to, I did it so many time in tee-ball,
where I was more trying
to keep the ball from hitting my face,
because I happened to have a glove on my hand,
I also caught it, and that looks cool.
Like yeah, I totally meant to do that.
- That boy's hand-eye is great.
No he's just a coward.
(laughs)
But I will give Chester credit,
because he catches it and immediately just runs to the left.
- Cool.
- Untouched, 25 yard touchdown, in overtime, to win.
That's that.
He then, at Lambeau, instead of doing the leap,
does more of a cower,
it feels like his body has failed to comprehend
what just happened, and he is just cowering on the wall,
as his fans are over him cheering,
and his teammates come up, and just is like terrified.
Like you can't even see it get blocked.
- [Ryan] That's so fast!
That's incredible.
- [Kofie] That's elite camera work.
- [Will] And then he runs, into the wall, a cop hugs him,
and this is the best part, oh my god.
- So first of all, first of all, oh my god.
Those are Squints from "The Sandlot" glasses.
That's insane.
- Those are the glasses that they give Marines
that could be run over by tanks.
- The Drew Carey glasses.
- Yeah.
Look at that cop, the cop is batting people out of the way
to say like "me, me! I wanna hug him first"
That cop has to go to his desk job later.
- Oh absolutely.
- If I played for the Packers,
I would never do a Lambeau leap because it's just like,
I don't want beer on myself,
I don't wanna get the shit kicked out of me.
- [Ryan] You're gonna get groped.
- The shit kicked out of my with a helmet on,
with the fans that love me being like:
"aw buddy, you did it."
- Also as like a professional athlete,
don't really wanna be around normal people.
- [Ryan] Right.
- [Will] Like I've elevated myself to a certain status.
- [Ryan] You wanna stay separated from the plebs.
- [Will] There's a reason I am on the field.
- Also, I wouldn't attempt a Lambeau Leap,
only because I would be too afraid
that I wouldn't get my ass up over the edge,
so I would try it and just kind of like,
flop against the wall and hit the ground and be like,
every camera in this place is on me right now,
I might as well just throw myself into an ocean
or something.
- I don't think it's fear, you're being a realist.
Oh yeah, Will, he scored a touchdown in the first quarter,
but he was out the rest of the game
because he tore both of his quads,
he tore everything in his leg trying to jump into,
he really kind of just Shamu'd from the field into the wall,
and then the fans pulled him up.
- That would be a top five Schefter tweet.
(laughs)
Will is out for the game, failed Lambeau Leap, questionable.
- So going back to his face after the score,
and the reaction times, one of you mention the adrenaline,
that would be coursing through you at this point.
He also had cocaine rushing through his system.
I got his book, it's a a very interesting book.
He described being introduced to cocaine
a week before this game, and called it love at first snort,
(laughs)
Those were his exact words. - Oh, that famous phrase.
- Just beautiful, Shakespeare.
He said at halftime of this game, he did a bump.
Between adrenaline and residual cocaine strength,
he said he felt like King Kong.
- As a kicker to do coke, out of all NFL positions,
a kicker to do coke?
Like I get running back, like you need the extra energy
and excitement, but kicker I feel like,
- I get it,
because you're spending so much downtime on the sideline,
that you kinda keep yourself entertained somehow.
- His lifestyles choices made kicking not good,
to the point where like, he in his book, he said like,
he was hoping the team would score lots of touchdowns,
so he wouldn't have to try field goals.
- Drugs or otherwise that is 100% how I would operate
as a kicker.
Please score here so that I don't have to, oh, great.
Nice!
Go quick to the chip shot for the extra point,
and then I'd take a break.
- I feel like when the NFL moved the extra point back,
I feel like a lot of kickers were like "what are you doing?"
(laughs)
Like I live for those moments, not this shit.
- We had a good thing going man, come on, Rog?
So they cut him, he had some pretty hard years,
but then he became a substance abuse counselor,
and is doing well.
- That's good to hear.
- Did he ever make it back into the NFL?
- After the Packers cut him, the Oilers signed him
they actually kicked against the Packers,
but this was his last season.
- Sports in the 80s ruled.
There was way more drugs, easier to get,
there's less rules, there's way less safety rules.
- Yeah, actually yeah.
- And it just seemed more fun to be there.
Maybe not to watch it on TV, it looked like shit.
- [Kofie] Coked out baseball seems way more exciting.
- [Ryan] Baseball I would agree with you.
- Baseball needs coke.
- I would not have survived the 80s, absolutely not.