Updated: 6:15 p.m.
 Stitser |
The man who has sold more homes than teams since he last kicked for Fresno State three years ago is going to make his NFL debut Sunday at 1 p.m. at Paul Brown Stadium when the Bengals play the defending Super Bowl champion Saints.
“Very exciting,” he said.
Stitser emerged from a tryout in what he called a “monsoon” at rainy PBS that also included Nick Novak, Sam Swank and Garrett Lindholm. Swank once finished a preseason for the Bengals kicking for the injured Shayne Graham, and Novak had been in once for a tryout. The Bengals have interest in long-time NFL kicker Kris Brown, but he won’t be coming in after the Jets didn’t sign him in New York following his tryout Tuesday. Apparently he’s waiting to see how the embattled Nick Folk holds up in New England on Monday night.
Stitser has been looking for a job since the Seahawks cut him Aug. 31 after he made his only NFL field-goal attempt, a 35-yarder in a preseason game against Green Bay. The Jets cut him after the May camps. He played from 2004-07 at Fresno and hit 37 of 52 field-goal attempts for 71.2 percent while scoring 223 points.
For the second time in two weeks the Bengals went the neophyte route in the wake of
“Ever since college I’ve continually been told to hang in there and keep at it and be ready when the opportunity comes,” Stitser said. “Getting a kicking job in the NFL is all about perseverance and timing.”
Before the Jets signed him April 6 a few weeks before the last draft, Stitser, 25, figured he had tried out for four or five teams while selling residential real estate in Reno for Chase International. He’s also the kicking coach for McQueen High School, his alma mater. But he won’t be there this weekend when they’re in the state title game.
“It’s a job that allows me to kick during the week and take trips like this one when I get a call,” he said. “I kick three days a week and I’m used to bad weather. Not rain like it was out there today, but I’m used to kicking in the cold.”
Stitser kicked in the cold Monday and when he left Tuesday morning he said it was 15 degrees with about a foot of snow on the ground. He said if its 35 degrees Sunday, “it will be cold, but it won’t surprise me. The rain was new. I don’t think I’d kicked in anything like that since Fresno in ’06.”
The adrenaline ought to be able to warm him up. It has taken him too long to get here to be cold.
“Yeah, it’s crossed my mind,” he said of quitting. “You start wondering if you should put all your energies into your job, but I figure I’m still young enough and healthy enough to keep trying.”
He’ll be coaching himself just like he coaches his kicker, punter and kickoff guy back at McQueen.
“If you make all your kicks, you stay around,” Stitser said. “If you don’t, you see what happens.”
The Bengals also added two players to the practice squad, where they cut Louisville rookie free agent Joe Tronzo. Tronzo, a fullback, played in all five preseason games and had been on the practice squad all year.
They replaced him on the squad with a rookie out of Brown, fullback
