Jim O'Brien (born February 7, 1947) 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 wi ...
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.
S ...
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 majo ...
. He played for the
Baltimore Colts
The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...
from
1970 to
1972 and 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 For ...
in
1973. He also played
wide receiver, catching the bulk of his career passes during the
1972 season while still performing his kicking duties. O'Brien is best remembered for kicking a game-winning field goal in the waning seconds of
Super Bowl V, making him the first of only three placekickers to accomplish such a feat.
Career
O'Brien attended the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...
, where he led the nation in scoring as a football senior. He also played basketball for the
Bearcats. O'Brien graduated from
Aiken High School in Cincinnati and had an appointment to the
U.S. Air Force Academy, but received a medical discharge for an ulcer.
O'Brien, nicknamed "Lassie" by his teammates, had an auspicious start with his rookie season, making 19 of 34 field goals while having a peak of 48 yards for longest kick. O'Brien would prove to have a crucial part within mixed success in the postseason. In the Colts' run to
Super Bowl V, O'Brien made 3 of 7 field goals while being perfect on all five extra points leading up to the final game against the
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
. It was O'Brien that played a part in setting the stage for the first big kick of the Super Bowl, as he had made just one of his two extra points (the missed one had been blocked) that meant the score was 13-13 late in the fourth quarter. A
Mike Curtis interception brought the ball to the 28 yard-line, and on third down with seven yards to go, O'Brien was sent to kick a field goal. Before kicking the field goal, teammates saw that O'Brien was so nervous, he tried to take some of the artificial turf off the field to figure out the wind, thinking the field was regular grass. With nine seconds remaining, his kick sailed through the uprights to make the first Super Bowl to be decided in the fourth quarter. For twenty years, it would be the only Super Bowl to be decided on a field goal (
Super Bowl XXV however was the first to have the field goal be the true last play of the game, as V ended on a failed long pass attempt). Because of his singular moment kicking the Super Bowl-winning field goal,
NFL Films named him the #9 "One-Hit Wonder" of all time. In the NFL Films video, his former Colt teammates amusedly related that they saw "Lassie" as a hippie due to his long hair (
Bubba Smith clarified that O'Brien wasn't actually a hippie type in any way except for his hair) and that they planned to forcibly shear his long locks after the Super Bowl, but after he made the championship-winning kick
Bill Curry got the veterans to agree that O'Brien deserved to keep his hair just as it was. Curry told a visibly relieved O'Brien he was both a world champion and would not get an involuntary crew cut.
The next season, O'Brien kicked 20 out of 29 field goals successfully while having a peak of 50 yards on one kick. He missed just one extra point during the season. He regressed wildly in 1972, having gone 13 of 31 while having a peak of just 42 yards on his kicks. He also caught 11 passes for 263 yards for two touchdowns during the season, which proved to be his last in Baltimore. He rejected the Colts' suggestion that he focus on being a wide receiver in 1972, and was traded to Detroit for a draft pick before the 1972 season. He made 8 of 14 field goals with a peak of 39 yards while making every extra point. In 1974, O'Brien was hit in the face with a beer bottle while at a bar and required surgery for a cut cornea. He cited this as likely a big reason for him not latching on to a team after that incident.
Ultimately, O'Brien posted a 55.6 percentage with 60 of 108
field goal attempts made.
Personal life
Since retirement, O'Brien has worked in project management for construction in
Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown. It is named after the many oak tr ...
.
See also
*
List of NCAA major college football yearly scoring leaders
References
External links
NFL.com player page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Jim
1947 births
Living people
American football placekickers
American football wide receivers
Baltimore Colts players
Cincinnati Bearcats football players
Detroit Lions players
Players of American football from El Paso, Texas