It’s with great sadness that we announce the death of the Dolphins’ greatest kicker, Garo Yepremian.
To a lot of younger fans who don’t know Garo, you missed out on a very consistent kicker who was clutch. Garo kicked the field goal in double overtime to win the longest game in NFL history, and it doesn’t get more clutch than that.
Garo was also a Pro Bowl MVP, a left-footed kicker among the first to kick soccer style. He rarely missed.
I still remember the day I missed Garo most. It was the 1982 playoff game against San Diego, when Uwe Von Choke missed a field goal at the end of regulation. Then he missed a chip shot in overtime. Why oh why did Shula cut Garo, I thought that day. Why are we stuck with this German choke artist kicker instead of the little tiny bald-headed dude from Cyprus?
We never would have to see Kellen Winslow being carried off the field for years to come if only we had Garo. One of Don Shula’s worst mistakes ever was cutting Garo.
Garo’s ill-fated pass in the Super Bowl will go down as one of the greatest gaffes in history, perhaps second only to Pete Carroll. But at least Garo’s mistake resulted in a win nonetheless.
Garo parlayed that gaffe into a bit of fame and fortune. Fans of the Odd Couple TV series remember Garo playing a character named Xeno, who dated Penny Marshall. He was hysterical. He only knew one word of English (“Keeeck”), which he said when he kicked Felix Unger’s dinner out the window. Good stuff.
As one of those “younger” Dolphins fans I’m definitely gonna have to watch some footage of him. I never knew he was that good. We have been blessed with a lot of good kickers over the years. To me I always liked Stoyanovich the best. Unfortunately I don’t know much about those 1970’s teams except for what I hear from others. Looks like I’m gonna be doing some youtube searching later on today.
R.I.P. to a Dolphin legend!
Sad indeed. But his logo ties were great. Too bad all of his kickoffs failed to reach the end zone which was a reason he finally had to go.