Catching up with Jeff Jaeger: College memories sweetest for kicker

Sure, Jeff Jaeger says, it was a different game back when he played.

But this isn't the usual old-timers' lament about how much tougher everything used to be. No, Jaeger is fully willing to admit he had it a heck of a lot easier than the college field-goal kickers of today, such as current Husky John Anderson.

"I got to kick off a tee and he doesn't," said Jaeger, who played for the UW from 1983-86. "It's apples and oranges. I would have had a tough time doing what he's done coming in and kicking without a tee as a freshman."

Tees were banned from the college game in 1989.

Anderson is now second to Jaeger on the school's all-time scoring list, but would need 80 points the rest of this season to catch him, which seems unlikely. Jaeger also still holds the school and NCAA record with 80 field goals in his career, another record that could stand a while given the changes in the game.

"With coach (Don) James, if it was fourth-and-a-foot, he let me kick it," Jaeger said.

"When you get a lot of opportunities, you get some confidence going and it's easy to get on a roll."

That roll took Jaeger from his days as a walk-on from Kent-Meridian High School to a 13-year NFL career in which he scored 1,008 points playing for the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears.

His career ended in 2000 after he suffered a torn left hip flexor that still bothers him to this day. He now lives on the Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, works in real estate and volunteers at the school attended by his daughters Brook, 9, and Lexi, 8.

He no longer owns the sports bar in Factoria that he ran with his father.

On fall Saturdays he attends UW football games with his father, as he did before he was a player.

"After Reggie (Williams) scored last week, I realized my voice was gone," he said.

Every once in a while on Sundays, he will tune in to a Bears or Raiders game to see how some old friends are doing. Otherwise, he said, he doesn't miss the NFL.

"There's that emotion in the college game, guys care about it," Jaeger said. "The pros can give lip service to it, but the financial aspect always enters into everything. Because of that, everybody's at a different level.

"In college there is more unity that way."

That's why, Jaeger said, his favorite football memory has nothing to do with the NFL, and nothing to do with kicking a ball.

"My favorite memory is the first time I came running out of the tunnel at Husky Stadium (in 1983)," he said. "We were playing Michigan. I was so excited I was ready to pass out.

"I feel like I'll always have that with me, even when I'm 65 years old. The pro stuff was just business. It is what it is."