After a successful decade as a punter and holder for place kickers for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL), Hunter Smith was traded in 2009 to the Washington Redskins.

When his new “special teams” coach touted him as perhaps the “best holder” in football, Smith had to endure some good-hearted ribbing from his fellow athletes. But he also faced some more pointed criticism from kickers and holders from other teams.

For one thing, Indianapolis played its games in a domed stadium. This meant that a larger percentage of the team’s attempted field goals and extra points were kicked indoors than was the case for teams that played the majority of their games outside.

Thus, more often than not, Colts holders and kickers did not have to worry about some of the physical conditions that some of their counterparts from other teams had to face.

When Smith was holding for kickers on indoor fields, the ball was never wet from rain nor cold because of freezing temperatures.

Colts kickers did not have to fear that wind might adversely affect the accuracy of their attempts, thus, diminishing not only their statistics but also those of their holders.

In addition, Smith held the ball for only right-footed kickers whereas some holders had careers in which they had to hold for kickers who were left-footed.

This forced them to reverse all of their actions and use their opposite hand to catch the snap from center and place the ball on the ground for the kick attempt – arguably, at least, making their job harder and their chances for errors greater.

At any rate, Smith had had a successful career in Indianapolis and he hoped to continue it in Washington. He got off to a good start. In addition to holding for kickers, in 2009 Smith – as he had throughout his career – handled most of the team’s punting duties.

But Smith’s tenure in Washington did not last long – as we will see next week in the last installment of this story.