The concept of Georg Simmel''s stranger as expanded by Robert Park and Alfred Schutz is applied to the placekicker in American professional football. The placekicker''s relationship to the team is examined in terms of its structural centrality and cultural marginality. Changes that have occurred in football due to the rise to prominence of the kicker are described. Implications from the occupational position of the kicker are drawn.
Revision of a paper presented at the meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Diego, CA, April 21–24, 1982. The authors wish to thank John Johnson, Jay Coakley, and D. Stanley Eitzen for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.