He never thought that this skill would pay off one day.
Two Saturdays ago, Cushman and his brother Jared entered a drop-kicking contest sponsored by the Doug Flutie Foundation in Boston on a whim. Cushman first learned about the contest through a friend and decided to enter after hearing about it on the radio.
When all was said and done that day, Cushman had won the contest, beating about 50 contestants with a 30-yard kick.
After the contest, Cushman went on to defeat Flutie himself in a one-on-one drop-kicking battle with a 35-yard kick, solidifying his title as the best drop-kicker in the U.S. against the man that successfully converted the difficult skill in an NFL game last season for the first time since 1941.
"I didn't expect to win, but thought that I would have a chance if I got lucky," Cushman said. "Since I played soccer in high school, I had a pretty strong leg and thought that if I got on a bit of a roll, then I'd have a chance."
Cushman, who claimed to have very little experience in drop kicks after his adolescence, practiced briefly before the contest.
"My brother and I went down to the Hatch Shell on the Esplinada in Boston and I tried to figure out the best way to kick. Soccer style or straight on with your toe," he said. "It was a no-brainer that soccer style was the way to go. We had no uprights or anything so we just kicked back and forth for a few minutes."
The drop kick, which was used frequently in football games in the 1920s, is a way to score a field goal or an extra point. A kicker drops a football to the ground and kicks it after it bounces off the turf.
This tactic used to be popular before the football became more pointed at the ends in 1934. Although the new shape of the football made passing easier, the pointed ends made the drop kick nearly impossible to complete because the ball does not bounce off the ground consistently.
The rules of the contest were simple. Each kicker had two chances to kick from 15 yards out. Most kickers missed both attempts and were eliminated early on. Cushman was one of only five contestants to advance to 30 yards and the only one to complete his kick from that distance.
"I always thought it would be pretty cool to be a kicker," Cushman said. "When I was at Dartmouth, some of my friends and I would sneak on to the football field and take turns holding for each other while kicking field goals."
Cushman's win secured him two plane tickets, a two-night hotel stay and two tickets to any NFL game in the upcoming season. An avid New England Patriots fan, Cushman has decided to use his prize for a Patriots-Miami Dolphins game later this year, the same match-up that saw Flutie's successful attempt in the fourth quarter of the Patriots' regular-season finale on January 1.
Matched up against Flutie after winning the tournament, Cushman hit his first drop kick successfully from 35 yards, putting the pressure on the newly-retired NFL signal-caller. Flutie missed two 35-yard kicks before conceding.
Cushman -- who remembers watching on television as Flutie completed his memorable Hail Mary pass as a Boston College quarterback in one of the greatest sports moments of the '80s -- said that this story will be one he will tell his children and grandchildren.
Cushman, a former Big Green baseball player and brother at Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, moved to Boston, Mass. after his 2003 graduation to work for Standard Insurance Company. Cushman said that he enjoyed a week of being in the spotlight after winning the contest.
"My boss started calling me 'Drop Kick' for the week after the contest," Cushman said.
Flutie's retirement from the NFL on May 15 nearly coincided with Cushman's win, putting the event in the middle of a major sports story. Two weeks later, however, Cushman said that life has pretty much returned to normal.
Perhaps Bill Belichick will come knocking one of these days.
