SAN DIEGO — Just call him “Kickalicious.”
That’s what coaches with the Detroit Lions did after they couldn’t pronounce Havard Rugland‘s name during a tryout earlier this week.
Rugland is the Norwegian Internet kicking sensation who hopes to parlay his incredible trick-shot video — which he called “Kickalicious” — into a dream job kicking for an NFL team.
Next up for Rugland is a trip to Michael Husted‘s pro kicking camp in Florida, where the goal is to be seen by more NFL teams.
Rugland feels his tryout in Detroit went well, despite tweaking the hamstring in his powerful left leg. He’s refined his kicking motion while working with Husted in San Diego since having a tryout with the New York Jets in December.
“I think the thing they liked most was my leg strength,” said Rugland, who is 6-foot-2 1/2 and 240 pounds. “That’s always good. Of course, you’re always working on your consistency. That’s never 100 percent, so that’s what I’m working on.”
While Rugland works to learn a sport he became familiar with only about two years ago by watching the Super Bowl on TV, NFL personnel are learning about Rugland. His first name is pronounced HO-var.
“They tried to pronounce my name but just went with ‘Kickalicious,'” Rugland said.
The video of the same name has amassed more than 2.5 million views since Rugland posted it in September. It shows the former soccer player kicking and punting a football through uprights from as far away as 60 yards, from straight on and also from incredible angles. He also kicks a ball to a friend on a boat on a lake, in a moving car, on a skateboard, on a railroad bridge, on a hill, on a bluff overlooking a beach and over trees.
So he’s got the showmanship down. Now he’s trying to get a job kicking field goals and PATs in front of 70,000 fans on Sundays.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” he during an interview Thursday afternoon at La Jolla High, one of his practice sites. “I believe I’ve got a pretty good chance to get a contract. If not right away, I will get one because I really do think that I’m at least going to be good enough and I just have to be better than the people I’m competing with and make them believe in me and go with a guy without too much experience.”
