Wallaceburg’s Shaun Suisham was certainly missed by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night in the NFL’s opening game of the season.
The Steelers fell to the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, 28-21.
Suisham, who is out with a season-ending knee injury, watched his replacement Josh Scobee miss two out of four field goal attempts (44 yards and 46 yards) in the loss.
Scobee is the Steelers second replacement brought in for Suisham this year, as Garrett Hartley was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.
The Steelers sent a sixth round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire Scobee.
Scobee reportedly turned down a chance to add a second year to his contract, out of respect for Suisham.
“First and foremost, Shaun Suisham has been an excellent kicker here,” Scobee told Pennlive.com. “I mean the past three years he’s put up amazing numbers. So I’m not trying to come in and take his job. I’m not saying that next year I’m going to be here because I don’t know.”
“He’s done an amazing job and hopefully he rehabs and can come back,” Scobee said. “So I didn’t want to add on an extra year there, I just wanted to come in, have this year and see what happens after that.”
Scobee added: “He’s done an amazing job and hopefully he rehabs and can come back. So I didn’t want to add on an extra year there, I just wanted to come in, have this year and see what happens after that.”
Suisham enjoyed a career year for the Steelers last season.
He finished the regular season 29 for 32 on field goal attempts, good for a 90.6 per cent clip.
This number placed him 6th in the NFL for the best field goal percentage.
His 29 field goals placed him tied for 8th in the league.
Suisham has stated his intends on playing again next season.
