Robert Aguayo had the chance to meet the Super Bowl Buccaneers kicker, Martin Gramatica, although they have spoken before on the phone, it was still an exciting moment for the rookie kicker. “He’s a legend here in Tampa as a kicker, and I hope to be as successful as him, or maybe even more so.” Gramatica owns the team’s career record for FGs, with 137, something many hope Aguayo will be around long enough to break.
Gramatica, obviously, knows a thing or two about kicking and already has a great respect for the young man out of FSU and understands the difficult task that lies ahead of the second-round draft pick. “You can tell he’s a perfectionist, so it doesn’t matter if you get drafted or you’re a free agent. He’s going to put pressure on himself just to be great, regardless of where you get drafted. I think in his case, he wants to be great, so you can tell he works hard to be great.”
Martin and Roberto have more in common than just kicking for the Bucs, they also have siblings who were kickers. Roberto’s brother was a kicker at USF and interestingly enough, so was Martin Gramatica’s brother before he headed off to the NFL.
Most fans are still not convinced that trading up to grab Aguayo in the second round was such a good idea, but Gramatica this it was a great idea. “Any time a kicker gets drafted, all us kickers get excited. You can appreciate what the Bucs have done, especially knowing that you can have a kicker for 10-15 years. If he stays healthy and does what we can do, then the Bucs are set with a kicker. teams are looking for a good kicker, so when you have one you can lock up for a while, I think it’s a great idea.” It’s kind of hard to argue with Automatica. Simply because he has more insight on the situation than we ever could.
