Björn Nittmo
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| Position: | Kicker | ||||||||||
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| Date of birth: | July 26, 1966 | ||||||||||
| Place of birth: | Lomma, Sweden | ||||||||||
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| High school: | Enterprise High School | ||||||||||
| College: | Appalachian State | ||||||||||
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| Player stats at ArenaFan.com | |||||||||||
Björn Arne Nittmo (born July 26, 1966 in Lomma, Sweden) is a retired American football placekicker, being the only Swedish-born player ever to complete a full season in the National Football League.
Football career
The left-footed Nittmo, famous for his very long kickoffs, came to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama.[1] After high school, he played college football at Appalachian State University, where he also was the all-time leading scorer with 277 points. He was the first Swedish-born player to play a full season in the NFL, when he played for the New York Giants in 1989. He also tried to make the Kansas City Chiefs' roster the following year but was cut. Other teams of his career include the Montreal Machine of the World League of American Football (this league later became the NFL Europe). He has also played for the Cleveland Thunderbolts, Arizona Rattlers and the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League, as well as the Shreveport Pirates of the Canadian Football League. In 2005, Nittmo was invited to the Ottawa Renegades' training camp, but was cut prior to the start of the season.
Miscellaneous
Nittmo appeared on Late Night with David Letterman a few times during his stint with the New York Giants. Letterman seemed to be obsessed with the kicker's name and even coined a new catchphrase to both celebrate and mock him: "Who do you think you are, Bjorn Nittmo?"[2] (season 8, episode 162). Nittmo's celebrity continued when in 1999, he appeared as the kicker in the football movie Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. Nittmo is also starring in a mini-documentary about his life to inspire the Swedish youth to follow their dreams and study abroad.
Personal life
Nittmo has been estranged from his ex-wife, Mary Lois Nittmo, and his four children (three daughters and a son), for over a decade. He suffered severe brain damage from a hit he sustained in a 1997 preseason contest; such was the extent of the damage that his ex-wife got rid of football within the family household, refusing to watch any games on television or let his son play the game.[3]