Although their defenders will remind you that what kickers do is exceedingly difficult and nerve-wracking, the "HARF HARF HARF kickers are worthless wastes of a helmet" is a bit of jokey football discourse unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
↵Former Saints and current Browns linebacker Scott Fujita explained to GQ in the magazine's annual preview issue that the seniority of the kicker factors into how much grief they take from teammates after a critical miss. Of course, he did so while revealing yet again how much disdain position players have for place kickers in general.
↵↵↵"Last December when I was with New Orleans, our fat punk kicker, Garrett Hartley, missed a game-winner and we lost for the second week in a row - that was one of the times you want to grab a guy and tell him to [bug] off," Fujita said. "But Hartley was young, and I didn't want to mess him up for good, so I just bit my lip and said, 'Hey, man, don't worry about it -- it was a team loss,' which of course was a total lie."
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Naturally, that will get lumped in with Peyton Manning's famous assessment of Mike Vanderjagt as an "idiot kicker who got liquored up." Of course, by nailing a game-winner in the NFC Championship, then having an excellent game two weeks later in Miami probably should have garnered Hartley slightly more respect among teammates, but then short of saving their lives or beating them in a footrace, that's probably not soon in coming for the kicker.