Andrew Franks made history in week one of the National Football League’s regular season when he became the first Carmel High School and first Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate to play in an NFL game.
On Sept. 12, Franks kicked his first professional field goal and two extra-point attempts against the Washington Redskins, helping lead to a 17-10 Miami Dolphins victory. In a week two 20-23 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, he went 1-for-2 on field goals, missing a 42-yarder while making both PAT attempts.
While this is a historic event, it wasn’t one for which Franks was necessarily planning.
After graduating from CHS, Franks decided to pursue an engineering career at RPI instead of football. Once he graduated, however, his path changed, and he soon ended up with the Dolphins in preseason.
Franks deftly beat out his opposition, Caleb Sturgis, a former starting Miami kicker, to win the job, and Franks played in his first professional game, saying, “It was a grind, plain and simple, but anything is possible if [you] work hard enough.”
Talk about Padre pride!
-Evan Patel
