From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Lori Nickel.
You were probably joking the other night when you asked your buddy if he was in good enough shape to play for the stricken and anemic Green Bay Packers.
How crazy is it then that the Packers have become so desperate for bodies they called 25-year-old free agent Ryan Flinn (above) on Wednesday. Flinn slept through the call initially because on Tuesday night, he was twirling vodka bottles to music until 2 a.m. as a bartender in Orlando.
“Kind of like the movie ‘Cocktail,’ but a little more exciting,” Flinn said.
And two days later, Flinn was in Green Bay preparing to be the punter and holder for the Packers’ game on Christmas Day against the Chicago Bears, who hope to clinch the NFC North title with a victory at Lambeau Field.
Optimistic and enthused with his most unexpected big break, Flinn is yet another anonymous player plucked off the street in an emergency situation by the 3-11 Packers.
Punter B.J. Sander, who suffered a bruised knee from the hit he took in the Baltimore game Monday night, was not going to be able to play in the next 10 days, so the Packers put him on injured reserve Thursday. That allowed them to sign the 6-foot-5 Flinn, who will make his NFL debut Sunday.
More amazing than the above tale is the fact that the only place I could find a photograph of Flinn on the web was from Billy Cundiff.com. Had I been previously aware there was a site devoted to keeping Cundiff’s dozens of fans in touch with his latest career developments, along with providing terrific interviews with other members of the NFL kicking/punting fraternity (or at least those barely maintaining membership with said body)…well, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Traded in my laptop for a hand grenade? My mind isn’t merely blown, I’ve been Vanderjagt’ed up.