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Placekicker is the title of the player on an American football team who is responsible for the kicking duties of points after touchdowns (PATs), field goals, and, in many cases, kickoffs.
The placekicker usually will only punt when the punter is injured, although sometimes one player handles both jobs. Because the skills are different enough, on the professional level most teams employ seperate men to handle the jobs. Placekickers and punters are generally the poorest paid players on professional teams, although good placekickers sometimes earn over a million dollars per year in salary.
Amateur teams (college, high school, etc.) often do not differentiate between placekickers and punters, have different players assume different placekicking duties (like one person handles kicking off, anothers kicks long field goals, another kicks from shorter distances), or have regular position players handle kicking duties. The last option is quite common on high school teams, when the best athletes are often the best kickers too. Before the modern era of pro football, this was also the case for professional teams too.
Placekickers today are almost all "soccer-style" kickers, approaching the ball from several steps to the left or right of it and several steps behind. Before this method of kicking was popularized in the 1960s, almost every kicker was a "straight on" kicker, a style that does not include coming at the ball from the side at all, but rather from straight back.
Perhaps because the position does not require the tremendous physical size required of most other football positions, or perhaps because the increased number of young women playing soccer in the past couple of decades in the United States kicking is the one place on the traditionally male football field where women have started to make their mark. Several women have earned spots on college football teams, and even more contribute to their high school programs as kickers. In 2004, former Colorado Buffalo and New Mexico Lobo placekicker Katie Hnida made headlines when she came forward with claims of sexual assault and sexual harassment against players and coaches from the University of Colorado. As the first woman to ever appear on an NCAA Division I football field, she blazed a trail. Her accusations, which led the way for other women to come forward about sexual assault involving Colorado football players, unfortunately also show how much further the traditionally male world of sports has to come.
Perhaps the most difficult skill for placekickers is that of the onside kick.
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