This post was provided by News Now Warsaw

Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw

We all have dreams.

We all have things we want to do, and people we want to be with the one shot at life that we have.

Maybe that’s being a successful business owner.

Maybe that’s being wealthy.

But virtually everyone wants to be famous. What we want to be famous for varies from person to person.

Not you? Really? Every play the air guitar? Ever sing in the shower? Ever hit a wiffle ball over the fence in your backyard and jog around the yard to the imaginary roar of 40,000 fans at Wrigley Field? OK, that’s just me, I’ll admit to that.

Harrison Mevis graduated from Warsaw as the best kicker in school history, and that’s saying something because Tiger Football has quite a legacy of sending kickers to college football squads.

But Harrison’s story was different. When he went to the University of Missouri, he was already considered one of the best kickers in the country. His work at summer kicking camps and his performance at high-profile showcases made his name well known among special teams coaches.

At Missouri, he was really good, and he made some big kicks. The more big kicks he made, the more popular he became.

That budding legend morphed into a nickname. Harrison Mevis became known to Tiger Nation as “The Thicker Kicker.”

And being honest, he’s earned that nickname. Harrison is big guy. He is not fat, just big — 6-feet tall and 245 pounds.

And if you know this kid at all, you understand that he leaned into the “Thicker Kicker” thing from Day One, and no one is in the least bit surprised.

Most kickers try to keep a low profile.

Harrison Mevis is not most kickers.

And then the day came that cemented his place in Missouri Tiger athletics history…September 16, 2023.

His team was locked in a 27-27 tie with Kansas State at Memorial Stadium in Columbia.

With :02 left, his coach sent him onto the field to attempt a game-winning field goal.

The snap and hold were right on, and Mevis put his right foot into it. Man, did that ball fly.

It cleared the crossbar, and Mevis sprinted a victory lap around the turf.

It was the longest walk-off field goal in the history of the SEC.

Despite all of that, he wasn’t drafted, and a lot of people were surprised.

Still, Harrison kept himself ready by doing his thing.

And then the call came in mid-season 2025.

The LA Rams were on the line. They were unhappy with their kicker, and they wanted to bring Mevis out for a workout.

And they signed him.

He was as good a kicker for them as anyone in the league, and when he beat the Bears with a 42-yard overtime kick in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Soldier Field, “The Thicker Kicker” was now a national brand.

The fame that went with that kind of kick in that kind of setting is instantaneous and spectacular.

This year Mevis was 14-for-14 on extra points this season, but only 5-7 on field goals.

The Rams had been struggling on just about every facet of their special teams units. Coach Sean McVay changed coaches and vowed a change of results, but they still looked very much like 2025.

Then Monday night happened.

At home against a good Buffalo team, Mevis pulled a long field goal to the left in the first half.

Then in overtime, with a chance to win a game the Rams desperately needed, Mevis lined up for a game-winning kick.

The Rams line totally caved in on its left side, and Mevis’ kick was blocked. He put such a charge into it, it still almost made it to the cross bar. But it didn’t.

The Bills went back down the field and won the game with their own field goal, and the Rams were 2-3.

McVay expressed after the game how angry he was at losing.

The next day, the Rams cut Harrison Mevis.

As quickly as the spotlight found him, it disappeared and left him in the dark.

It’s the cruelty of professional sports.

It wasn’t fair, and it’s not fair, but you know how I feel about “fair”.

What about the guys on the line who didn’t do their jobs on that last kick? What about the defense who gave up 37 points? Those guys didn’t get cut.

Only the kicker.

The people who had sung his praises were now filling social media with hate. They turned on him like a stranger. The margin of error is almost invisible. The difference between hero and scapegoat is razor thin.

Harrison knows that this is the nature of the business. It’s the beauty and the nightmare of his particular job on a football team. The kickers don’t get paid much and so they are easy to cut.

He signed up for this.

And Harrison Mevis will once again do his work…and wait for his phone to ring.