Paul Edinger had one of the strangest kicking routines of all time -- now he has the strangest kicking camp I've ever seen in my life.

For the low, low price of $900 (plus airfare), you can spend a week with Edinger in Costa Rica and learn the finer points of kicking.

[+] Enlarge

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Paul Edinger is offering to bring his unique kicking style to the masses.

I wish I were making this up.

I've got to admit, when Silvy first stumbled across the former Bear's "Kickin' it in Costa Rica" Web site and showed everyone around the office, I thought it was a joke. It looks like a high schooler was trying to put together a site that would make his friends laugh. It has words in random colors, misspellings and a full-page biography of Edinger himself.

The schedule for the camp looks like it was designed for a lazy fan looking for an excuse to take a vacation to Costa Rica. You'll have to click on the "announcements" button on the side of the site to do it justice, but basically you kick for three hours in the morning, take a three-hour break for lunch until 1 p.m., and take surfing lessons from a professional surfer for three hours, and then, if you need it, Edinger will be around for additional help late in the afternoon. That's just Monday through Wednesday. Thursday is an optional day of rest, Friday is the final kicking competition and Saturday everybody flies home.

As if to ward off all the wannabe kickers of the world who might descend upon Costa Rica for this camp, Edinger, or whoever is running this site, offers this word of warning at the bottom of the schedule (in large red type, mind you):

"Keep in mind you are here for kicking! therefore if you want to schedule tours, excursions, etc. Please do that on your own time. Maybe fly in a couple days early or stay a few days late! But Our FOCUS will be KICKING!"

Paul, you want these people to pay more than $1,000 to come to Costa Rica and you expect them to focus solely on kicking? You've got built-in massages and surfing lessons each day. Do you really think they're going to be stoked about learning the finer points of a pooch punt?

After reading a little more about Edinger's venture, it actually appears to be real. The full-page bio actually says (after telling us about Edinger's stellar high school career) that he and his family live in Costa Rica now. I just hope this isn't the only thing he is doing to make a living right now, because I don't know how many people would pay that much money to go a kicking camp -- even if it were taught by Adam Vinatieri.

Speaking of Vinatieri, my favorite part of this treasure trove of a Web site came at the very end of the biography. After describing Edinger's "corkscrew" style, the editor tells us that in 2004 Edinger was the most accurate kicker in Bears history and then lists a quotation, attributed to no one: "A Clutch Kicker -- 'Adam Vinatieri, in other words, is about as likely to make a clutch kick as he is to make an ordinary kick. And he is not all that more likely to make the clutch kick than the ordinarily good N.F.L. kicker. There are virtual unknowns who have a better clutch record: former Bears kicker Paul Edinger went 9 for 9, for instance.'"

So yeah, come to Costa Rica for a week, take some surfing lessons, get a daily massage and learn all about kicking from a virtual unknown. Sounds like a dream week to me. Where do I sign up?

Sort comments by: Most Recent | First Posted