As his football career unfolded, the name meant less and less.

The Chiefs signed him in April 1990, but he couldn’t unseat Nick Lowery. Nittmo worked out for the Philadelphia Eagles and, when Allegre got hurt again, tried out for the Giants. Matt Bahr, an experienced, bad-weather kicker, was better and went on to win the Super Bowl when Norwood’s kick drifted astray.

Seven months later, Nittmo failed to unseat Norwood in Buffalo. That November, the Houston Oilers cut Ian Howfield and invited Nittmo to a group audition. Al Del Greco won the job.

Nittmo kicked for Montreal again in 1992, lost out to Del Greco again in Houston and eventually found work in 1993 with the Cleveland Thunderbolts of the Arena Football League.

“Kickers are like old soldiers. They never die,” Cindrich said. “They keep coming back and coming back. He’d get released and kept wanting to give it a shot. He just wanted to play.”

Nittmo spent 1994 and 1995 with the Shreveport Pirates of the Canadian Football League. His father-in-law, following three years as Oklahoma State’s athletics director, was Shreveport’s executive vice president of administration.

“After so many teams,” Cindrich said, “I told him, ‘Bjorn, it’s time to get on with things. You’ve got to make a living.’ “

There wasn’t any more use for an agent. Nittmo had circulated enough. GMs knew where to find him if they wanted to summon him for a tryout.

“At some point you have to fish or cut bait,” Cindrich said. “With the amount of time you have to devote to placing a guy every year or multiple times a year, if you only had guys like him, you’d go broke.”

Mary Lois, meanwhile, stayed home – wherever that was, Lockport for a year – and raised the children.

The Nittmos constantly were in flux. Mary Lois didn’t unpack their wedding albums and framed photos until she moved to Winnsboro; they’d been divorced two years.

“I was willing to follow him across the country so he could pursue his dream,” Mary Lois said. “I didn’t get to finish school. We moved a lot, so I never made a lot of close friends. I was always away from family.

“And every time he got cut, that’s hard to watch him go through it and wondering ‘What are we going to do now?’ “

Their dedication to Bjorn’s kicking career paid off at the end of Kansas City’s 1996 training camp.

The Chiefs were Sports Illustrated’s pick to win the Super Bowl. They went 13-3 the prior season, but Lin Elliott missed all three of his field-goal attempts in a 10-7 playoff loss. Now the gig was Nittmo’s.

“I still remember the smile on his face that he made it,” said Aguiar, who introduced Nittmo and the rest of the Chiefs’ special teamers at a kickoff luncheon.

By the time Nittmo departed the banquet room, the Chiefs traded a fifth-round draft choice to the Miami Dolphins for Pete Stoyanovich. The Chiefs released Nittmo.

“I thought for sure he was going to be the guy for us,” Aguiar said. “All the guys on the team liked him. It was hard.

“As a specialist, there’s only 32 jobs out there. There aren’t backups. When you think you’ve got the job and the next thing you know you get released, it’s heartbreaking.”

Mary Lois, pregnant with Madeleine, had moved with 2-year-old Katarina to Kansas City at the team’s request. To avoid disrupting Bjorn’s opportunity, Mary Lois’ labor was induced the Thursday between Kansas City’s second and third preseason games. Madeleine was 6 days old when the Chiefs cut her father.

“The Chiefs situation was terrible,” Mary Lois said. “When Bjorn came home it was the most devastated I’ve ever seen him.”

One year later, Nittmo homed in on the Buccaneers’ roster. But a stampeding behemoth’s knee found Nittmo’s head first.