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Where are they now? Matt Bahr

Jim Baumbach

January 30, 2008

Doubt and uncertainty have to be foreign emotions for kickers. The most successful ones tend to be completely self-confident, never a doubt entering the mind, regardless of the situation. Maybe that's why former Giants kicker Matt Bahr always has had such strong convictions -- and still does today. Bahr told Newsday this past week that he was one of the Giants who in 1991 spearheaded the campaign to have the players wear yellow armbands to support the troops overseas.

"The NFL didn't like it," he said.

So what. The Giants wore those bands in the NFC Championship Game that year -- Bahr waved his band to the stunned San Francisco crowd after kicking five field goals in a 15-13 win -- and they wore it in Super Bowl XXV, too.

Seventeen years later, he's not about to back off the statement the team made to the millions of people watching that game on television. "I believed it then and I believe it now," Bahr said. "We need to support the troops and their families in any way we can."

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That's one of the two major issues driving Bahr these days. He's also involved in a fitness foundation that encourages kids from the third to the eighth grade to take responsibility for their own physical shape. These causes have connected Bahr with two organizations -- the Fight On! Foundation and The Henry T. Nicholas III Foundation -- that share the same idealistic visions.

"Even though I was an engineer by training at Penn State, I've read a lot of history," Bahr said, "and for what it's worth, there's real genius in the line in the Declaration of Independence that says 'the pursuit of happiness.' There's been thousands of years where people fought and died for freedom. But we're the first country to say the pursuit of happiness is one of our rights. The men and the women who defend that will always have my support."

Bahr then apologized for preaching, but not for what he was saying. "I strongly believe in this," he said.

And he strongly believes in those two foundations as well. That's why he wound up in Southern California last weekend as a guest speaker at a football game that both foundations put together for seniors who are from historically black colleges.

"The main purpose was to raise money for veteran groups," Bahr said. And that always gets his attention.

That the charity all-star game was being held on the West Coast brought about an added bonus for Bahr. The Pittsburgh resident was just a short flight from Glendale, so of course he couldn't miss a trip to the Super Bowl to see two of his former teams play.

Watching Lawrence Tynes kick the 47-yard field goal in overtime to clinch the NFC title spurred memories of his big day in San Francisco in the NFC title game 17 years ago. Bahr's fifth field goal was a 42-yarder that gave the Giants the unlikely win. "What was it, 17 years ago? That's scary," he said. "It really does seem like yesterday, and not because you're trying to relive things. That's how fresh it stays in your mind."

Tynes wasn't exactly automatic during the regular season, but Bahr doesn't think Giants fans should worry about how he'll do under the bright lights of the Super Bowl. Not after the way Tynes rebounded from those two misses in Green Bay.

"Anyone can make a field goal when things are going good," Bahr said. "But can you overcome adversity? Can you make a field goal after you miss one or two? He showed that and then some."