New kicker trades crossbow for crossbars

Browns kicker Garrett Hartley speaks with Cincinnati Bengals kicker Mike Nugent (2) prior to a Dec. 14 game in Cleveland.

(David Richard, Associated Press)

BEREA, Ohio – Garrett Hartley did not point to the sky Sunday after converting his first two field goals with the Browns. There were no outward displays of emotion as the footballs sailed between the uprights.

The new Browns placekicker simply gazed to the heavens in tribute to the baby girl he'll never know.

"I had a guardian angel looking over me," he said.

Less than 48 hours after delivering a eulogy for Hinsley Rose Hartley in New Orleans, he rejoined the Browns and made a pair of field goals and an extra point in a 17-13 loss to Carolina in Charlotte. Hartley did not want to divulge any details other than to say his girlfriend, Olivia Ruby, was seven months pregnant when unexpected complications suddenly arose Nov. 26.

He nearly lost two great loves that day, Hartley said, as doctors gave Olivia a 10 percent chance to survive. She spent six days in intensive care and three additional days in a New Orleans hospital.

Nothing is like game day knowing our guardian angel HRH is watching over us @oliviakelsey #DawgPound #blessed pic.twitter.com/izf3zRhIFR — Garrett Hartley (@GHartley5) December 21, 2014

"She's still recovering, getting a little better every day," Hartley said Friday.

Hartley, who helped the Saints reach and win Super Bowl XLIV, expressed his gratitude to his new teammates and the Browns' organization for supporting him through one of the most trying weeks of his life. The Browns were aware of the family's loss when signing him Dec. 13.

The club allowed him to return to New Orleans last Thursday. He reunited with them Sunday before the game.

Hartley, 28, said the theme of his eulogy was the joy their daughter brought them over the past seven months.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet but Hinsley Rose is the sweetest," he wrote on a social media account. "The service was without question one from a best selling novel, from the flowers to the intricate wood work on her casket. With our family and friends by our side, we managed to get through the trailing day. We were so blessed to have her for the short seven months that we did."

He described the little kicks in Olivia's belly that became big ones and the "priceless" pictures and videos from the ultrasounds.

"It is unknown at times what God has planned for us as individuals, as a couple, and as a family," he wrote. "I can't fathom for one second that down the road that we will know why He decided to bring her home oh so early."

Standing in the locker room, Hartley spoke of the importance of his faith and how the tragedy has brought the couple closer together.

"Our daughter came into this world without sin and now she's in God's hands," he said.