DotW #7 - Morten Andersen

Morten Andersen, 1960

Morten "The Great Dane" Andersen is the leading scorer in NFL history. In his 25 seasons as a placekicker, he made the Pro Bowl 7 times and was named All-Pro 3 times. Next to George Blanda, he is the second oldest player to play in an NFL game.

Andersen was born in Copenhagen, but grew up in Struer, the home of Bang & Olufsen. He was a star athlete in gymnastics, track, and soccer. At 17, he left Denmark for Indianapolis as part of the Youth for Understanding foreign exchange program. For fun, he gave kicking a football a go. He immediately became the varsity placekicker for Ben Davis High School.

With only one season of north-american-football-style kicking under his belt, Michigan State offered Andersen a scholarship and he accepted. Today he is the Michigan State all-time leader in field goals, extra points, and scoring. His 63 yard field goal against tOSU is the longest in Big Ten history. He was elected to the MSU Hall of Fame in 2011.

The New Orleans Saints drafted Andersen in the 4th round of the 1982 NFL Draft. He is the all-time leading scorer for the Saints. Upon being released by the team following the 1994 season, Andersen signed with the Atlanta Falcons. He is the all-time leading scorer for the Falcons.

Morten Andersen holds the NFL record for games played, points scored, and field goals made.

He is often confused with Gary Anderson, the South African placekicker with which he shares a Matrix-like-frighteningly-coincidence-y career.

There are a number of interesting coincidences between Andersen and former NFL placekicker Gary Anderson. Anderson and Andersen have nearly identical last names, were born within a year of one another outside the United States (Anderson was born in South Africa), came to the United States as teenagers, had long and successful NFL careers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and hold first or second place in a number of NFL records for scoring, field goals, and longevity. Their overall accuracy is also nearly identical; their career percentage being within .5 % of each other on both FGs and PATs. Also, Anderson missed a field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship Game for the Minnesota Vikings before Andersen kicked his winning kick, both from the same distance as well.

And all of this reminds me of this. Boo Green Bay!