SI Vault September 10, 2012 The do-or-die life of
kickers—outsiders in their own game—forges a bond that connects
them across generations, and misses Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font September 10, 2012're Not Even A Real
Player...03...02...but You Will Make This Kick...   View
CoverRead All Articles  Ten years after the kick that changed
his life, Phil Brabbs walked onto the patio of a coffee shop
last Thursday and took three steps back, two to the left.
Moments earlier he'd looked like any other suntanned tourist in
Emerald Isle, N.C., checking his e-mail at the Beans-N-Screens
Internet Café. Now he was standing over an imaginary left hash
mark, in his sandals, reciting Philippians 4:13. It was the
verse he chose at Michigan Stadium on Aug. 31, 2002, with five
seconds remaining and the Wolverines trailing Washington 29--28.
Brabbs was a junior at Ann Arbor who took out student loans
because he was not on scholarship. Until that day he had never
attempted a field goal in college. Early in