It's pretty safe to say that Mike Vanderjagt is Canada's Best Football Player. Although, it may not be as safe to say that a kicker is a real football player. Nevertheless, the Oakville native and Indianapolis Colt was in the spotlight on Sunday afternoon. Vanderjagt, noted as the most accurate kicker in NFL history blew a 46 yard game-tying kick so far right that even Stephen Harper had to swing around to see where it landed.
The beauty of Vandy's miss is that it added to the Peyton Manning jinx of playoff inability. Where in recent years, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer and of course, Tom Brady have succeeded, Manning has been unable to turn regular season heroics into playoff success.
Manning and Vanderjagt have had an interesting co-existence in Indianaoplis. In 2003 Vanderjagt called out both his coach and quarterback after an embarassing playoff exit to the New York Jets. Manning responded with "The sad thing is, he's a good kicker. He's a good kicker. But he's an idiot."
Peyton could only smile and say "He missed it" as he watched the kick go up yesterday afternoon. Perhaps the grin on his face was at the irony that it will be Vanderjagt who will wear the tag that he placed on Manning three years ago.