Mike Vanderjagt Was Unapologetically Cocky. Then One Moment Changed Everything.

He wore spandex sleeves, highlights in his hair and a diamond stud in his ear. He once called himself “the best kicker in history” and had the numbers to back it up. Before games, he used to slip a dollar bill under his wristband.

“Because I was money,” Mike Vanderjagt says.

He’d chirp at coaches on the practice field — “Left half or right half?” — because simply splitting the uprights for an hour straight was too easy. “Boring,” he called it.

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As a soccer phenom, he nearly made the Canadian U-18 national team; as a quarterback, he earned a scholarship to Michigan State; as a kicker, he was cut three times

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