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Predators ink veteran kicker

February 8, 2005 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) - Orlando Predators News Release


ORLANDO, Fla. (Feb. 8) -- The Orlando Predators attempted to solve their special teams woes by turning to another veteran Arena Football League kicker. On Tuesday, the team announced that former Grand Rapids Rampage and Las Vegas Gladiators kicker Brian Gowins had agreed to a one-year contract.

Last year for the Gladiators, Gowins hit 72 of 82 extra points (87.8%) and seven of 11 field goals (63.6%). Had he had enough attempts to qualify, he would have ranked 2nd in the league in field goal accuracy. He finished 6th in the league in extra point percentage.

For his career, Gowins has hit 52.9% of his field goals (63-199). He ranks second on the Arena Football League’s career list for accuracy and also ranks 9th on the league career scoring list for kickers with 591 total points.

Gowins, 28, was named to the second unit of the All-Arena team in 2001, when he hit 15 of 26 field goal attempts and missed just four extra points (97 of 101) all season.

Now in his sixth Arena Football League season, Gowins played college football at Northwestern.

“Brian’s been a solid kicker for a lot of years in the Arena Football League,” Predators Head Coach Jay Gruden said. “We were fortunate that he was available to us.”

The Predators kicking problems started back in November, when the Tampa Bay Bucs (NFL) signed Orlando’s All-Arena kicker Jay Taylor to a two-year contract. Orlando turned to veteran Steve McLaughlin, who brought an impressive AFL resume to the team. But McLaughlin struggled, missing five extra points and all four of his field goal attempts in his two games with Orlando.

Gowins will start on Friday night against Tampa Bay.

PREDATORS NOTES: Predators ticket manager Chris Tamburrelli noted that less than 1,000 tickets remained for Orlando’s (2-0) Friday night home game with arch-rival Tampa Bay (2-0)…Tickets, priced from $10 to $22, are available by at the TD Center Box Office and by calling 407-44-PREDS… “I think we could be looking at a sellout situation,” Tamburrelli said. “We certainly would encourage the fans to get their seats early for this game.”…Kickoff for the game is 7:30 p.m…Should the Predators sellout the 13,692-seat TD Waterhouse Centre, it would mark the team’s 29th sellout all-time and first since last year’s Tampa game.

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