John Carney reached out to Vikings about kicking coach job

Given the issues that they’ve hard at the position in recent years. . .and by “recent” I mean “for about 20 years or so”. . .it was no surprise when Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer mentioned during this offseason that the team was looking for a kicking coach. A report has surfaced that one of the NFL’s all-time great kickers reached out to the team about such an arrangement, but was rebuffed.

John Carney, who is the fifth-leading scorer in the history of the National Football League and one of the few players to play in the NFL in four different decades, told the Vikings that he would be willing to serve as the team’s part-time kicking coach, according to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

“I did offer my services on a part-time basis,” Carney said about talking to Minnesota special-teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf. “I do run a business in California, so I couldn’t do a full-time deal … It would be difficult to close (the Carney Training Facility) down for five months.”

And what was the Vikings’ response to Carney’s offer?

“I think they’re looking for a guy full time,” Carney said.

Carney’s career began back in 1988, and he played for seven NFL teams over the course of a career that came to an end in 2010. He has scored 2,062 career points. He converted 82.4% of his field goals over the course of his career.

According to the article from Tomasson, Carney does have some familiarity with the Vikings, as he has worked with punter Matt Wile on both his punting skills and his holding skills. However, it doesn’t look as though Carney is going to get more familiar with the team by becoming part of the coaching staff, and that’s unfortunate, to say the least.

Hopefully the Vikings can find someone with Carney’s credentials to handle the job going forward.