What Happened to the Highest Drafted Kicker In “Modern” NFL History? (It Didn’t Go Too Well)

This is the story of Russell Erxleben, the highest drafted kicker in modern NFL history. From breaking records in college to doing hard prison time. This NFL draft bust has a story for the ages.

Key Sources:
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2014/06/08/back-in-prison-russell-erxleben-sees-himself-more-victim-than-con-man/10121716007/

https://www.si.com/nfl/saints/news/messed-up-life-of-the-most-hated-man-in-saints-history

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Today’s story orbits around four distinct places all of them located in the state of Texas sigin Texas where a great talent was hidden from the world Dallas Texas where Hope was born and the dream was formulated Austin Texas where the dream was brought into reality in bont Texas where the dream was locked

Away to Die the subject of today’s video spent most of his life in one state but each City represents something drastically different despite only stepping outside of his home state for a few years he became the most hated man in a whole another city the highs and

Lows he faced are all to the extreme during his time in college bro he broke records he’s the highest drafted kicker in modern NFL history but his first game in the league went as bad as it could go fans felt they’ been lied to robbed defrauded and decades later he went to

Prison for all of those things this is the story of how Russell Earth slaven went from number 15 to number 14 to number 04 448 d180 yeah C Way pun intended the story kicks off back in the 60s in a small town between San Antonio and Austin Texas sigin Texas wasn’t known as a football hot bed it was actually best known for having the world’s largest pean but it’s also home to the NCW B record holder of the

Longest field goal made in FBS history some of the details around it make it a little bit murky we’ll dive into that later before a time he was him as a kid Russell Earth slaven was naturally gifted he played basketball baseball dude could even play golf in his small

Town he could easily dominate in most sports but couldn’t see he was a big fish in a small pun due to that he developed some really bad habits he thought things would come easy and that he didn’t have to work at him according to his friends he was a little bit of a

Showof but that’s true of a lot of us when we were young and talented when he was nine Russell and his best friend Barry squeezed into an old Crown Vic with both of their families then they drove nearly 4 hours up to Dallas Texas that’s when Russell found a dream he

Felt was worthy of his talents both Russell and Barry competed in the NFL’s punt passing kick National skills competition in his age group Russell actually made the semi-finals and his trademark Mar confidence grew even more after that he met NFL players from the Dallas Cowboys and once he saw him up

Close he knew what he wanted to do years later his boy Barry was asked about that trip and he called it quote a child’s Paradise ironically or purposely I’m not sure which one but it is funny that this punt pass and kick semi-finalist got the high school and did all three of those

Things he was the kicker the punter and the quarterback but while he had a decent arm it was his leg that was exceptional so when College Scouts sent letters they wanted him to kick he accepted a scholarship to play for the Texas Longhorns great school and

Happened to be just an hour up the street but despite the proximity here things were different Big Fish had left the small pond for a larger body of water in 1976 when he first went to college it was the first time he’d been made aware of his imperfections and it

Makes perfect sense when you consider he was 64220 and could kick theall all a m he was a beast in every sport plus he’s from a small town but despite the fact that his talent was unmistakable based on what I’m reading his attitude held him back okay let me introduce you to

Billy sh shot Billy was a kicker at UT during the early 70s a kicker with a name like sh shot he’s got to be a dog I hope you’re curious cuz I was is the nickname accurate so I didn’t find a stats to authenticate the name but here’s a former Philadelphia Eagle

Describing playing with Billy in college Billy had the greatest concentration of any kicker alive he never let the crowd or any other interference take away from his laser concentration I was also on the kicking team as an outside blocker so I saw him in a huddle before each

Kick I think if somebody had asked him his name in The Huddle he probably would have answered with right through the middle now I told you that Side Story for an actual reason when Russell got there oh sh shot was now an assistant coach after he retired he was asked

About his time coaching Russell and he recalled the day he was assigned to coach Russell personally one of the coaches sees Billy he walks up to him and he says hey Billy you see that tall son of a buck down there Billy says yes sir the coach says he’s all yours

Billy’s thinking why he say it like that he asks the coach what’s the deal the coach looks at Billy and says you’ll find out then he waves over his shoulder and walks smoth off Billy had no idea what he was about to get into but he approached it with the same confidence

He did as a player with Billy already being an experienced kicker he saw the talent Russell had immediately problem was smooth edges take hours of repetition Russell didn’t want to practice he didn’t want to stretch and he still thought in his mind he could be the quarterback bro just focus on your

