Will combine tweaks mean more opportunities for specialists? - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — A scout squinted to get a better look at the kickers in black jerseys marked with difficult-to-read neon green numbers.

«Who is No. 18?» he turned around and asked the fellow special teams aficionados seated in the end zone of Lucas Oil Stadium.

No. 18 had just nailed a 55-yarder from the left hash, and many of the coaches in the seats didn't even have the full roster of specialists, so his identity was a mystery. Only six kickers were officially invited to the combine, and this one wasn't among that small group.

«It's the German kid,» said another special teams staffer.

«Germany?» the first coach asked.

No. 18 was Lenny Krieg, 22, of Berlin, a former soccer player turned Stuttgart Surge kicker. Krieg's older brother studied in Wisconsin for a year when he was in high school and he came back addicted to American football, eventually becoming a football coach. When Krieg was 19, he set aside his soccer cleats and started training as a kicker. His brother wanted him to play on defense, but he was hesitant.

«I didn't want to get into this whole collision stuff,» Krieg said, so he started teaching himself how to kick a football via YouTube tutorials and Instagram, searching «how to kick a field goal.»

He kicked for his brother's German league team for a season and after a successful debut, he moved up to the European League of Football, commuting 6½ hours by train each week from March to September to Stuttgart from Berlin for practices and games. That gig barely paid enough to cover the rent, so after he finished up school, he worked in real estate, but quit his job once he landed a spot in the International Player Pathway, which expanded to include specialists for the first time last year.

Krieg caught the