Ray Wersching gets a kick out of Chargers’ fair catch free kick
EL SEGUNDO — Ray Wersching was relaxing at home Thursday night in San Francisco. He was watching the Chargers-Denver Broncos game on TV when something heightened his attention as the game neared halftime at SoFi Stadium. Something on the field took him back nearly 50 years.
A punt. A fair catch. A penalty.
“At the time he caught the ball, no, I think I’m still safe,” Wersching recalled saying to himself. “He’s not going to try it from 70-some-odd yards. Then there was a penalty and I went, ‘Uh-oh,’ and that brought it 15 yards closer. This is it. He’s going to make it. I know he is, and he did.”
It took a number of circumstances for the Chargers’ Cameron Dicker to become the first kicker to convert a fair catch free kick since Wersching did it while with the Chargers during the 1976 season. The play hardly ever happens because teams almost never find themselves in circumstances to make such a kick feasible. Only five NFL teams had previously tried the kick in the 21st century, and nobody had successfully executed it since Wersching booted a 45-yard free kick on Nov. 21, 1976 against the Buffalo Bills.
First, it had to happen with Coach Jim Harbaugh standing on the Chargers’ sideline, a self-professed fan of the free kick. Second, it had to happen with the Chargers’ practicing and reviewing the free kick scenario under the watchful eyes of special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken.
Third, it had to happen with the Broncos interfering with return specialist Derius Davis’ fair catch attempt at his own 38-yard line. A free kick from there would have been a dicey proposition, but with a 15-yard penalty moving the ball to the Broncos’ 47-yard line, well, there was no better time to try it.
After the Chargers called timeout to get their personnel sorted out and after the Broncos called timeout to figure out what Harbaugh had up his sleeve, Dicker and holder JK Scott lined up in a kickoff formation rather than in a field-goal formation. Dicker kicked the ball high and far and through the uprights.
The Broncos lined up in a kickoff formation, too, unable to rush Dicker, per the rules.
“At the original spot, no,” Wersching said Monday when asked if he believed the Chargers would go for the free kick. “As soon as they moved it up, yes.”
At that moment, Wersching thought back to his four seasons with the Chargers, before he joined the 49ers for the 1977 season, going on to win two Super Bowl championships with San Francisco. His free kick was all but lost in the dust bin of history until last week.
“It has been a while, but it was odd because you’re out there, basically, by yourself,” he recalled. “Opponents are 10 yards away. You’ve got the holder right there and you can move whenever you want. It’s like practice. It’s not that it’s easy, but it made it a lot more comfortable, put it that way.”
The Chargers brought Wersching to El Segundo on Monday, a surprise guest called upon to speak to the players after their first practice after Dicker’s kick ignited a rally from a 21-10 deficit to a rousing 34-27 victory over the Broncos. The victory moved the Chargers within one of securing a playoff berth.
Wersching met first with Ficken in the lobby of the Chargers’ headquarters before heading out onto the field to watch practice as a guest as the Spanos family, team owners. Wersching then met with Dicker, who was shown a photo of Wersching from his kicking days in the NFL.
“Dude’s quads were massive,” Dicker said. “I called him the ‘Quad Father.’ It was cool to meet him.”
Dicker’s free kick also capped a nearly 20-year quest for Harbaugh, who recalled Monday that he first tried for a fair catch free kick when he was a first-year coach at the University of San Diego. In his retelling, it was during a game against Drake University on a windy day on the road.
Harbaugh recalled he signaled frantically for his return specialist to make a fair catch in order to set up a free kick attempt in the final seconds before halftime. A moment later, one of the game officials came over to ask him what turned out to be a very important question.
“The side judge, he nudged me and he goes, ‘Hey, Coach, are you trying to set up a fair catch free kick? Let me try to save you some embarrassment because that’s not a college rule. That’s only a professional rule and a high school rule,’” Harbaugh said, remembering that he quickly called off the fair catch.