Job it’s really hard enough but for Russell it was natural he felt like AI now if he’d come along just a few years earlier practice might have been a lot less important but around the mid 7s when Russell was in college a new kicking style was really taken over up

To that point most kickers kick the ball straight forward but right around that time lots of highlevel kickers started switching more to the soccer style of kicking something similar to what you see in the league today now look Billy shers shot was a straight leg kicker during his time playing for the

Longhorns but he had worked with other kickers and learned the soccer method we talking somebody that was committed to the craft of kicking throughout his years Billy would work with the Houston Oilers and other organizations he personally coached a bunch of different kickers that went on to be successful so

His track record as a kicking Coach man is pretty damn Good now from Russell’s point of view he’d always been a straight leg kicker he could even look at his coach and say hey it worked for you he had years of reps and muscle memory kicking it straight-legged and he didn’t want to change the thing that got him here in

The first place which is understandable right like you can understand that but if he had a crystal ball he might have changed his mind but in the meantime Russell would have seen the star status even though his style was old school his leg was still hella powerful and as a

Punter he was nasty dude was named an allamerican in his sophomore Junior and senior Seasons but as a kicker he was somewhat inconsistent capable of great things but might smoke a easy one what I pictured in my head is like the Josh Allen the kickers where you live with

Some mistakes because the upside is worth it in 1977 during Russell Junior season NFL legend Earl Campbell was his teammate that year Earl rushed for over 1,700 yards now let me tell you about the team’s second most impressive stat on October 1st 1977 the Longhorns beat

Rice 72- 15 rice struggled all day they just couldn’t stop Texas and when they finally thought they did that’s when Russell stepped in from the Texas 43 yd line since Russell did both you might have actually thought he was coming out there to punt but he instead lines up in

A field goal formation and then boots a 67 y right down the pipe till this day this is tied for the longest made field goal in FBS history Justin Tucker has the longest field goal in NFL history but it falls one yard short of your boy Russell’s record there’s some key

Differences between back then in college and now in the NFL keep that in mind for later for now all you need to know is that he hit a 60 7 y field goal in the 70s in a live game he hit a few more 60 pluses throughout those seasons and

Don’t forget on top of that he’s an All-American punter in 78 when Russell was having his most accurate year as a kicker the New Orleans Saints was having one of their worst kicking Seasons their starter had been injured and their backup situation was murky at best at

Worst it was trash they rotated several backup kickers including a fullback whose only experience was the fact that he kicked back High School All The Replacements together only made about 48% of their kicks Which is higher than I expected but keep in mind this is only with them attempting short kicks that

Should have already had a high success rate despite that the Saints had their most successful season to that point what was their record 7 and n 7- n seems wild to be your most successful season but to be fair the team was only founded 9 years earlier that 79 record was

Almost enough to get them into the wild card card that’s before the NFC South even existed But the irony is crazy but since they got close and they felt the kicking situation held them back they went into the draft with Russell up high on the draft board so with the 11th

Overall pick they didn’t select Hall of Famers like Joe Montan or Kell Winslow nope instead they selected Russell ER slaven who was recently voted as their worst draft pick of all time they made Russell the highest drafted kicker in modern NFL history beating out Steve little who just one year earlier was

Actually drafted 15th overall when they say it’s a copycat League bro they’ll copy anything this is probably a good time to explain the distinction the whole highest drafted kicker in modern NFL history so modern NFL history starts after the NFL and AFL merger back in the

Late 60s in 1966 a kicker named Charlie goag was actually drafted sixth overall and this was close because the merger was announced that same year but it just didn’t take effect until 3 years later so Russell ER slaven does own the distinction but bro it’s really by the

Skin of his teeth during his rookie year Russell was in for a rude awakening first off Saints fans were mad they took a kicker in the first round and the fact that he played kicker and punter didn’t do much to ease concerns so right out the gate fans wasn’t really feeling him

And after his first game things would get much worse let’s paint the picture 1979 NFL opening week every team’s fan base think they got a shot winning week one could set the tone for the whole season but losing brings the PTSD from last year but losing week one to a

Division rival in a heartbreaking way that’s the trifecta in his first game Russell’s Trade Mark confidence was shining through on the day he made four extra points and two field goals perfect on the day didn’t miss a single kick you’re like fim I thought you said his

