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For N.F.L. Kickers, Near Perfect Isn’t Close Enough

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Kicker Aldrick Rosas was one of three Giants who made the Pro Bowl last year; the star running back Saquon Barkley and safety Landon Collins were the others. Rosas, in just his second year in the N.F.L., was nearly perfect in 2018, converting 32 of 33 field-goal attempts and missing only one of 32 extra-point attempts.

It’s now Rosas’s job to improve on that, and he knows it. But is that realistic?

“Yes,” Rosas, 24, said after the Giants training camp practice Monday. “It has to be.”

But the pressure that accompanies the daunting pursuit of perfection can cause even veteran kickers to throw up their hands and metaphorically sprint from a football stadium, so maddeningly exasperated that they vow to never again return to the sport.