Mohr wants to finally get it done

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - Nobody can ever say that the professional football life changed Chris Mohr.

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After 16 seasons, four teams, two leagues, three Super Bowls, 258 games, nearly 1,300 punts and more than 50,000 yards, Mohr hasn't really gone too far in life.

He's still married to the same girl, Kim, he dated in high school at Briarwood Academy. He still calls Thomson home. Three of his four sons go to the same private school their parents attended. And he's still kicking balls for a living just 100 miles down the road in Atlanta for the team he grew up loving.

For a man with such simple tastes in life, only one thing would make his homespun tale complete.

"I was blessed being able to come back home and play," Mohr said of his signing with the Falcons in 2001. "Couldn't ask for anything better than to come home to Atlanta and win the Super Bowl."

On Sunday, Mohr and the Atlanta Falcons go to Philadelphia to play for the right to represent the NFC at Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. It's

an opportunity even the low-key Mohr relishes.

"It would be the icing on the cake," he said. "Winning a Super Bowl here would be unbelievable. It couldn't get any better."

While his zip code hasn't changed in 38 years, Mohr has come a long way since he spent the fall of 1990 chopping wood and running a recreation department in Thomson. Only a year after being drafted out of Alabama by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1989 and earning consensus All-Rookie team recognition, Mohr was out of a job and waiting for any team to call.

"Every week I was getting my agent to call whoever had the worst game in the league that week," Mohr said. "I didn't know what I was going to do."

With no options, he reluctantly signed on with the World League's Montreal Machine. That spring, he led the WLAF in punting and was signed immediately by the defending AFC champion Buffalo Bills.

"When I was in Buffalo it was already set," Mohr said. "We had our star players and system and looking back it was like a foregone conclusion that every year we would go to the Super Bowl."

It became a similarly foregone conclusion that the Bills would lose - a record four in a row. Mohr was part of the last three.

Safe to say he knows a little about how the Eagles feel as they prepare for their fourth consecutive NFC Championship game with no victories to show for it. He's not buying Philadelphia's attempts to deflect the escalating pressure onto the underdog Falcons.

"I know we felt pressure trying to win that Super Bowl (in Buffalo) and never could get it done," Mohr said. "Each year it sort of got tougher."

Other than his first AFC Championship Game experience in 1992 when the Bills beat Denver to reach Super Bowl XXVI, Mohr hasn't worked up too many nerves on duty. He realizes the magnitude of the game, but his job is the same as every week - hold on place kicks, keep the laces away and punt the ball wherever he can to keep it from coming back.

After 10 seasons in Buffalo, he's not concerned about the wintry forecast for Sunday in Philadelphia.

"It doesn't effect me mentally because I know that the ball's not going to do what I want it to do at times," he said of the cold and potentially windy conditions. "I can't get it as high or as long and it's going to be hard as a rock."

His wife has more concerns. She went out and bought warm boots on Wednesday and will have to sit among hostile Eagles fans on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

"Philly's fans are about as crazy as Alabama fans," Mohr said, "so it's going to be a wild day."

Like the weather and the atmosphere, the laid-back Mohr takes everything in stride.

"That's what kept him going as long as he has, his calmness," said Kim of her husband's career longevity.

Mohr - born the same year the Atlanta NFL franchise came into existence - has been a Falcons fan all of his life. He still has pictures of himself as a 9-year-old attending a Falcons camp and standing next to Tommy Nobis, the first draft pick in franchise history.

Coming from the same hometown that produced arguably the greatest punter in NFL history - Ray Guy - Mohr's pedigree seemed to take him naturally to the place he is today. His rsum isn't gaudy, just consistent. He's made a career by kicking the ball just the right distance for his coverage guys to handle. He consistently ranks among the best in net yardage and lowest in return yardage. This season, the Falcons ranked No. 1 in punt coverage - again.

It's enough to make Mohr want to keep going in spite of the hardships that NFL life can mean to his family. Every week during the season, Mohr lives in a two bedroom cabin on Lake Lanier near the Falcons' training facility. His wife and four boys come up from Thomson on home weekends. He spends every Monday and Tuesday in the comfortable confines of McDuffie County.

How long he continues is as up in the air as one of his kicks.

"I take it year to year now at my age and see how it feels," he said. "I've started to feel the family tugging at me a little bit. Health-wise I feel good. As long as I'm still able to contribute and punt like I'd like to punt, who knows?"

He has more immediate concerns. But when Mohr decides he's done - whether he has a Super Bowl championship ring or not - you'll at least know where to find him.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.