Wade Edward Richey (born May 19, 1976) 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 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). He is widely regarded as having one of the strongest legs in high school, collegiate and NFL history.

Early life

Richey began his football career at

Carencro High School Carencro High School is a Lafayette Parish high school located in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. Carencro High School is one of six Lafayette Parish Public High Schools. Geographically, the school is located approximately 3.5 miles north ...

Carencro, Louisiana Carencro (; historically french: St.-Pierre) is a city in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a suburb of the nearby city of Lafayette. The population was 7,526 at the 2010 census, up from 6,120 in 2000; at the 2020 census, its p ...

. While at Carencro, he converted 24-of-34 field goals, including a 52-yard field goal in 1992 and a 53-yard field goal in 1993. Richey also converted a career total of 46-of-49 extra points, while 90 percent of his kickoffs resulted in touchbacks. 37 of those kickoffs split the uprights. At the end of his senior year, Richey was ranked as the number-one kicker in the nation and was named to the USA Today All-American football team.

At LSU

Over 30 universities offered Richey a full athletic scholarship, making him one of the most coveted kicking specialists in high school football history. Richey eventually stayed in-state, choosing

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

over Stanford and Notre Dame. Richey struggled at LSU, converting just 8-of-23 field goals. He was primarily a

kickoff specialist A kickoff specialist is a special teams position in gridiron football. They are responsible for kicking the ball in the kickoff. These players tend to have a strong leg, often capable of making touchbacks, and capable of keeping a ball in the bound ...

at LSU during his freshman and sophomore years but seized the starting role in 1996 as a junior. During the 1996 season he set a LSU school record with a 54-yard field goal against Kentucky. In the 1997 season, he was responsible for most of the placekicking duties, splitting time with back-up placekicker Danny Boyd.

Professional career

After his collegiate career, Richey went undrafted but signed with the Seattle Seahawks for the 1998 preseason. Richey's impressive preseason performance with the Seahawks prompted 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 ...

to claim him off waivers, making him the starter for their season opener. Richey played from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

– 2002 for the

and the San Diego Chargers. In the 2003 he played for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

as a kickoff specialist and converted a 56-yard field goal against the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

on Sept. 14, 2003.

Life After Football

Richey retired after the 2004 season. He currently resides in

, where he works for Hartwig, Inc. as a Sales Engineer. {{DEFAULTSORT:Richey, Wade 1976 births Living people Players of American football from Lafayette, Louisiana American football placekickers LSU Tigers football players San Francisco 49ers players San Diego Chargers players Baltimore Ravens players