Jeff Ireland spent his childhood summers in Chicago with his grandad, Jim Parmer, who was the director of college scouting for the Chicago Bears. Ireland, who became a ball boy in 1982 at the age of 12, hung out with the kickers during training camps, helping them warm up by kicking a soccer ball around with players such as John Roveto and Bob Thomas.
Ireland was a soccer player as a kid and had never played football by that summer of 1982, but that all changed when Bears General Manager Jim Finks rolled up on Ireland and those soccer playing kickers in a golf cart with his grandfather in tow. Finks wasn’t happy about the type of ball being kicked on his football field.
“He said, ‘Parmer, I love having your grandson around here, but if he wants to kick something, have him kick a football. Get that damn soccer ball off the field,’” Ireland remembered. “That ended the loosening up with the soccer ball, so the kickers taught me how to kick a football. By the end of the summer, I was kicking 45-yard field goals and fell in love with it.”
Ireland was born in Lubbock and played high school ball at Abilene Christian, where he became an All-State wide receiver and kicker. He entered his senior season with interest from TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Oklahoma State. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State found kickers in the previous recruiting cycle and TCU dropped the offer, so that left Baylor as Ireland’s ticket to college athletics.
The only problem? Head Coach Grant Teaff had never offered a kicker a scholarship before stepping foot on campus, and Ireland couldn’t afford to walk on. The good news is that he had a family connection. At the time, Baylor’s wide receiver coach was a former NFL player named Cotton Davidson, who himself played at Baylor as a multiple-position star at quarterback and kicker. Davidson played in the NFL with Ireland’s stepfather, E.J. Holub.
Davidson liked Ireland’s tape at wide receiver and the Bears found a scholarship for him ahead of the 1988 season. Ireland arrived in Waco for camp and worked out with the wide receivers for the first week of practice. In the second week, he earned the starting kicker job as a freshman. That ended his wide receiver days.
“At the end of the day, Baylor was my only Southwest Conference offer, and I really wanted to play in the SWC or the Big 8,” Ireland said. “Houston came in late, but I had already made my decision. I really enjoyed coach Teaff and coach Davidson.”
Ireland was the starting place kicker for the Bears from 1988-91. He finished third on the school’s all-time scoring list with 213 points and a program-record 45 field goals. His career began with a four-field goal performance against UNLV in 1988 and was capped by a game-winner as a senior against Colorado. In the 1992 Senior Bowl with all of the top seniors in football, he started as the South’s kicker.
A kicker’s life is never easy. To most fans, you’re only as good as your last attempt. Ireland went through plenty of ups and downs during his time in Waco. He missed a 62-yarder against Texas A&M as a sophomore that he still thinks about more than 30 years later. He missed multiple field goals against Rice as a senior that caused noticeable backlash from the Baylor fan base. Ireland said his favorite thing about Baylor was the close-knit community of a private school, because everyone knew who you were. The inverse was true, as well. The bad part about being at a smaller university was that there was no place to hide during the low moments.
“The great thing about that time was that there was no social media,” Ireland joked. “We had fans and students that weren’t shy about letting you know when you messed up.”
Ireland decided that he wanted to stay around football and chose the coaching profession when his playing days were done at Baylor. He became a graduate assistant at North Texas for two years before the staff was fired. Without a job, he turned to his dad’s oil business, trading a whistle for a suit and tie. He lasted six months.
“It turns out that I wasn’t really good at cold-calling millionaires to invest in my dad’s wildcat venture,” Ireland said. “So, I called my grandad and asked for help getting into scouting in the NFL. He told me, ‘I can help you get into the business, but your work ethic will determine if you stay in it.’”
As it turns out, Ireland was much better at his grandad’s trade than his father’s. Ireland began working in the scouting industry 30 years ago for National Football Scouting. He became a scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1997, and the vice president of college and pro scouting for the Dallas Cowboys in 2005. Ireland became the general manager for the Miami Dolphins in 2008 and is currently the assistant general manager and college scouting director for the New Orleans Saints, a position he’s held since 2015.
Working in a front office of an NFL team requires the ability to block out outside noise. Ireland inadvertently trained for that his entire kicking career. He admits that he wasn’t as good as he should’ve been at blocking out the criticism when he was a kicker at Baylor, but that those lessons pay off daily in his professional life. He credits Baylor and the people in Waco for teaching him how to become a man. His youngest daughter, Annie, became a freshman at Baylor earlier this year.
“I had a love-hate relationship with the school when I left Baylor because I didn’t finish on the best note,” Ireland said. “It took me a couple of years to get back on campus and start enjoying my time there again. That is part of growing up. I was probably too sensitive back then, but I love Baylor and I’m proud to be a Bear.”