First game went terrible it was a great rivalry game that ended end up going to overtime but in OT the Saints got stopped and elected to punt the ball what happened next wasn’t even fully Russell’s fault but as fans ourselves we all know sometimes we be tripping Russell goes out there to punt

And the Snapper snaps the ball clean over his head remember this is Russell’s first game oh man he quickly turns and he tracks the ball down but by the time he got his hands on it he was in his own End Zone back then in overtime no matter

Who got the ball first any score of any kind instantly would win the game so with the hand he was dealt he was doing the best he could but it was a hand that even Justin bomo couldn’t win he saved the ball from rolling into the end zone

For a safety but when he turns around his Falcon players in his face he doesn’t know what to do and unfortunately he panics so he kind of tosses the ball to no one in particular a Defender easily catches it and walks into the end zone game over they lost Lo

And Russell was the last one with the ball this was the Saints fans very first impression of their kicker and not just any kicker their first round kicker now again I don’t know what they expected from this man if he takes the safety they still lose the game I guess maybe

He had time to try to quickly get the punt off but this is a rough hand to be dealt in your very first game it’s one game matter of fact bro it’s just week one by week three everybody will have forgotten this ever happened that next week was finally ready to take practice

Serious but all them years of not stretching might have caught up to him in the next practice Russell injured his Gro it landed him on IR he missed the rest of the season this made the fans even matter cuz not only did you blow the first pick on a kicker SL punter but

Broke he then comes in and loses them the game then instantly gets hurt and doesn’t play the rest of the year so not only did you pretty much waste your first round pick but now you back to watching fullback smoke easy field goals The Saints Go 2 and4 next season rolls

Around and the San Francisco 49ers come rolling into town mway through the fourth quarter the Saints was down three they call him Russell he goes out and hits a 37 y ties the game but the 49ers kicker then answers not a problem rgie Manning gets the Saints back in field

Goal range but this time Russell not only misses the kick he Shanks it bro like he doesn’t come close now he had a snap go over his head which was out of his control and the next time he’s on the field he misses the game tying field

Goal for a normal kicker or punter this is not the end of the world but for a top 15 pick his reaction says it all after the game Russell had his Ryan leave moment where an embarrass young man lashes out out of frustration bro check out his quotes following the ners

Game I’ll have to change the second one because you can’t say it on YouTube this is a football crazy town and they love their football but people ask the the dumbest questions they’d ask why did you miss it I say the coach told me to I had

Another one asked me if I wanted to end it all I said yeah I tried but I missed to the left they always putting million dooll kicker in front of my name I mean why can’t I just be the kicker from New Orleans obviously his smart remarks just

Made the fans hate him more and I get his frustration but taking some accountability is not for the fans it’s really for you because only then can you actually get better both of the miscues that he had in these games could have really been worked out if he approached practice differently

You drill this over and over again so that in the game you know exactly what to do in this situation and you’re going to miss kicks I mean that’s just going to happen but don’t get mad at the fans bro you get paid to make the kick not to

Miss him after that a lot of the hyper confident kid that showed off back in Sig disappeared Without a Trace he just couldn’t perform the first round expectations in 1980 he only made 40% of his field goals remember I told you bro the linebackers and all the replacement

Kickers they made 48% so percentage wise he did worse than them now to be fair I’m sure he’s kicking more difficult attempts and oddly for a first round kicker he didn’t have a lot of attempts his percentage probably would have normalized if he actually kept kicking

But in year two he went to the coach and asked if he could only Punt and what do fans hate even more than a first round kicker yeah a first round punt if you going to have a first round punter he better at least be a pro bowler at the

Very least be one of the best in the league but in his first season as a full-time punter Russell ranked 21st in yards per punt so maybe his consistency is not great but he still had a strong leg every now and then he probably punted the ball hella far right but when

It comes to his longest punt during that 81 season he once again ranked way down in the 20s puns inside the 20 yd line ranked in the 20s my dude was near the bottom in every single statistical category then finally his fourth season bro 1982 he had the best punting season

Of his NFL career he nearly ranked top five in yards per punt but when it came to putting it inside the 20 he was one of the League’s worst it had been a really short really miserable career but before he walked away he had to put a

Stamp on it but when you look at his first game versus his very last game the only way I can describe it is poetic Injustice I mean the parallels are crazy his initial big mistake was first game of the season his final big mistake last game of the season the fact that

