The Odd, Shifting Role of the N.F.L. Punter

During a typical game, Ethan Evans, the punter for the Los Angeles Rams, is synonymous with disappointment. All punters are. No fan cheers when their team’s punter jogs onto the field facing fourth and long. His job is to concede possession—to send the ball back into the control of the opposing team, and to put them in the worst possible field position. Punters, historically, have a bit of a suspect reputation, with their un-grass-stained uniforms. When a punter was drafted in the third round of the 2012 N.F.L. draft, an analyst famously cried, “Let me tell you something, people: punters are people, too.” True, but they are also the game’s vestigial organs, a remnant of the days when football was “foot ball,” before the invention of that modern horror, the forward pass.