The creatively named Lusteg brings a tale that you will probably have to read once or twice to fully understand. Intrigued by his name and the fact that a kicker could wear the number 32, I Googled Mr. Lusteg and found this on his Wikipedia page:
Note that line there near the middle: "his top two competitors were a German bricklayer and a one-armed cyclops."
Um.
Figuring that couldn't possibly be true, I went looking for more information about Mr. Lusteg, and I found this article from the New Haven Register which details Lusteg's attempt to earn a spot on an NFL roster as a kicker. More than 100 people showed up, including (you guessed it) a German bricklayer and a man with one eye and one arm. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
The rest of Lusteg's story is nearly as interesting, including a moment where he had to navigate a team bus to a place he'd said he'd been but had never actually visited, an assault outside an NFL stadium, and a near fatal encounter with Mean Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose nickname was well-deserved.
Unfortunately, as interesting as Lusteg was, he was not actually a good kicker. Sure, he led the AFL in points once, but he never converted even 60% of his kicks in a season one time, including making just one in five attempts during his lone season with the Packers in 1969. But come on! How much do you want from a guy who never actually played real football beyond high school before BS-ing his way onto an NFL roster.
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