Younghoe Who?

Asian-American athletes are historically very rarely seen in western team sports. Taiwanese American Jeremy Lin was absolutely sensational in the NBA for a couple of months, and the phenomena known as “Linsanity” certainly took over the league by storm. Jeremy still has a long way to go to be considered the best guard in the league, but  there seems to be another Asian American player who is slowly putting himself on the map in the National Football League. His name is Younghoe Koo.  

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Younghoe grew up playing soccer. After moving to the states in sixth grade, Younghoe had a hard time fitting in with his classmates due to culture and language barriers. However, once he started playing football in high school, he let his athleticism speak for himself. During his senior year of high school, Younghoe was named team MVP after contributing to his team as a defenseman and special teams member. Younghoe eventually signed with the Georgia Southern Eagles as a kicker. Younghoe excelled collegiately as he was a finalist for the Lou Groza award, an award given annually to the best kicker in the nation. 

Because Koo was a kicker, he didn’t receive a lot of national attention and went undrafted in the 2017 NFL draft. Koo started to gain more recognition after videos of his trick shots started trending on twitter. Shortly after, Koo was signed by the Los Angeles Chargers and won the starting job over veteran Josh Lambo. Unfortunately, Koo was extremely inconsistent with the Chargers and was cut after week 4. Head coach Anthony Lynn said, “Koo’s a very talented kicker, but we’re looking for a little more consistency and experience. I think Koo will have a long NFL career.” 

Koo signed with the New England Patriots practice squad, but was shortly released after failing to make the 52-man roster. Koo’s career didn’t look like it was going anywhere until the Atlanta Falcons picked him up after cutting their franchise-leading scorer, Matt Bryant. This signing is definitely the turning point of his young career. 

During Koo’s first game with the Falcons, he made all four of his field goals including a hefty 48 yarder. He was named the NFC Special Teams player of the week. Moving on to the 2020 NFL season, Koo is currently sitting on top of the leaderboard in terms of consistency. Koo has made 21 out of 22 attempts, giving him an insane 95.5% field goal percentage. In terms of fantasy football points, Koo is currently ranked number 1 in points (as of week 9) averaging 10.4 points a game, beating out veterans such as Justin Tucker, Graham Gano and Greg Zuerlein. 

Koo’s dominance as a kicker is only the start of his young career. The 26 year old is only in his second season as a full time starter and his potential is through the roof. Although Koo isn’t a household name in America due to his role as a kicker, the South Korean has definitely made a name for himself for fans in Atlanta. We hope that Koo can continue his dominance and inspire other Asian Americans to follow in his footsteps.