Tucked inside an updated version of Mary Kay Cabot’s column regarding Phil Dawson (as discussed here on Thursday), is a line item regarding the Cleveland Browns trying out a kicker named Håvard Rugland.
Rugland, 28, is a Norwegian known to many as “Kickalicious,” a trick-kick — the football equal of the basketball trick shot — artist who became an Internet sensation when he posted a YouTube video of him placing footballs into various confined, moving locations.
Rugland has never played football and comes from a soccer background. In addition to kicking footballs into boats and moving cars, Rugland allegedly has the leg to also kick 60-yard field goals, but scouts say that he tends to take more than the two or three requisite steps used by NFL kickers.
Cabot believes it is highly unlikely that the team signs the 6-foot-2-inch, 245-pound Rugland, who would replace Pro Bowl kicker Phil Dawson. Dawson, a former free agent, signed a one-year $2.25 million deal with the San Francisco 49ers.
“I think the Browns will do a good job of not only selecting whoever it’s going to be, but working with him and being patient with him,” said Dawson. “I’m going to be pulling for him. I’d just encourage everyone to be patient and embrace the new guy and support him the way they have done me.”
[Related: The Browns are right to lay low with Lombardi]
