William Herman Weaver (born November 17, 1948), nicknamed "Thunderfoot", is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

punter. He played 11 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) from 1970 to 1980. He spent his first seven years punting for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

and the last four years with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. During his career, Weaver punted 693 times for 27,897 total yards. In 1975, Weaver was named the NFC Punter of the Year and in 1988 ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' called him “One of the Top 20 Punters of all Time”. Weaver shares the all-time NFL record for having the most punts blocked in a career with 14. Weaver played college football for the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

. While at Tennessee, he had a punt of 71 yards. He also had the best hang-time ever of 5.7 seconds.

"Thunderfoot"

The Detroit Lions were preparing for their game on

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

, Weaver stepped back to punt as the special teams took the field.

Howard Cosell Howard is an English language, English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (disambiguation), Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defe ...

was watching practice and at the highest point of the ball flight, a blast of thunder let out of the sky. The next night on Monday Night Football, Cosell referred to Weaver as "Thunderfoot".

Career statistics

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1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

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Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, 14 , , 62 , , 2,483 , , 40.0 , , , , 65 , , 1 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

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, 13 , , 42 , , 1,752 , , 41.7 , , , , 63 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 2 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 14 , , 43 , , 1,734 , , 40.3 , , , , 55 , , 0 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 14 , , 54 , , 2,333 , , 43.2 , , , , 66 , , 1 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

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, 14 , , 72 , , 2,772 , , 38.5 , , , , 61 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 2 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 14 , , 80 , , 3,361 , , 42.0 , , , , 61 , , 1 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 14 , , 83 , , 3,280 , , 39.5 , , , , 69 , , 1 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

, style="text-align:center;",

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, 13 , , 58 , , 2,293 , , 39.5 , , , , 59 , , 1 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 66 , , 2,440 , , 37.0 , , , , 59 , , 0 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 66 , , 2,651 , , 40.2 , , , , 60 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 3 , - , style="text-align:center;",

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 16 , , 67 , , 2,798 , , 41.8 , , , , 69 , , style="background:#cfecec;", 2 , - , - class="sortbottom" style="background:#eee;" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 158 , , 693 , , 27,897 , , 40.3 , , , , 69 , , style="background:#e0cef2;", 14

Honors

*NFC Punter of the Year, 1975 *"One of the top 20 punters of all time," ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'', 1988

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Herman 1948 births Living people Players of American football from Villa Rica, Georgia American football punters Tennessee Volunteers football players Detroit Lions players Seattle Seahawks players