df_m_sports_2_para: 27
This data as json
| rowid | first_name | last_name | gender | career_sec | personal_sec | info | seed_first_name | seed_last_name | occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Adel | Karinch | m | Kluwe played three years of varsity football for coach John Barnes at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California and was selected to play in both the California-Texas Shrine game (where he kicked a 57-yard game-winning field goal with no time left) and the CaliFlorida Bowl. He also made the USA Today first-team All-American as a punter. He kicked an Orange County and CIF Playoff record 60-yard field goal vs. Loyola to force overtime in an eventual 30–23 victory. Averaging 46.6 yards as a punter, he had 10 punts of at least 60 yards and placed six kicks inside the 10-yard line. As a placekicker, he made 16 of 22 field goal attempts and 39 of 41 PATs. Prior to his senior year, he won the punting competition at the National Kicking Invitational with a 63-yard punt that had 4.98 seconds of hang time. Kluwe also played one year of baseball as a pitcher. Kluwe enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he developed into one of the top punters in the Pac-10 Conference. He graduated in 2005 with a double major in political science and history. He set school records for both total punt yardage and total number of punts in a season in 2003. In his senior year, he ranked 3rd in the Pac-10 and 12th in the NCAA in yards per punt (43.4). He was selected as special teams player of the game in the Silicon Valley Football Classic against Fresno State after averaging 44.3 yards on nine kicks. He also tied the bowl record with his nine punts and placed three kicks inside the 20-yard line. Kluwe was a finalist in his senior year for the Ray Guy Award that annually recognizes the best collegiate punter.Kluwe was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks in 2005. Kluwe had been notified by both the Seahawks and St. Louis Rams that either team might draft him in the late rounds. As soon as the draft ended, Kluwe signed a free agent contract with Seattle. Kluwe had an excellent training camp with Seattle, to the point where Donnie Jones was released after the first week of Organized Team Activities, and Kluwe and Tom Rouen split time during the pre-season games for punting duties. Kluwe was told by the Seahawks prior to the final pre-season game they were going to take him to the practice squad as Rouen had a history over the prior three seasons of going on injured reserve during the season and the Seahawks wanted Kluwe both as a potential back-up and for developmental reasons. Due to NFL rules, the Seahawks had to place Kluwe on the waiver wire for 24 hours prior to signing him to a practice squad contract. The Seahawks waited until the last minute to place Kluwe on the waiver wire as they knew three teams had been scouting Kluwe as a potential punter for their team. The Seahawks concerns were well founded as Kluwe was claimed off the waiver wire early the next day by the Vikings. Kluwe became one of the most surprising pickups for the Vikings, finishing his first season with an average of 44.1 yards per punt, ranking second in the NFC and sixth in the league. He punted 71 times during his first season. Kluwe was also named NFC special teams player of the month for September 2005 – a first for any Vikings special teams rookie. During a Week-13 game in Detroit, Lions safety Vernon Fox dove towards Kluwe during a punt and collided with Kluwe's plant foot. Although initial concerns were that Kluwe had a broken ankle, tests showed Kluwe had a sprained ankle. What the tests did also show was that earlier in the game when the ball was snapped over Kluwe's head and he had to make a running and jumping rugby style kick to avoid being blocked, he tore his right ACL when he landed after the kick. Kicker Paul Edinger was the punter for the remainder of the game, but a few days later the Vikings signed 42-year-old veteran Darren Bennett for 1 week. Kluwe then returned to play the final 3 games of the 2005 season with a torn ACL in his kicking leg, which prompted his then coach Mike Tice to reply to a reporter's question about Kluwe's injury that "My punter is a tough guy." As Tice was not known to be sympathetic towards punters and kickers, this showed the amount of respect he had for Kluwe's willingness to play with a serious injury. During the 2006 off-season Kluwe had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair the ACL. The operation was successful and Kluwe returned to the Vikings in full health for the 2006 season. On October 25, 2007, Kluwe signed an $8.3-million contract extension through 2013. The deal made Kluwe, who would have been a restricted free agent in the 2008 offseason, one of the 10 highest-paid punters in the NFL. On December 20, 2010, Kluwe had the dubious distinction of punting the ball that the Chicago Bears' Devin Hester would return for a