On Monday April 6, approximately 42 kicking specialists will display their skills and techniques for 31 professional football teams including 25 National Football League (NFL) teams, 2 Canadian Football League (CFL) teams and all 4 of the newly formed United Football League (UFL) teams in the 1st Annual Coach Zauner Free Agent Specialists NFL Combine. The Free Agent Combine will take place in Phoenix, Arizona.
Coach Gary Zauner, former 13 year NFL Special Teams Coordinator, says the response by teams and specialists for the first year of this event has exceeded his expectations and is fulfilling a life-long dream. 'Since I started coaching special teams in the NFL, I have always had the dream of creating an event which would present the 'best of the best' free agent kicking specialists talent to football Pro Personnel,' says Zauner. 'And now I see this dream coming to fruition.'
'I want to give talented kicking specialists a platform to showcase their talents and potential to reach the next level,' says Zauner. 'It also give special teams coaches a single venue to evaluate the best free agent kicking specialists available and hopefully make their goal of finding and evaluating kicking specialists more efficient.'
Zauner, who presently has a professional kicking and special teams consulting business, says the time was right to create this Free Agent Combine. 'During the Special Teams Coach's Dinner at the 2008 NFL Combine, Joe Marciano, Special Teams Coordinator for the Houston Texans, suggested I consider conducting a Free Agent Combine for kicking specialists prior to the NFL Draft,' says Zauner. 'Marciano said it was a general consensus among special teams coaches that many of the kicking specialists events being currently conducted did not have a 'high caliber' of kicking specialists attending.'
