NFL teams have always found kickers in extremely uncommon places, whether that be recruiting them from other sports like soccer or looking in other professional football leagues to find a diamond in the rough. And according to UFL head coach Mike Nolan, NFL teams have reached out to standout kicker Jake Bates, which he claims is against the rules.
Bates has quickly emerged as one of the best kickers of the UFL early on in their 2024 season. The Michigan Panthers kicker has shown off a big leg early on in the year, already making a 64-yard field goal, a 62-yard field goal, and a 52-yard field goal.
Naturally, this means that there is already speculating that Bates could potentially find a home in the NFL for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
According to Mike Nolan, Bates’ impressive kicking has led to NFL teams even reaching out to him, which is against the rules if teams are reaching out to Bates directly instead of reaching out to the Minnesota Panthers team.
“Outsiders don’t touch our players too much during the season,” Nolan said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “With Jake, somehow some of them are trying to make efforts to do that, to be honest with you, and hopefully that backs off a little bit because that’s not. They’re not supposed to do that. And maybe that’s rumor, but I had heard something the other day and I kind of said, ‘Well, let’s make sure we nip that in the bud,’ because, look, I want Jake to do well and I want him to get a chance. I’d love to see him in the NFL and no one right now can do him any good, so the best thing I can do is keep those people away from him currently, because I’m not helping Jake if I don’t do that.”
Nolan later clarified that he has heard both agents and NFL teams have already reached out to Bates. He did not name any teams directly, but you can probably imagine what teams are in need of added depth at kicker.
If this is true, this is indeed against the rules because Bates is currently under contract with the UFL. It’s unclear at this point whether any consequences could come towards some of these NFL teams that may have reached out to Bates.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.