Somebody else had the mess up they job to shine a light on Russell and like the first catastrophe it wasn’t fully his fault last game of the season 1983 the Saints whose previous best record was 7 and N now they were 8 and seven only one game away from the first playoff birth

In their franchises history during the game Russell goes out on the field punts the ball and a few seconds later notices no one’s tackling The Return Man The Return Man was Henry Ellard a 511 180 PB receiver running full speed at Russell a touchdown saving tackle could be the big

Play he needed to finally get some of the fans on his side now remember Russell is 64 220 so making his play is theoretically possible now given the fact that Russell didn’t like to practice his kicking there’s no way I can believe he was practicing his tackling but again this situation

Presents itself when you’re a punter so while it doesn’t happen all the time you want to try to be prepared for it Russell stares at ard sizes him up and then he whiffs on the tackle like most punters do but when the fan base hates you and you have a chance at Redemption

Failure in that moment will be magnified after Ellard easily scores Russell was still on the ground and bro he actually had to be carted off the field as he’s laying on the cart in complete Agony all he heard in round sound was a Cascade of

Booze and that was it that was the end of a lifelong dream things couldn’t have gone worse for the first round pick dude was drafted by the Saints at just 22 years old and at that young age he experienced the worst failures of his life so time passes and at 30 he tries

To make a comeback he wants to punt for the Lions but gets cut in preseason outside of maybe a lack of proper work habits not to mention an Antiquated less effective kicking style I tried to use deductive reasoning to answer a simple question what else could make things so

Hard for Russell in the league in college dude had made a 67 Y and several other 60 plus yard field goals Russell wasn’t always the most accurate but at the very least man his power made him valuable but in the league as longest field goal was 38 yards to be fair he

Didn’t actually attempt a ton of field goals but what happened why the fall off when he got to the NFL how he go from All American to alltime bust when Russell was in college they used a kicking tea not the one you see on kickoffs one more like this they

Actually used to allow kickers to use these on field goals but does it really make a difference well I ask the expert this is Young way coup an NFL Pro Bowl kicker who less than a month ago for a brief time passed Justin Tucker as the most accurate kicker in NFL history if

You competing in that tier then clearly you that do a few years back I did a video on young Way’s journey and he actually messaged me saying how much he enjoyed it so 3 years later man I figure who better to ask a question about anything that has to do with kicking I

Said do you have any knowledge of the old school kicking tees the ones they Ed for College field goals back in the day have you ever seen one have you ever used one and if so does it make kicking easier young way responds those Big Blocks yeah I’ve used them it makes

Things things a lot easier the ball goes further and higher it’s like putting a golf ball on the te versus hitting a ball off the ground shout out to Young way for the Insight you really helped me out a lot for me hearing that from Young

Way was really all I needed but just to be thorough I got some numbers for you in college football during the 1970s when kick and te’s were still permitted on field goal attempts three different College kickers hit 67 yarders since getting rid of those te’s no College kickers made one cense

In 1976 just one year before Russell’s famous 67 yd field goal which like I’ve said is an FBS record and FCS kicker at abalene Christian actually did it better using a t he hit a 69 yard so was he better than Justin Tucker or did the te

Make the difference the answer is pretty clear but that wasn’t the only thing remember I said there’s some key differences between back then in college and now in the NFL keep that in mind for later This is later the field goal post that Russell used in college was 5T wider than the one in the NFL in 91 they Shrunk the college post to match the NFL but Russell obviously left College way before that happened now I also said if he’d come along just a few years earlier

Practice might have been a lot less important but around the mid 70s when Russell was in college a new kicking style was really taken over based on that you understand Russell’s timing was pretty bad but you probably don’t realize how truly unlucky he was you ever seen these crazy clips from classic

NFL football where they got the damn goal post in the middle of the end zone they eventually changed this for obvious reasons but it was like that for decades which put the post 10 yards closer the closer the field goal post the easier the kicks and since the league started

Most kickers were able to take advantage of this they didn’t move the post until 1974 just the a few years before Russell’s arrival bro that same year they raised a crossbar from 20t to 30 ft so everything got harder right before he got drafted I think when Russell went to

The league and he lost that kicking te that obviously hurt him but I also think it’s possible that a straight on kicking style exacerbated the issue on top of that field goals were going through a metamorphosis during the very years when Russell was trying to make his m no other kickers made the

