Michigan State Football: Top 50 players of all time
34. Morten Andersen
Yes, a kicker. Morten Andersen, originally from Denmark, is one of the greatest kickers to ever lace up the cleats and line up for field goals — both at the collegiate and professional levels. He wasn’t the most accurate, or dominant, kicker of his time at Michigan State, but the former field goal specialist still managed to hit 45-of-72 field goals for 261 points at MSU before heading on to the NFL for a more-than-successful career.
Andersen missed just five field goals in his senior year, going 15-for-20, and he was 126-of-130 on extra points over his collegiate career. The foreign-born player was always respected by his own fans, unlike some kickers we know these days, and he drilled the big ones when needed.
In the NFL, Andersen is the league’s all-time leading scorer. It’s crazy to think that the player who scored the most points in the NFL happened to play for Michigan State, but kickers get more of an opportunity to put up points in games that anyone else. He played in a NFL record 382 games, attempted 709 field goals and made 565 of them. He finished his career with the NFL record for points with 2,544.
Missing just 10 extra points over his extensive career as well as hitting 80 percent of his field goals was an impressive mark that will be hard to match from any kicker for the rest of league history.
Next: 33. Earl Morrall