Alas, poor Vandy. I knew him well.
I know NORAD is still tracking his missed kick in the 2006 playoffs against Pittsburgh. And despite what people like Bill Polian and Tony Dungy will suggest or say, that missed kick did indeed cost Vanderjagt his job in Indy. After he was cut loose by the Colts, the desperate and wild spending Cowboys decided to take a shot at Indy's former "liquored up" kicker.
The results were disaster.
Yesterday, the Cowboys cut Mike Vanderjagt and replaced him with ANOTHER former Colts kicker: Martin Gramatica. If the pain of last year's playoffs wasn't still burned into my memory, I'd almost laugh.
It seems Bill Parcells was not happy with Mike constantly missing gimme FGs. Bill decided to dump Jerry Jones' boy (Jerry signed Vanderjagt, not Parcells) in favor of someone who can actually hit FGs and kickoff as well. Vanderjagt getting cut with just one month left in the season might signal the end of his career. He's in his late 30s, and we have seen a massive decline in his game. Maybe he'll get picked up by a team like New England, a team desperate for any kind of emotional edge over the Colts. Who knows.
What we do know now is Bill Polian made the right decision letting Mike go. Cowboys fans often defended Vandy during the off-season. Boy, do they look silly now. I can't bash them too much though. I often defended Mike, but back then he was still pretty good. Now, he kind of sucks. It's both bitter and sweet. Many Colts fans, I'm sure, are cheering Mike's release from Dallas. For some reason, I'm not.
In any case, I like the guy the Colts have now (I have a man crush on him, if you didn't know), and I'm sure Dallas will enjoy Gramatica's game. He's toned down his annoying "Yippee!" dance every time he makes a FG. As for Vandy, who knows where he will land. I hope he retires.