Seems like the punt block is a football play that we just don’t see that often any more…but randomly discovered today that the career record for punts blocked is 14, held by two former punters–Herman Weaver (Detroit Lions, 1970-76; Seattle Seahawks, 1977-80) and Harry Newsome (Pittsburgh Steelers 1985-89, Minnesota Vikings 1990-93).

Newsome is also the single season record holder for punts blocked, with 6 in his 1988 season with the Steelers.

Neither was a bad punter–The Sporting News in 1988 named Weaver one of the top 20 punters of all-time, and reportedly had a hang time of 5.7 seconds (no clarification if that’s just from his college career at Tennessee, if that’s a season number or a single punt, but it’s still impressive). And Newsome holds the record for longest punt ever at Three Rivers Stadium at 84 yards, and was the team’s 1985 winner of the Joe Greene Great Performance Award.

But can you imagine a punter in today’s NFL hanging around long enough to have 14 punts blocked in their career? Or especially six in one season? The active career leader (heading into the 2020 season) is Matthew Bosher of the Atlanta Falcons, who has nine punts blocked from 2011-2019, good for a 10-way tie for 10th place all-time. Next highest is Sam Koch of the Ravens with seven (in a career spanning from 2006-2019) and Dustin Colquitt (who in a round about way is how we got to this obscure record) with six.

Newsome doesn’t just hold the single season record, either–he’s actually the only punter to have five or more punts blocked in a season, and one of only five punters to reach four punts blocked. The only player of this century to reach four blocked punts in a season was Mike Scifres, who did it in 2010. Scifres also had 3 punts blocked in 2012, and finished his career with 10 punts blocked after the 2015 season–the last punter to break double digits for his career.

Also can’t not mention Jeff Feagles, who is one of three punters tied for second most punts blocked in a career with 12–but he did that over an incredible 22 year career, in which he never missed a game–352 career games played.