Transition so it wasn’t impossible but it’s wild when you look at all the factors involved by Russell’s fourth year the Saints had finally had enough they picked up a young kicker named Morton Anderson now if you my age thinking of Morton Anderson as a young kicker might just seem kind of crazy I

Remember Morton as that one cold kicker who still used the face mask from the damn 50s but just a few years after Russell was the highest drafted kicker the Saints double back to replace him with Morton Morton stayed with the Saints from 1982 all the way till 1994 he made six

All Pros Seven Pro bowls he was so good for so long that he actually made two all decade teams bro the 80s and 90s that’s one of them stats is like I don’t think I’ve ever seen that two all decade teams wait let’s get back to Russell

After the NFL Russell really wasn’t sure where to turn so he went back to the place where he’d always been successful he returned to Austin Texas became a financial advisor in ‘ 96 he actually founded Austin Forex International like his football career things started out great but his tendency to cut Corners

Would catch up to him he had unpaid debts had been writing bad checks failed at several businesses but that wasn’t the worst of it he could still summon at confidence and persuade other people it was once a superpower that he’d hoped to use for good but life happened and now

This is what it resorted to he convinced enough people to give him access to their money and at one time managed tens of millions of dollars for a time he lived it up everything luxury nightclubs women a sky box at Texas games but eventually the IRS figured out his

Company wasn’t actually making the crazy profits that they claimed like his kicking style the schemey ran was an Antiquated one and one of the oldest tricks in the book a classic Ponzi scheme basically he talked all of these people into investing in his company then used that money to to convince more

People to invest he used money from new investors to pay the old investors and they’re thinking that their money is actually growing so now the old investor spread the word about the money that they getting he gets more new investors and uses that money to now double back

And pay the previous wave of investors and you just keep rolling with that until you crash and burn this man was kind of former friends family and teammates they see these nice things and want to know where’s the money coming from he tells them it’s this great

Investment firm and that’s how they got got it was a cold game but I guess what isn’t so in 1998 about 15 years since he was carded off the field as a New Orleans Saint Russell’s company suddenly shut down and his investors lost a total of 35 million money that was pulled from

College funds and retirement savings bro from people that he knew and called friends called family but a lot like when he missed a field goal or made a mistake on punt he refused to take account of ability for any of it really he says his business was legit and that

People should blame his partners and advisers basically anybody that’s not him we get that back in the day he took blame for some things that wasn’t his fault but you can’t continue to try to use that to play victim the real victims here are the people that trusted you to

Take no accountability is borderline narcissistic also this is a little hokey but I truly believe it using your superpowers for evil still away a part of your soul Eventually he pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit Security fraud male fraud and money laundering then on September 18th in the year 2000 Russell was sentenced to 7 years in prison he was also ordered to pay a total of 28 million in restitution money his whole

Life had only known success in the state of Texas as a kid now in sigin then at the camp in Dallas and of course bro with Texas University of Austin even with his short-lived business venture once he moved back to Texas it’s like the state of Texas was always a security

Blanket for him but now in a prison sale in Bowmont Texas his home record was starting to look as bad as his record on the road 5 years later he was sent to the halfway house to serve the remainder of his sentence under supervised release

In 2007 he was finally a free man just in time to see the dude who took his spot back in the day was just now 25 years later retiring from the league with a Hall of Fame career from a human standpoint you don’t want the guy who

Replaces you to end up being like aund times better not that you wishing bad on them but when you see your ex you want to be able to say something like but sadly bro things would continue to go left for O Russell next KH trying to make a living can be a challenge

Maybe he could have done some coaching or personal punt coach but Russ was trying to get back on top and fast the most honored kicker in UT’s football history is heading to prison Russell klaven will serve seven and a half years for scamming investors that’s in addition to paying $2 million

Prosecutors say from 2005 to 2009 burslan con people into investing in postor War II German bonds and a painting this won’t be his first time in prison he was paroled in 2005 after serving time for Securities fraud when he left jail the first time he said he’d

Never go back but at this point I’m not sure if he could even believe himself Here’s a thought Early Childhood success can be dangerous when things come easy early on sometimes you don’t develop work habits every dime Russell Earth slay been made in his life came primarily from god-given

Ability in football he coasted on Talent didn’t develop his skill and therefore was unable to come close to his potential same thing in business maybe the scams felt right to Old Russell the money came easily how he thought it was supposed to and that’s how Russell Earth

Slaving went from number 15 to number 14 to number 0448 d180 I’ll catch y’all in the next one