Brett Maher never looked up long enough during training camp to notice whether he was closing the gap between him and the Dallas Cowboys’ field-goal kicker for the previous seven seasons. You may have heard of him: Dan Bailey. Only the NFL’s second-most accurate kicker in history.
Maher, who has never attempted a kick in the league, earned the job and replaced Bailey after, at the very least, matching Bailey kick for kick throughout the duration of camp. But until he got the call from Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Saturday, right around the time he heard the news that Bailey had been released, Maher was as in the dark as anyone outside the Cowboys’ front office.