Darren Bennett ( football player ) Darren Bennett ( born 9 January 1965 ) is a former Australian rules football player and American football punter in the National Football League . As an Australian rules footballer , he played for East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League ( WAFL ) between 1982 and 1987 and then in the Australian Football League ( AFL ) for the West Coast Eagles and the Melbourne Football Club . He was most successful at Melbourne , where he was named as one of the club ' s 150 Heroes of the last 150 years , kicking 215 goals from just 74 games for the club . As an American football player , following a three club career in the National Football League he is regarded as one of the greatest players of the 1990s and a member of the NFL 1990s All - Decade Team . This combination made him notable as arguably the most successful of the Australian sportsmen linked to professional American Football in history . Early life . Bennett grew up in Perth , Western Australia where he began playing Australian rules football , first playing senior football with East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League . NFL career . He married in 1993 and went on his honeymoon to California , where he contacted the coaching staff of the San Diego Chargers and asked for a tryout . He wound up impressing the Chargers sufficiently that he was placed on the team ' s practice squad for that season , although he did not play . During the spring of 1995 , the Chargers sent him to the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe , where he led the league in net punting average and earned all - league honors . That fall , he became the Chargers ' regular punter . In his rookie season , he finished second in the NFL in punting average and made the AFC Pro Bowl team . He went on to establish himself as arguably the best punter in the NFL for the rest of the 1990s . Despite playing in the league for only half of that decade , he was named as the punter on the NFL ' s All - Decade Team for the 1990s . On 7 August 1999 Bennett returned home with his adoptive sport and took part in Australia ' s first American Bowl in Sydney ' s brand new Stadium Australia versus the Denver Broncos . Bennett was named to another Pro Bowl team in 2000 , and continued to be one of the league ' s leading punters well into the 21st century . Going into the 2004 season , he had averaged 43 . 8 yards per punt , averaged 27 punts per season inside the 20 - yard - line , and had only three blocked punts in his career ( one of which happened when the Chargers had only 10 men on the field ) . As a former Aussie rules player , and considerably larger than most specialist kickers in American football ( 6 ' 5 " / 1 . 96 m , 235 lb / 106 . 5 kg ) , he did not shy away from physical contact on special teams . This willingness to hit , rare among kickers , was never more evident than when he knocked an opposing punt returner out cold in his rookie season . In 2004 , after 144 games for the Chargers , he signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings , where he spent one season until being injured in pre - season and then cut in September 2005 . However , he was recalled by the team in December 2005 , after starting punter Chris Kluwe ( who had replaced him on the Vikings squad ) was injured ; Bennett was signed to a temporary contract . He played one game before being released by the Vikings , having made what was likely his final NFL appearance after 15 Vikings games and a total of 159 NFL games . Bennett is also credited for the introduction into the NFL of the " Aussie Rules kick " or " Drop punt " as it is known in Australia . The technique was instrumental in the advancement of Australians into the NFL , and currently half of the punters in the NFL make use of the Aussie Rules punt in pooch - punt situations . Bennett was named to the San Diego Chargers 50th Anniversary Team in 2009 . He was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in 2012 , the first time the Chargers allowed fans to decide the newest member . Personal . Bennett and his wife Rosemary reside in San Diego and became US citizens in 2010 . They have two sons , one of whom suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ; Bennett is deeply involved with charities associated with that disease . Bennett coaches high school kickers and punters in San Diego and mentors High School , NCAA and NFL players .