Reggie Roby - Professional Career

Professional Career

As a professional, his 38.7 net average led the league in 1986, and his 45.7 average yards led the NFL in 1991, and he set a Pro Bowl record with 10 punts in the 1985 game. His 58.5-yard single-game average on September 28, 1986 remains a Dolphin team record. At Rich Stadium, Roby punted the ball a team record 77 yards, but the punt was returned 70 yards. He completed the only pass attempt of his career, a 48-yarder to John Booty in 1995. Roby was selected as a punter for the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team.

Roby played sixteen seasons in the NFL and had 992 punts for 42,951 yards. His career yards per punt average was 43.3, with a net average of 34.0. He had 298 punts beyond the 20-yard line and 112 touchbacks. Roby helped popularize the now-standard two-step approach and often wore a watch to gauge his hangtime. He was one of a handful of African American kickers in National Football League history.

In 1993, Roby's financial difficulties led to him filing for bankruptcy. The Miami Dolphins had cut him after the 1992 season largely because a corollary of this filing would have meant he could have become a free agent and left Miami at any point of the following season, but he continued to play professionally until 1998 and later became marketing and development director for Backfield in Motion, a non-profit group mixing athletics and academics to help inner city boys.