(Editor's note: Columnists Chip Scoggins, Jim Souhan and Patrick Reusse revisit people from stories of years past. In the second of six parts, Jim checks in on former Vikings kicker Fuad Reveiz.)
On Dec. 20, 1992, the Vikings trailed the Steelers 3-0 in the fourth quarter in Pittsburgh. A victory would send the Vikings to the playoffs.
Tony Dungy's defense held, Fuad Reveiz kicked two field goals, and the Vikings won the NFC Central. In 1994, Reveiz made the Pro Bowl and won the Pro Football Writers Golden Toe Award, perhaps the peak of his 11-year NFL career.
As part of a series in which Star Tribune columnists catch up with favorite old story subjects, I thought of Reveiz in part because of his composure and professionalism as a kicker, in part because of his life story, and in part because he established himself as one of the friendliest and forthcoming Vikings of his era.
Born in Bogota, Colombia, his family moved to Miami when he was 11. A friend saw him kicking a soccer ball and talked him into trying football. He became a two-way player, at linebacker and fullback, and a kicker.
With few major colleges interested in him, Reveiz planned to attend junior college until Tennessee coach Johnny Majors, concerned with his kickers' performances in the spring, offered Reveiz a scholarship just before fall practice.
He performed well enough at Tennessee that the Dolphins drafted him in the seventh round in 1985. After four years in Miami, Reveiz signed with San Diego and was cut a month into the 1990 season.
As the Vikings have learned in recent years, kicker performances are fickle. The Vikings signed him at the low point of his professional career and he flourished, never forgetting the kicking and life advice he received at Tennessee from assistant coach George Cafego.