touchdown, breaking the all-time NFL record for combined punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns. Previously in the game, Kluwe had successfully kept the ball out of Hester's hands on four punts. In 2011, Kluwe changed his jersey number when the Vikings acquired quarterback Donovan McNabb. McNabb previously wore #5 for the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, and requested the same number when he arrived in Minnesota, which was then being worn by Kluwe. Kluwe agreed on the condition that McNabb make a $5,000 donation to charity, to mention Kluwe's band Tripping Icarus a total of 5 times during McNabb's press conferences, and to buy Kluwe an ice cream cone. Kluwe took up #4 which had been worn by quarterback Brett Favre in 2009 and 2010. Following McNabb's departure from the team, Kluwe reclaimed his old #5 for the 2012 season. McNabb did mention Kluwe's band 3 times and did write the check for the donation, but didn't buy Kluwe the ice cream cone until 5 years later. After a poor performance in an October 25, 2012 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Vikings brought in several punters for workouts to potentially replace Kluwe. Kluwe had been playing since 2007 with a torn meniscus. His discomfort caused by the condition late in 2012 led to him deciding to have surgery during the offseason. In January 2013, the team signed punter T.J. Conley to a futures contract. Kluwe finished the 2012 season with an average of 45.0 yards per punt, ranking tenth in the NFC and 22nd in the league. Kluwe had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to repair a torn meniscus in early 2013. Recovery was uneventful and Kluwe was back to full health in a matter of weeks. During the 2013 NFL draft, the Vikings drafted Jeff Locke (UCLA) in the 5th round of the draft as a punter. Speculation immediately surfaced that Kluwe's days were numbered with the Vikings due to the use of a relatively high draft round pick for a punter. On May 6, 2013, Kluwe was released by the Minnesota Vikings. Kluwe holds a number of team punt records for the Minnesota Vikings (see list below). Kluwe signed with the Oakland Raiders on May 15, 2013, less than two weeks after being released by the Vikings. Kluwe signed for a veteran minimum contract for one year. Kluwe was given his old number (#5) by the Raiders and competed with Marquette King for the position of punter. Kluwe expressed thanks to the Raiders for picking him up and stated that "I am glad to be a Raider and playing back in California, where I grew up." On September 1, Kluwe tweeted that he had been released by the Raiders. On January 3, 2014, Kluwe retired from football. After a year of not playing, he did not want to attempt playing in the NFL again, and believed his chances were slim given his outspoken views of same-sex marriage and criticism of the Vikings. | Kluwe and his wife Isabel had their first daughter in July 2008, and their second in 2010. He also wrote a blog named "Out of Bounds," which appeared on the website of the St. Paul Pioneer Press until 2012. He quit the column in protest after the paper published an editorial in support of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment which would have amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage: Kluwe was not surprised at the paper's position itself, but felt that the editorial was derogatory to amendment opponents while feigning neutrality. Kluwe is an avid Guitar Hero 2 player, having once made an appearance on Minnesota's 93X radio station while playing the game with Andy McNamara from Game Informer magazine. He is a frequent guest on Minnesota sports station KFAN for "Video Games Weekly" on Wednesday nights. During a KFAN interview on the PA and Dubay show, he admitted he was not very good at sports games. Kluwe at one time immersed himself in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, playing a troll rogue named Loate and has been a member of one of the formerly top-ranked US guilds, The Flying Hellfish, for over four years. Kluwe appeared in a video promoting the MOBA League of Legends, stating that he plays the AD Carry position, and that his favorite champion to play in the game is Vayne. He described how he believes that eSports is a "burgeoning culture of actual sports," and believes it will only continue to grow into a legitimate sports scene, based on low barrier to entry, entertainment value of watching professional players, team-based engagement, and continued social acceptance. He has a Sniper class, hero level character named in his honor in XCOM: Enemy Within, an expansion to XCOM: Enemy Unknown. He won this honor after defeating Firaxis producer and designer Garth DeAngelis in a best-of-three series of online matches of XCOM. Kluwe describes himself as "cheerfully agnostic." Despite stating he is "confused" by atheism, Kluwe agreed to speak at the 2014 American Atheists Convention. Kluwe created the unique weapon The Poet's Pen