| No. 1 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Placekicker | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | 16 July 1959 Parys, Orange Free State, Union of South Africa | ||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 193 lb (88 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Brettonwood (Durban, South Africa) | ||||||||
| College: | Syracuse (1978–1981) | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1982 / round: 7 / pick: 171 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Gary Allan Anderson (born 16 July 1959) is a South African former professional American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons. The first South African to appear in an NFL regular season game, he spent the majority of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and is also known for his Minnesota Vikings tenure. Anderson earned four Pro Bowl and two first-team All-Pro honors after joining the league in 1982 and was named to the NFL's second All-Decade teams of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the Steelers All-Time Team.
With the Vikings in 1998, Anderson became the first NFL kicker to convert every field goal and extra point in the regular season. During the postseason, however, he missed a critical field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship Game, which is often attributed with the Vikings' defeat.[1] Anderson continued his NFL career for six more seasons until retiring in 2004. He ranks third in games played (353), points scored (2,434), and field goals made (538) and is also the Steelers' all-time leading scorer at 1,343 points.