Some members of the Carolina Panthers special teams are familiar with Atlanta’s professional football stadiums, having played there as high school athletes.
Rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald and punter Sam Martin both have experience kicking in venues that are now home to the Atlanta Falcons. Fitzgerald played two high school games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and one at the former Georgia Dome. Martin’s first organized football game was also at the Georgia Dome.
“Yep, that was the first time I ever kicked a football in a game,” Martin said. When asked about his performance, he replied: “I can’t remember. I think it went well. I can’t really remember, to be honest with you.”
Martin recalled an image from that day: “There’s a picture I just keep remembering of me on the sideline there, and I remember warming up. I don’t really remember the game. It’s been a long time, like 30 years ago.” However, Martin is not old enough to have played in older Atlanta stadiums such as Fulton County Stadium.
In 2007, Martin’s Starr’s Mill High School team faced Cherokee High School in a season opener at the Georgia Dome. Cherokee won 10-3, but Martin successfully made a 37-yard field goal during the game.
“There you go,” Martin responded when told about his field goal. “Nailed it.”
Martin described his journey into football after initially focusing on soccer: “Then my senior year, all my friends played football, so I was like, I’ll come kick field goals just to hang out, and then I started getting recruited,” he said. “And I was kind of sick of soccer by that point.”
He later attended Appalachian State University and shifted from kicking to punting after redshirting his freshman year due to conditioning challenges: “They scholarshipped me to be the kicker that year, but I’d never lifted a weight in my life, and they just blew my legs up, so I couldn’t kick to save my life,” he said. “So they redshirted me… if you want to play next year, learn how to punt. So I spent that redshirt year working on punting.” Martin eventually became an All-American for Appalachian State and was selected in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft.
Fitzgerald also has notable experience in Atlanta’s stadiums from his high school days at Colquitt County High School. As a freshman playing at the Georgia Dome against Mill Creek High School, Fitzgerald made two out of three field goals and all extra points; his only miss was blocked.
“I didn’t know what to expect, really,” Fitzgerald said about playing in such a large venue early in his career. “Going to a stadium like that was pretty cool for a freshman… it’s a big, big stadium compared to a high school stadium.”
He later kicked twice more at Mercedes-Benz Stadium—opening his senior season with a win over North Gwinnett and competing for the state championship against Parkview—where he converted multiple long-range field goals including several from beyond 50 yards.
“It just felt bigger,” Fitzgerald said about Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “It felt a lot bigger, a lot taller, yeah, that’s about it.”
Both specialists’ early experiences in major venues may help them feel comfortable as they return this week for their NFL matchup.
