After getting a second chance at Pat McAfee’s weekly kicking contest on ESPN’s College GameDay in Week 6, a Cal engineering student named Daniel was able to make a 33-yard field goal that earned himself $100,000. But since his big moment, he is doing his best to remain in the spotlight.
Since making the kick, Daniel Villasenor has seemingly partnered with the popular shoe company Vans, which makes sense because Vans shoes are what he was wearing when he made the kick.
And Part II:
Daniel gets a second chance from Pat McAfee and nails the kick for $100,000.
And it increases the donation for the hurricane relief to $600,000.https://t.co/Ij1kfiedhQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 5, 2024
In a social media post on Thursday, Vans posted a video showing Daniel making kicks while wearing a pair of custom Vans with cleats on the bottom to help with the proper traction needed to kick in most instances.
The video also featured a challenge from Daniel at the end to ESPN’s Jason Kelce, asking him to do a kick-off with a $100,000 donation to the Hurricane Helene relief fund on the line.
“Jason Kelce, these are what I kicked in,” said Villasenor while holding the regular pair of Vans in his hands. Let’s see if you can kick it in your Timbs to match a 100k donation.”
View this post on Instagram
This is particularly interesting because Kelce actually had plenty of negative things to say about kickers during a recent episode of the New Heights podcast, saying it is now “too easy” to kick field goals in the NFL.
“We need to narrow these field goal posts,” said Kelce. “It’s too easy to kick field goals now. We gotta go to rugby goalposts. Kickers should not be influencing football games as much as they are right now. We need to make kickers way less valuable. That is not what football is about. Me and Connor Barwin said this like ten years ago. We need to get specialists out of the NFL.”
Are kickers too valuable in today’s NFL? pic.twitter.com/FBtOGcbfMW
— New Heights (@newheightshow) October 9, 2024
If Kelce were to accept this challenge, all of his comments about kicking being “too easy” would be put to the test, which would certainly be a sight to see.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.