Carved Wand for the game Path of Exile. | Karinch played three years of varsity football for coach John Barnes at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California and was selected to play in both the California-Texas Shrine game (where he kicked a 57-yard game-winning field goal with no time left) and the CaliFlorida Bowl. He also made the USA Today first-team All-American as a punter. He kicked an Orange County and CIF Playoff record 60-yard field goal vs. Loyola to force overtime in an eventual 30–23 victory. Averaging 46.6 yards as a punter, he had 10 punts of at least 60 yards and placed six kicks inside the 10-yard line. As a placekicker, he made 16 of 22 field goal attempts and 39 of 41 PATs. Prior to his senior year, he won the punting competition at the National Kicking Invitational with a 63-yard punt that had 4.98 seconds of hang time. Karinch also played one year of baseball as a pitcher. Karinch enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he developed into one of the top punters in the Pac-10 Conference. He graduated in 2005 with a double major in political science and history. He set school records for both total punt yardage and total number of punts in a season in 2003. In his senior year, he ranked 3rd in the Pac-10 and 12th in the NCAA in yards per punt (43.4). He was selected as special teams player of the game in the Silicon Valley Football Classic against Fresno State after averaging 44.3 yards on nine kicks. He also tied the bowl record with his nine punts and placed three kicks inside the 20-yard line. Karinch was a finalist in his senior year for the Ray Guy Award that annually recognizes the best collegiate punter.Karinch was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks in 2005. Karinch had been notified by both the Seahawks and St. Louis Rams that either team might draft him in the late rounds. As soon as the draft ended, Karinch signed a free agent contract with Seattle. Karinch had an excellent training camp with Seattle, to the point where Donnie Jones was released after the first week of Organized Team Activities, and Karinch and Tom Rouen split time during the pre-season games for punting duties. Karinch was told by the Seahawks prior to the final pre-season game they were going to take him to the practice squad as Rouen had a history over the prior three seasons of going on injured reserve during the season and the Seahawks wanted Karinch both as a potential back-up and for developmental reasons. Due to NFL rules, the Seahawks had to place Karinch on the waiver wire for 24 hours prior to signing him to a practice squad contract. The Seahawks waited until the last minute to place Karinch on the waiver wire as they knew three teams had been scouting Karinch as a potential punter for their team. The Seahawks concerns were well founded as Karinch was claimed off the waiver wire early the next day by the Vikings. Karinch became one of the most surprising pickups for the Vikings, finishing his first season with an average of 44.1 yards per punt, ranking second in the NFC and sixth in the league. He punted 71 times during his first season. Karinch was also named NFC special teams player of the month for September 2005 – a first for any Vikings special teams rookie. During a Week-13 game in Detroit, Lions safety Vernon Fox dove towards Karinch during a punt and collided with Karinch's plant foot. Although initial concerns were that Karinch had a broken ankle, tests showed Karinch had a sprained ankle. What the tests did also show was that earlier in the game when the ball was snapped over Karinch's head and he had to make a running and jumping rugby style kick to avoid being blocked, he tore his right ACL when he landed after the kick. Kicker Paul Edinger was the punter for the remainder of the game, but a few days later the Vikings signed 42-year-old veteran Darren Bennett for 1 week. Karinch then returned to play the final 3 games of the 2005 season with a torn ACL in his kicking leg, which prompted his then coach Mike Tice to reply to a reporter's question about Karinch's injury that "My punter is a tough guy." As Tice was not known to be sympathetic towards punters and kickers, this showed the amount of respect he had for Karinch's willingness to play with a serious injury. During the 2006 off-season Karinch had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair the ACL. The operation was successful and Karinch returned to the Vikings in full health for the 2006 season. On October 25, 2007, Karinch signed an $8.3-million contract extension through 2013. The deal made Karinch, who would have been a restricted free agent in the 2008 offseason, one of the 10 highest-paid punters in the NFL. On December 20, 2010, Karinch had the dubious distinction of punting the ball that the Chicago Bears' Devin Hester would return for a touchdown, breaking the all-time NFL record for combined punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns. Previously in