ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The labyrinthine path that punter Karl Schmitz took to the cusp of the N.F.L. routed him from the soccer fields and beaches of Bermuda to being a YouTube sensation and finally a legitimate pro prospect.

He played a half of one high school football season in St. Louis after recovering from an auto accident just before his senior year, and he had a single college season after bouncing around to three colleges, one of which did not even field a football team.

Yet here he is, amazingly, with a shot at making the Denver Broncos — after he turned the head of the team’s chief executive, John Elway.

For years, Schmitz, 28, who is a British citizen, returned to Clayton High School in St. Louis, often after getting off work at 2 a.m. — not to relive the state championship he helped win in 2004, but to practice on a field illuminated by the lights of his Volkswagen.