Harry Kane posed with Pat Patriot ahead of England's World Cup group game against Ghana in Boston, and suddenly a three-year-old dream is back in the conversation. The Bayern Munich striker has made no secret of his ambitions to try NFL kicking. Playing the game in the Patriots' own stadium makes the idea feel a little less hypothetical.
Kane has been following the NFL for over a decade and counts Tom Brady among his friends. So the photo with the Patriots mascot wasn't a PR stunt — this is a genuine obsession. "It's something that's in the back of my mind," he told CBS Sports Golazo recently. "I still feel like I have many more years ahead of me in soccer." That's not a door closing. That's a door being left very deliberately ajar.
The case for Kane as a kicker is not ridiculous
Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey — who made the jump from professional soccer to the NFL himself — backs Kane's chances. "He's a fantastic striker of the ball," Aubrey said. "If you strike a soccer ball a million times, it's going to translate to striking a football." Coming from the man who is arguably the best kicker in the league right now, that means something.
Kane already hit a 50-yard field goal in gym shoes during a 2017 visit to the Giants' practice facility. That's not nothing. Aubrey's main concern is timing — Kane is 32 now, and by the time he winds down in soccer he could be well past the window NFL teams are comfortable with for a debut kicker. Aubrey himself was 28 in his first NFL season, which was already considered late.
There's also the numbers problem. "There's only 32 jobs," Aubrey noted. "Even if you have the ability, it's trying to get somebody to give you an opportunity. That's what took me the longest." Aubrey spent three years training before the USFL gave him a route in. Kane wouldn't have that problem — his global profile would guarantee at least one team offering a tryout — but getting a tryout and sticking on a roster are very different things.
For now, England needs its striker, not its kicker
Kane opened the World Cup with two goals in a 4-2 win over Croatia. England's odds of ending a 60-year wait for a World Cup title look considerably better with him in that form than they did 12 months ago. An NFL experiment is a story for another chapter.
Aubrey put it plainly: "I have a feeling he'll be a little bit on the older side when he's done with soccer, and NFL teams don't like to see too old of kickers to start." That's the reality check. Kane's football dream is charming, and the talent might genuinely be there. But the clock on that window shortens with every year he keeps being one of the best strikers on the planet.
