Kody Andrew Bliss (born February 21, 1985) 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 attended

Brentwood Academy Brentwood Academy is a coeducational Christian independent college preparatory school located in Brentwood, Tennessee, for grades 6–12. History The charter of Brentwood Academy was signed on November 20, 1969, after ten acres of land on Gr ...

Brentwood, Tennessee Brentwood is a city in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 45,373 as of the 2020 United States census.collegiately at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

. He is currently an emergency medicine resident physician at LSUHSC Baton Rouge Emergency Medicine program in Baton Rouge, LA.

College career

While at Auburn, Bliss was on the

Ray Guy Award The Ray Guy Award is presented annually to college football's most outstanding punter as adjudged by the Augusta Sports Council. The award is named after punter Ray Guy, an All-American for Southern Mississippi and an All-Pro in the National Foo ...

watchlist in 2006, his senior year. During that season, he led the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

with 46.1 yards per punt and also had 12 downed inside the 20-yard line. This performance earned him second team All- SEC honors from the AP and the SEC

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. He also finished first-team all-SEC in 2005. He also earned SEC

Special Teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

Player of the Week against

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 ...

. During his career at Auburn, Bliss totalled 202 punts for 8,861 yards. He finished with a 43.9 yard per punt average, the highest average in Auburn's history at the time and only passed in 2018 by

Arryn Siposs Arryn Siposs ( ; born 25 November 1992) is an Australian professional American football punter for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kild ...

. Bliss' career long was a 71 yard boot versus

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, but he had punts of over 60 yards in all four seasons. DraftShowcase.com ranked Bliss as the second best punter available for the 2007 NFL Draft, while Scout.com have him as the 4th overall. After a strong showing in the 82nd annual

East-West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

, ''

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'' wrote that "Bliss can punt long, high and with accuracy. If any punter is selected in this draft, Bliss is among the first three with a chance".

Pro career

CFL

Despite the ratings, Bliss went

undrafted In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

by the NFL and subsequently signed with the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

. Bliss was ultimately unable to unseat longtime Eskimos veteran and native-Canadian Sean Fleming to make the roster and was released on June 23, 2007.

AAFL

Bliss was among those protected by the

All American Football League The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...

Team Alabama The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...

Personal life

Bliss was among the inaugural class of 345 inductees into the National Football Foundation's National Honor Society, a recognition program for players who excel both on the field and in the classroom. Bliss graduated with a degree in marketing and earned a 3.45 cumulative GPA. Bliss graduated with a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

from the

University of Alabama School of Medicine A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

in 2017 and subsequently began residency training in Emergency Medicine at LSUHSC Baton Rouge Emergency Medicine program in Baton Rouge, LA.

References

External links

Player bio at AuburnTigers.comKody Bliss stats at Yahoo.comKody Bliss profile at ESPN.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bliss, Kody 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Enid, Oklahoma Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee American football punters Auburn Tigers football players