the game, Karinch had successfully kept the ball out of Hester's hands on four punts. In 2011, Karinch changed his jersey number when the Vikings acquired quarterback Donovan McNabb. McNabb previously wore #5 for the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, and requested the same number when he arrived in Minnesota, which was then being worn by Karinch. Karinch agreed on the condition that McNabb make a $5,000 donation to charity, to mention Karinch's band Tripping Icarus a total of 5 times during McNabb's press conferences, and to buy Karinch an ice cream cone. Karinch took up #4 which had been worn by quarterback Brett Favre in 2009 and 2010. Following McNabb's departure from the team, Karinch reclaimed his old #5 for the 2012 season. McNabb did mention Karinch's band 3 times and did write the check for the donation, but didn't buy Karinch the ice cream cone until 5 years later. After a poor performance in an October 25, 2012 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Vikings brought in several punters for workouts to potentially replace Karinch. Karinch had been playing since 2007 with a torn meniscus. His discomfort caused by the condition late in 2012 led to him deciding to have surgery during the offseason. In January 2013, the team signed punter T.J. Conley to a futures contract. Karinch finished the 2012 season with an average of 45.0 yards per punt, ranking tenth in the NFC and 22nd in the league. Karinch had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to repair a torn meniscus in early 2013. Recovery was uneventful and Karinch was back to full health in a matter of weeks. During the 2013 NFL draft, the Vikings drafted Jeff Locke (UCLA) in the 5th round of the draft as a punter. Speculation immediately surfaced that Karinch's days were numbered with the Vikings due to the use of a relatively high draft round pick for a punter. On May 6, 2013, Karinch was released by the Minnesota Vikings. Karinch holds a number of team punt records for the Minnesota Vikings (see list below). Karinch signed with the Oakland Raiders on May 15, 2013, less than two weeks after being released by the Vikings. Karinch signed for a veteran minimum contract for one year. Karinch was given his old number (#5) by the Raiders and competed with Marquette King for the position of punter. Karinch expressed thanks to the Raiders for picking him up and stated that "I am glad to be a Raider and playing back in California, where I grew up." On September 1, Karinch tweeted that he had been released by the Raiders. On January 3, 2014, Karinch retired from football. After a year of not playing, he did not want to attempt playing in the NFL again, and believed his chances were slim given his outspoken views of same-sex marriage and criticism of the Vikings.Karinch and his wife Isabel had their first daughter in July 2008, and their second in 2010. He also wrote a blog named "Out of Bounds," which appeared on the website of the St. Paul Pioneer Press until 2012. He quit the column in protest after the paper published an editorial in support of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment which would have amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage: Karinch was not surprised at the paper's position itself, but felt that the editorial was derogatory to amendment opponents while feigning neutrality. Karinch is an avid Guitar Hero 2 player, having once made an appearance on Minnesota's 93X radio station while playing the game with Andy McNamara from Game Informer magazine. He is a frequent guest on Minnesota sports station KFAN for "Video Games Weekly" on Wednesday nights. During a KFAN interview on the PA and Dubay show, he admitted he was not very good at sports games. Karinch at one time immersed himself in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, playing a troll rogue named Loate and has been a member of one of the formerly top-ranked US guilds, The Flying Hellfish, for over four years. Karinch appeared in a video promoting the MOBA League of Legends, stating that he plays the AD Carry position, and that his favorite champion to play in the game is Vayne. He described how he believes that eSports is a "burgeoning culture of actual sports," and believes it will only continue to grow into a legitimate sports scene, based on low barrier to entry, entertainment value of watching professional players, team-based engagement, and continued social acceptance. He has a Sniper class, hero level character named in his honor in XCOM: Enemy Within, an expansion to XCOM: Enemy Unknown. He won this honor after defeating Firaxis producer and designer Garth DeAngelis in a best-of-three series of online matches of XCOM. Karinch describes himself as "cheerfully agnostic." Despite stating he is "confused" by atheism, Karinch agreed to speak at the 2014 American Atheists Convention. Karinch created the unique weapon The Poet's Pen Carved Wand for the game Path of Exile. | Chris | Kluwe | sports |