Can 49ers win Super Bowl with rookie kicker? Doug Brien recalls doing it

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Apr 30

SANTA CLARA — Last time the 49ers won the Super Bowl, they did so with a rookie kicker drafted in the third round.

They're trying that same recipe 29 years later.

By drafting Michigan kicker Jake Moody in Friday's third round, the 49ers made what general manager John Lynch called a "necessary" move.

"That's exciting. It can work," Doug Brien, the 49ers' kicker on that 1994 championship team, said Saturday in an exclusive phone interview with this news organization.

Every year at draft time, Brien recalls the "shock and excitement and terror, altogether" of being drafted out of Cal with the 85th overall pick. He only learned of the 49ers' actual call when awoken by his parents at their Danville home that April 1994 morning.

Friday night, on pick No. 99, the Niners made their third-round move for Moody, Michigan's all-time scoring leader.

"This guy Jake has a great opportunity and I wish him the best of luck," added Brien, 52, a De La Salle High-Concord graduate and a Piedmont resident who's forged a thriving career in the real estate industry.

California's Doug Brien watches a kick against the University of Washington, Saturday, Oct. 19, 1991, at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

What was it like to start his 12-year NFL career and stunningly short stint with the 49ers, when Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Deion Sanders and that all-star crew chased the franchise's fifth Lombardi Trophy?

Well, Moody will face similar pressure, as the star-studded 49ers try rebounding from back-to-back losses in the NFC Championship Game, not to mention their 2019 team's Super Bowl loss.

"There is a lot of pressure, for sure, on a team with real ambitions to get to the Super Bowl," Brien recalled. "I knew there was a lot of scrutiny and that every kick mattered."

SAN FRANCISCO - AUGUST 12: Doug Brien #4 of the San Francisco 49ers kicks the ball during a preseason game against the Denver Broncos at Candlestick Park on August 12, 1994 in San Francisco, California. The 49ers won 20-3. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) — SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 12: Doug Brien #4 of the San Francisco 49ers kicks the ball during a preseason game against the Denver Broncos at Candlestick Park on August 12, 1994 in San Francisco, California. The 49ers won 20-3. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Brien's final kick with the 49ers came only six games into the 1995 season. He missed a last-minute, 46-yard field goal attempt in that 18-17 loss at Indianapolis. It was his fifth miss in 14 attempts that season, after making 15-of-20 his rookie season upon succeeding Mike Cofer.

"If I could give (Moody) one piece of advice," Brien said, "it would be to spend all this time between now and camp on the mental game, to tighten it up and know what to do when you miss a kick, because all eyes will be on you."

Moody is not walking blindly into this championship-driven arena.

"It is obviously a great team that I'm joining, I couldn't be happier," Moody said in Friday's video call with reporters. "Anything that I can do to help the team win a Super Bowl, that's obviously the goal. It is obviously already a great team to be a part of and I'm so excited."

Brien's biggest regret from his 49ers' days: kicking nonstop from college through that rookie season. He developed pelvic pain – Osteitis pubis – and was shelved through the 1995 offseason.

"In my second year, I struggled to get back into stride and into rhythm," Brien recalled. "That (October 1995 release) was disappointing and hard. I sat home for two weeks, then New Orleans doubled my salary and I went there for six years."

Brien left the Saints after the 2000 season, then made stops with the Colts, the Bucs, the Vikings, the Jets and, finally, the 2005 Bears.

Ironically, when Brien injured his back with the 2005 Bears, he was replaced by a 22-year-old kicker named Robbie Gould.

Now the 49ers have picked Moody, 23, to replace Gould, their kicker the past six years who's exited as a free agent. Gould ranks 10th in NFL all-time scoring.

29 Jan 1995: Kicker Doug Brien (left) of the San Francisco 49ers kicks the extra point during the third quarter of Super Bowl XXIX against the San Diego Chargers at the Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida. The 49ers won 49-26. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

Brien contends that, if you're data-driven, then kicker is the most important and valuable position, and the 49ers' brass justified their third-round selection of Moody by noting how they expect to contend this season by winning close games when needed.

The 1994 Niners dominated en route to a 16-3 record, walloping the Chargers 49-26 in the Super Bowl. Brien converted 15-of-20 field-goal attempts in the regular season, then each attempt in their first two playoff wins, only to miss his lone field-goal try (47 yards) in the Super Bowl.

Brien made it back to the postseason with the 2000 Saints and the 2004 Jets, the latter of whom he kicked an overtime field goal for in their wild-card win at San Diego before missing two field-goal attempts in an overtime loss at Pittsburgh.

New York Jets kicker Doug Brien celebrates after kicking the game winning field goal against the Buffalo Bills Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets won 16-14. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

"Kicking in the NFL and kicking in college are entirely different things," Brien cautioned. "You have to have a mental game that allows you to perform under incredible pressure."

Moody impressed the 49ers with that knack at Michigan. In his final home game, he made a 35-yard game-winner to beat Illinois. That win kept the Wolverines unbeaten, up until they lost in the Fiesta Bowl to TCU, where he made all three field-goal attempts, including a school-record 59-yarder as the first half expired.

"Kid wasn't scared of anything. He'd kick it and kick it as hard as he could every time," Adam Peters, the 49ers' assistant general manager said. "… Under pressure, he did it."

That included Moody's private workout for 49ers special teams coordinator Brian Schneider, which Moody capped off by mimicking a chaotic, end-of-game sequence and drilling a 50-yard, laces-messed-up attempt.

Coach Kyle Shanahan called Moody's draft selection "extremely important," even if some might think it's "a little anticlimactic" for a third-round price tag.

"Most of my friends made fun of me, trying to make me feel insecure about it, but we don't," Shanahan added.

Of the six previous kickers drafted in 49ers history, none lasted longer than two years. Moody is the NFL highest-drafted kicker since Tampa Bay took Roberto Aguayo in the 2016 second round; the Bucs cut him before his second season (or six games before the 49ers ditched Brien).

"Yeah, you have to look at history and study it," Lynch acknowledged.

Brien's view of the present: "I know that kicker (Moody) is a talented kid. I don't know the whole story why Robbie left but they're obviously big shoes to fill. It's a big opportunity for this guy."