The beatings will continue

It's all fun and games until the day the adderall runs out.

New Orleans Saints kicker Garrett Hartley was waived on Tuesday after missing two crucial field goals against the St. Louis Rams.

Hartley has been something of a lightning rod for fans during his tenure.   His body of work reveals him to be a more or less average kicker.  He has talent. No one has doubted his range. But he's also been maddeningly inconsistent and that inconsistency has cost the Saints more than a few close games.

Here are some statistics, compiled by other people on Twitter.

@skooks 20-29 26/29 30-39: 25/33 40-49: 21/27
— Thanks be to Todd (@TheToddNewberg) December 18, 2013

@skooks don't know about league avg but Graham... 20-29 = 95% 30-39 = 91% 40-49 = 80%
— Thanks be to Todd (@TheToddNewberg) December 18, 2013

The Graham there refers to Shayne Graham. The Saints signed him this evening to replace Hartley on the roster. For a minute, we were worried that the placekicking duties might fall to recently benched left tackle Charles Brown. That may have gone badly.



Anyway, here's more. 

@LaSportsDude @VargVargas @skooks His career inside 40 is about 83%. NFL median from ALL distances this year is 88%
— Bradley Warshauer (@bradleypw) December 18, 2013

No one should be surprised to see him go. And yet there will most certainly be some strenuous objections.  The guy has had some passionate defenders over the years.  I'm at a bit of a loss as to why that is. It's easy to suggest, as some have, that "he's the guy who got us into the Superbowl."  And maybe that's true in a way.  Although it's more correct to say that Brett Favre did that.



Still he did hit that one kick. Maybe that meant he did "deserve to be here."  For a little while, anyway.