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Forget about the postseason woes of the San Diego Chargers over the last half-decade, the experts would say - just look at all they have accomplished. Indeed, they have owned the West division of the American Football Conference since 2006, and have compiled an impressive streak of sinning seasons that has not been seen in San Diego since the team's success in the Sixties. Still, for fans of the team, the experts are wasting their breath. Those playoff woes play heavily into the impressions of success that the team's supporters carry with them - and for many fans, each and every squandered opportunity at a Super Bowl title over the last four years is the result of a storyline with but one villain: Nate Kaeding, the team's kicker.

Forget about the postseason woes of the San Diego Chargers over the last half-decade, the experts would say - just look at all they have accomplished. Indeed, they have owned the West division of the American Football Conference since 2006, and have compiled an impressive streak of sinning seasons that has not been seen in San Diego since the team's success in the Sixties. Still, for fans of the team, the experts are wasting their breath. Those playoff woes play heavily into the impressions of success that the team's supporters carry with them - and for many fans, each and every squandered opportunity at a Super Bowl title over the last four years is the result of a storyline with but one villain: Nate Kaeding, the team's kicker.

The Iowa Native

Chosen by the Chargers fresh out of the draft in 2004, San Diego fans had high hopes for Kaeding. He was a part of the now famous Manning/Rivers deal that saw the Giants give San Diego Philip Rivers and several high picks in exchange for Manning. There were reasons enough to believe that Kaeding could fulfill his role as kicker: as the kicker for the Iowa Hawkeyes, he was called Mister Automatic since he rarely missed. From 40 or more yards, he was one of the best in all of college football, with career totals of twenty nine attempts and only five misses. His senior year saw him miss but one from that range. There was little reason to even suspect that his steady leg would do anything but garner the same results for his new team in the National Football League.

The good

Even as a Charger, Kaeding has gone on to set records. During the 2009 season, he became the most accurate kicker in the history of the National Football League with an overall percentage of field goals made that is in excess of eighty-seven percent. Throughout the regular season campaigns in San Diego, his performance in many ways mirrors what he did while at Iowa City. In one season, he missed only three total field goals throughout the sixteen-game season. Unfortunately, all of that is easily overshadowed in the minds of many Chargers fans by his inability to make the important field goals when they matter most: the playoffs.

The bad

Take the fifty-plus yarder that he missed during the 2006 playoff game with the Patriots. At the time, it would have led to a tie and overtime. Or take the 2007 playoff misfires in games against the Titans and Colts. Either miss, had the game been closer, might have resulted in an early postseason exit (forget the fact that the Patriots eventually ousted them from Super Bowl contention anyway). And then there's the biggest heartache of all: last season's three misses during a playoff game with the Jets. They were the only three kicks he attempted in the game, and had he made any of them, the game might have ended very differently.

As it stands, the team's supporters think of Kaeding as someone who chokes in big situations. Though his fans in Iowa City would vehemently disagree, there is little doubt that he will continue to wear that mantle until he demonstrates with his leg exactly why Iowa fans called him Mister Automatic in the first place.