Ex-Tiger Feely still kicking strong

Posted Nov 2, 2009 by Adam Adkins

Updated Nov 2, 2009 at 10:04 PM

Jay Feely may be in his ninth season as a National Football League kicker, but the former Jesuit High standout’s leg is still as strong as ever.

Feely showed that Sunday afternoon when he matched a career-long with a 55-yard field goal in the New York Jets’ 30-25 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

Feely, in his second season with the Jets, connected on both of his field goal attempts Sunday and improved to 13 of 15 on the season.

Feely set a Jets team record earlier this season in a loss to Buffalo when he made his 24th consecutive field goal attempt (dating to last season).That broke Pat Leahy’s mark of 22 straight between 1985-86. For his career, Feely has hit on 81.7 percent (214-for-262) of his field goal attempts.

Feely even had a couple of tackles Sunday, wrapping up Miami kick returner Ted Ginn Jr. on the Jets’ first two kickoffs. The bad news for the Jets was that the next two times Feely kicked off to Ginn, Miami’s speedster wasn’t tackled – he returned those kicks 100 and 101 yards for touchdowns, helping the Dolphins to the regular-season sweep of the AFC East counterparts.