‘You have a long shelf life as a kicker.’ Former UK star hopes XFL can lead to NFL.
The Chicago Bears. The Dallas Cowboys. The New England Patriots.
A list of the NFL teams for whom former University of Kentucky place-kicker Austin MacGinnis has tried out includes some vaunted franchises, but they — nor any of the league’s 29 other squads — have taken a chance on the ex-Cat.
MacGinnis has taken it in stride. Making an NFL roster isn’t easy — counting practice-squad spots, there are only 2,016 jobs available — and of those, a fraction are possessed by specialists.
“You’ve got a punter, a kicker and a long snapper,” MacGinnis told the Herald-Leader in a phone interview Wednesday. “A team is only going to bring four specialists into camp, so it’s gonna be maybe an extra punter, extra kicker or extra long snapper. You’ve only got 40 dudes in NFL camps before they make the cut down to 32.”
And the kicker — pun intended — is that once those jobs are earned, they can be held onto for decades.
“You’ve got guys who are 40, 35, 33,” said MacGinnis, who’s 24. “You’ve got old dudes who can still kick the ball. It’s just a matter of staying good for a long time. I just gotta keep getting better. You have a long shelf life as a kicker. I still feel like I’m in a really good position.”
MacGinnis, who by the end of his senior year in 2017 piled up 359 points to surpass Lones Seiber as Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer, hasn’t sat on the sidelines. Last February he was signed by the Memphis Express, a team in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football, and kicked a game-winning field goal in his debut. That league folded in April before its inaugural season was scheduled to be completed, but MacGinnis found a new professional football home with the Dallas Renegades, who selected him in the first draft for the new XFL.
The league begins play Saturday. MacGinnis is confident about its viability in a marketplace that adores professional football: of the 50 highest-rated television broadcasts in 2019, 41 were NFL games. All but one XFL game this season will be broadcast by ABC, Fox, ESPN, ESPN2 or FS1; one game in week eight will air on FS2. Those five primary channels are estimated by Nielsen to be in many more homes than CBS Sports and the NFL Network, where most of the AAF’s games aired. Other than the championship game, which airs on ESPN on April 26, at least one game every week will be shown over the airwaves on ABC or Fox; most weeks will feature two over-the-air broadcasts.
The league also features legitimate talent. The XFL told ESPN that 207 of its 416 players had been on NFL rosters within the last season.
“All of us just want to play football, be able to pay our bills from playing football and get film to be able to go to that next level in the NFL,” MacGinnis said. “… I plan to sign an NFL contract after this season. That’s my plan going forward. I’m grateful to have this opportunity. There’s a lot of good football players out here that, maybe one GM in the NFL didn’t take to them but if they get another chance with another team, they’ll excel. So, this gives ’em the opportunity to keep the dream alive.”
Kentucky connections
MacGinnis isn’t the lone Wildcat wearing Renegades blue.
Jeff Badet, who spent his final year of college eligibility at Oklahoma but was a member of the same recruiting class as MacGinnis at Kentucky, was Dallas’ first draft pick in franchise history.
Badet went undrafted in 2018 but was signed by the Minnesota Vikings soon after. He agreed to a futures contract with the Vikings last January but was waived before the 2019 season started.
“For us to be able to reconnect here, we’ve both got the same dreams, same goals to get back to the NFL,” MacGinnis said. “It’s gonna be fun to win some more games with Jeff.”
▪ Former University of Kentucky head coach Hal Mumme is the Renegades’ offensive coordinator. He coached well before MacGinnis’ time, but they’ve lightly bonded over the Cats. “I try to stay out of his way because he’s got an offense to run,” MacGinnis said with a laugh. “We’re all impressed by what’s going on at UK. It makes us proud alums to see them doing so well.”
▪ Bob Stoops — brother of UK head coach Mark Stoops — is Dallas’ head coach. MacGinnis says it’s easy to tell the two are siblings. “They’re just great coaches who take care of their players,” he said. “They make football fun to play. … They understand what the players are going through and what they expect of the players. They treat you like professionals, which is what you want.”
Extra points
▪ When he’s not in pursuit of his professional football goals, MacGinnis sells life insurance and works as a financial adviser with Salomon and Co., a wealth planning group based in Lexington. “I like the idea of being able to help people, too, being able to plan their retirement and handle their finances,” MacGinnis said. “As much as people say money doesn’t make happiness, money’s important in life. It creates stress if you don’t handle your money right, it creates fights, it creates divorce. Money is important, and I want to help people take care of their money and grow their money and be at ease.”
▪ Most XFL players, according to the ESPN report, will make about $55,000 over the course of a 10-week season. MacGinnis told the Herald-Leader that there are incentives in place for teams that win.
▪ The Renegades will play their home games at Globe Life Park in Arlington, the former home of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
▪ Former UK center Jon Toth is the only other ex-Cat on an XFL roster. He’s a member of the DC Defenders.
XFL openers
2 p.m. Saturday: Seattle at DC (ABC-36)
5 p.m. Saturday: Los Angeles at Houston (Fox-56)
2 p.m. Sunday: Tampa Bay at New York (Fox-56)
5 p.m. Sunday: St. Louis at Dallas (ESPN)
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
