Jeffrey Allen Wilkins (born April 19, 1972), nicknamed "Money", 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 ...

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

and

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

of 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). With the Rams, he won

Super Bowl XXXIV Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on January 30, 2000, to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 NFL season, 1999 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champ ...

over the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergraduate colleges an ...

. Wilkins is currently tied for second place all time in most consecutive PATs without a miss at 371.

Early life

Wilkins played for Austintown Fitch High School in the

Austintown, Ohio Austintown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place within Austintown Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The population was 29,594 at the 2020 census. Located directly west of Youngstown, it is a suburb of the Youn ...

suburb of

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

College career

, Wilkins made a school record 66 field goals, with a long of 54 (a school record). While at Youngstown State, the

Penguins Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

won the 1991 and 1993

Division I-AA The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

National Championships under future

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

head coach

Jim Tressel James Patrick Tressel (born December 5, 1952) is an American college football coach and university administrator who is currently the president of Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. Before becoming an administrator, Tressel was the ...

. Wilkins was inducted in the YSU Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Professional career

Wilkins signed with the

in 1994, but played in just six games and did not attempt a single field goal or extra point. The following season, he joined the 49ers. While he only played in seven games, he had a superb season, kicking 12 of 13 field goals. In 1996, he finally saw duty as his team's full-time kicker and did not disappoint, kicking 30 of 34 field goals and all 40 extra point attempts. In 1997, he joined the Rams, where he played the remainder of his career and became the team's all-time leading scorer. Wilkins assisted his team to a championship win in

, kicking three of four field goals and two extra points in the Rams 23–16 win over the

. He also kicked a 50-yard field goal in the Rams 20–17 loss in

Super Bowl XXXVI Super Bowl XXXVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

. Some consider Wilkins to be the last player to kick barefoot in the NFL, doing so for the first seven games of the 2002 season. However, many years later, Wilkins told ESPN writer Sam Borden that he did not consider himself to have been a barefoot kicker because his kicking foot was so heavily taped as a short-lived attempt to fix his kicking woes, and that he himself did not consider himself among the lineage of barefoot kickers. In 2003, Wilkins kicked an NFL record-tying 39 field goals (then shared with former

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears kicker

Olindo Mare Olindo Franco Mare (born June 6, 1973) is a former American football placekicker. He was originally signed by the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 1996. He played college football at MacMurray College and Syracuse. Mare, who was se ...

), which stood until surpassed by

Neil Rackers Neil William Rackers (born August 16, 1976) is a former American football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He played college football for the University of Illinois. Rackers was drafted by ...

' 40 field goals in 2005. In St. Louis' opening game of the 2006 season, Wilkins set a franchise record by kicking six field goals in their 18–10 win over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

. He also became the first Rams player ever to score over 1,000 points. On November 11, 2007, Wilkins kicked his 300th career field goal against the New Orleans Saints. Wilkins announced his retirement from the NFL on February 29, 2008.

NFL career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Jeff 1972 births Living people American football placekickers National Conference Pro Bowl players Philadelphia Eagles players St. Louis Rams players San Francisco 49ers players Youngstown State Penguins football players Players of American football from Youngstown, Ohio