Notebook: Graham Gano has foot in making history

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Graham Gano had no clue he had contributed to smashing an NFL record last weekend.

The Giants’ 15-year veteran kicked a 50-yard field goal Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings in the season-opener. It was one of 21 field goals of at least 50 yards in Week 1, the highest total in a week in NFL history. The previous record of 15 was set in Week 3 in 2023. Gano had a foot in that mark as well, booting a 57-yarder in San Francisco that is tied for the longest 3-pointer in Giants history.

Gano has become a long-ball specialist later in his career. From 2009-18, he kicked 20 field goals of 50+ yards in 150 regular-season games for Washington and Carolina. Since joining the Giants in 2020, he has 24 field goals of 50 or more yards in 43 games – four more long kicks in 107 fewer games.

Gano is one of a legion of kickers who have made the 50-yard field goal relatively routine. So, what gives?

“Kickers have become more accurate from 50-plus,” Gano said. “As the years have gone on, the specialists in general were kind of looked at as the guys that weren’t really athletes. You could just kick a ball, and I think you’re starting to see that change. It’s been changing for a while. You’re starting to have guys that were the best athletes at their schools or in high school, and then they’re specializing in kicking a ball. You’re getting athletes that are growing up, lifting, running, doing all the plyometric exercises to get strong. I think you’re starting to see that now as guys are becoming more and more explosive.

“Also, the attention to detail has increased. There’s a lot that goes into it, but just detailing our craft. It’s pretty cool to see. It makes the game exciting.”

On Sunday, Gano will return to his first NFL home when the Giants visit the Washington Commanders in Northwest Stadium, where he played for three seasons. In 23 career games there, he made 43 of 55 field goal attempts (78.2%), including 7 of 10 from 50+ yards, with a long kick of 59 yards.

Gano said another reason for the increase in lengthy field goals is coaches’ increased willingness to try them. In his first season with the Giants, he got a directive from then head coach Joe Judge, who, not surprisingly, was a former special teams coordinator with the New England Patriots.

“Coach Judge, he told me when I first got here and I was showing in practice I could hit long ones, he said, ‘If you’re doing it in practice, we’re gonna do it in the game, so you better get ready for it,'” Gano said. “So, my mindset was, ‘Alright, let’s do it.’

“We were playing in Chicago in Week 2 in 2020. We were 57 yards into the wind, and he sent me out there for it and I was like, ‘Well, here we go.’ Missed it a little bit left (the only one of his 32 attempts that season he did not make), and from that moment on, I was ready whenever we were anywhere in range.”

Gano succeeded on 12 of 16 attempts of 50+ yards under Judge, including a pair of 55 yarders. He has also kicked 12 long field goals since Brian Daboll arrived in 2022, but in just 14 tries. They include two of the three 57-yarders in Giants history (Aldrick Rosas has the other). Gano has twice set the franchise single season record for long field goals, with seven in 2021 and eight the following year. His 24 field goals of 50 or more yards easily eradicate Joe Danelo’s former Giants record of nine. And Gano, 37, is just getting started in 2024.

Something Gano does not do is practice more frequently from long range.

“I don’t back it up too much,” he said. “I know if I kick it straight, it’ll go in – barring any wind and whatnot. I give credit to coach for trusting me to go out there and do that, as well as (holder) Jamie (Gillan) and (long snapper) Casey (Kreiter). They’re masters of their craft, and they make my job a lot easier and, obviously, it takes the entire line blocking. There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of preparation, a lot of planning and practice. It’s fun to be able to go out there and reward the team with points whenever I can.”

Despite his long-distance success, Gano was far more emotional after kicking a mere 23-yarder for the game’s first points against the Vikings.

Gano missed the last nine games of the 2023 season with an injury to his left leg that required surgery. It was his second operation on his plant leg; he sat out the entire 2019 season because of an injury he originally suffered the previous year.

Though hopeful, Gano was unsure if he would be healthy enough to return to the field.

“After the injury last year and how the season ended, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play again,” he said. “You always have to think positively, but being a more seasoned kicker, whenever you have injuries, you never know what can happen.

“Last year was tough. There was a lot of doubt in my mind. I think the amount of pain that guys fight through with their injuries, that’s not something I think a lot of people really understand. I see it in my teammates’ eyes when they go through injuries. I think that was the hardest part. I think it’s natural for sometimes doubt to creep in.”

Gano credits his wife, Brittany, with helping him navigate that rocky landscape.

“My wife is my rock,” he said. “She’s the one I lean on the most and she was the most encouraging one through this whole time. Whenever those doubts did creep in, she told me, ‘You can still do it, give it another shot.'”

Gano has developed a ritual with Kreiter and Gillan in their three seasons together. Early in training camp, he was, “pretty rusty.” Then he began to strike the ball as he always has, and “Jamie and Casey looked at me and they’re like, ‘You still got it.'”

After kicking a 31-yard field goal in a preseason game in Houston, Gano adhered to their tradition. “I looked at the guys and said, ‘I still got it.’ I say that every year after the first kick and they always get a kick out of it.”

So, what did he do after scoring the Giants’ first points of the 2024 season?

“For sure, in that moment it was emotional for me,” Gano said. “I was like, ‘Well, boys, it looks like I could still do it’ and laughed and walked off. Even though it was a short one, it was still nice just to be back out on the field and making kicks.”

He hopes to keep doing that for a long time.

“I take a lot of pride in what I do,” Gano said. “I like going out there and performing in front of the fans and I love hearing the cheer when we do well.

“I know football is going to end one day. I’m extremely fortunate and blessed to be able to play a game that I played as a kid still to this day as a 37-year-old. I love playing it with the guys. The way my mindset is, I’m gonna give it my all to this organization and to this fan base until I can’t anymore. And I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.”