@sp0rts

NFL preseason is the time to get the yips out of your system.

High snaps, botched handoffs, blown assignments—this is where you hock up the hairballs and purge the ugly. Veterans get mulligans, and new guys are pushed under the microscope.

Everyone messes up, but erring kickers, as always, get the widest end of the stick. Carolina Panthers backup punter Jordan Gay is no exception.

After biffing an extra point against the Buffalo Bills last week, Gay ripped a soaring punt against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Panthers’ preseason game Sunday.

For the Win’s Micah Peters spotted a Vine of the kick.

It had the height. It had the hang time. It traveled eight yards.

Granted, we’ve seen worse. Former Oregon State punter Johnny Hekker sliced a ball for negative yardage in 2011.

On the bright side, Hekker ended up setting the NFL record for net punting yards in a season with the St. Louis Rams and kicked his way into the 2014 Pro Bowl.

So life isn’t over for Gay, but his second stint with Carolina could be. After signing with the Panthers in 2013 as an undrafted free agent, Carolina cut the Centre College kicker near the end of preseason. He then signed with the New York Giants and played in two regular-season games before being released in May.

The league is a cruel rug waiting to slip out from under undrafted prospects. As the Atlanta Falcons’ Roddy White said last week on Hard Knocks, you make a play, you eat steak. You don’t make a play, you’re going to keep eating chicken.

Chicken punts don’t make the team. It’s time for Gay to put some steak on that ball.

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