Havard Rugland, YouTube’s ‘Kickalicious’ Star, Signs With Detroit Lions [Video]


The Detroit Lions have reportedly just signed Havard Rugland, a talented kicker from Norway better known by his YouTube handle, “Kickalicious.”

According to NBC Sports, Rugland, 28, inked a contract with Detroit on Thursday.

While term of Rugland’s deal were not known, he will apparently compete with newly signed David Akers for the Lions kicking job left vacant by Jason Hanson’s retirement.

The Detroit Free Press notes Rugland played amateur soccer in his native Norway before taking an interest in football in 2011 after watching the Super Bowl.

In 2012 he released a video of himself performing various trick kicks which went viral and today has over three million hits.

The 6’2? and 240 pounds left-footer had tryouts for the Lions and New York Jets and has been working out at Michael Husted’s pro kicking camp in Florida.

“He’s got great potential,” Husted told the Los Angeles Times in March. “On the other side, you need more than that. You need connections and to have a little bit of luck on your side. I always tell people that there are kickers who were better than me who did not make it. I was fortunate to have a nine-year NFL career.”

Detroit head coach Jim Schwartz said that the team first learned about Rugland from the internet video and through league channels.

“Same way you guys did,” Schwartz said. “He had worked out for the Jets, I believe, a couple weeks before us. And when you work out a player it goes across the (NFL) wire also. But when those guys have agents and things like that, the reason they went through that was to try to get opportunities, so he has agents that’s working and we had opportunity.”

In case you’re wondering just how good Havard Rugland is, here is the full Kickalicious video that catapulted him into internet fame.

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