| No. 4, 11 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Placekicker | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1960-07-17)July 17, 1960 (age 65) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 207 lb (94 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Jefferson (Alexandria) | ||||||||
| College | James Madison (1978–1981) | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1982: undrafted | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Scott Allan Norwood (born July 17, 1960) is an American former professionalfootball player who was aplacekicker for seven seasons with theBuffalo Bills of theNational Football League (NFL). He also played for theBirmingham Stallions in theUnited States Football League (USFL) for two seasons. As Buffalo's placekicker, Norwood led the league in scoring for the 1988 season and played in their first twoSuper Bowl appearances. Despite his accomplishments, he is best known formissing a game-winning field goal attempt at the end ofSuper Bowl XXV.
Norwood was born inAlexandria, Virginia and graduated fromThomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria in 1978.[1] He played both football and soccer atJames Madison University and graduated with a business degree in 1982.[2]
Norwood began his professional career with theBirmingham Stallions of theUnited States Football League, playing two seasons before the Stallions signedDanny Miller to replace him.
Norwood was one of many players the Bills picked up as the USFL contracted and ultimately collapsed; he eventually beat outTodd Schlopy (who would later come back when Norwood went on strike in 1987) for the Bills' starting kicker position. He quickly became an asset to an offense that was going places as the Bills'general manager,Bill Polian, assembled talent likeJim Kelly,Thurman Thomas, andBruce Smith. Within two seasons of Norwood's arrival, the Bills had won theAFC East for the first time since 1980 and made it to the conference championship game. He soon overtookO. J. Simpson as the team's all-time leading scorer. Following the 1990 season, the Bills advanced to their first-everSuper Bowl.
Norwood'sfield goal range was unusually short for a professional kicker[citation needed] and he had difficulties in converting field goals over 40 yards throughout his career, especially on natural grass (the Bills' home stadium usedAstroTurf, which mitigated this issue).Super Bowl XXV, which was played on January 27, 1991, cemented Norwood's name in football history when he missed a 47-yard field goal attempt with 8 seconds left in the game, giving theNew York Giants their 2nd Super Bowl victory, and started the Bills' string of four consecutive Super Bowl losses. This kick was made famous by the "wide right" call by ABC announcerAl Michaels. Later video analysis revealed the holder mistakenly aligned the laces to the right, thereby positioning the kicked ball to fade right once in the air.
Although the Bills signedBjörn Nittmo as Norwood's potential replacement in the 1991 offseason, Norwood remained with the Bills through that season. The Bills returned to the Super Bowl and Norwood was perfect throughout the postseason, including a 44-yard field goal that served as the decisive margin in the AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos.[3]
Norwood was waived in the first roster move of the off-season after the Bills signedSteve Christie, formerly of theTampa Bay Buccaneers.[4]
After the Bills waived him, Norwood initially returned home toNorthern Virginia and disappeared completely from the public eye for several years, eventually becoming an insurance salesman during the 1990s then moving back to Buffalo as a real estate agent in 2002.[4][5][6]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | FGM | FGA | FG% | XPM | XPA | XP% | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | BUF | 16 | 13 | 17 | 76.5 | 23 | 23 | 100.0 | 62 |
| 1986 | BUF | 16 | 17 | 27 | 63.0 | 32 | 34 | 94.1 | 83 |
| 1987 | BUF | 12 | 10 | 15 | 66.7 | 31 | 31 | 100.0 | 61 |
| 1988 | BUF | 16 | 32 | 37 | 86.5 | 33 | 33 | 100.0 | 129 |
| 1989 | BUF | 16 | 23 | 30 | 76.7 | 46 | 47 | 97.9 | 115 |
| 1990 | BUF | 16 | 20 | 29 | 69.0 | 50 | 52 | 96.2 | 110 |
| 1991 | BUF | 16 | 18 | 29 | 62.1 | 56 | 58 | 96.6 | 110 |
| Total | 108 | 133 | 184 | 72.3 | 271 | 278 | 97.5 | 670 | |
| Year | Team | GP | FGM | FGA | FG% | XPM | XPA | XP% | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | BUF | 2 | 2 | 5 | 40.0 | 3 | 3 | 100.0 | 9 |
| 1989 | BUF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 3 | 4 | 75.0 | 6 |
| 1990 | BUF | 3 | 5 | 7 | 71.4 | 13 | 14 | 92.9 | 28 |
| 1991 | BUF | 3 | 5 | 5 | 100.0 | 8 | 8 | 100.0 | 23 |
| Total | 9 | 13 | 18 | 72.2 | 27 | 29 | 93.1 | 66 | |
Norwood lives with his wife Kimberly in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Centreville, Virginia. They have three children: twins Carly and Connor (born 1995) and Corey (born 1996).[4]
In the 1994 filmAce Ventura: Pet Detective, a key plot point involves a kicker for the 1984Miami Dolphins named Ray Finkle; in the story, Finkle misses a field goal attempt in the closing moments of Super Bowl XVII, causing the Dolphins to lose the game to theSan Francisco 49ers by a single point–an obvious reference to Norwood's infamous kick in Super Bowl XXV.[7][8] (In reality, the Super Bowl played for the1984 season,Super Bowl XIX was contested between Miami and San Francisco; the 49ers won 38–16.)
In the 1998 filmBuffalo '66, the main character, Billy Brown, desires to murder a former Buffalo kicker named "Scott Wood," whose missed field goal led to Brown losing a large bet, which Brown blames for ruining his life.