David Akers

A QUARANTINE in Germany is a funny place to end a football career. And believe it, David Akers and football were finished. In his only NFL game in 1998, playing for the Redskins, he watched Seattle's Steve Broussard take his opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. Lining up field goals from 9 yards out instead of 8, like he did in college, he had missed both attempts from 48 and 49 yards. His only onside kick gave the Seahawks great field position. "One of the old veteran guys said, 'They called him the Babe Ruth of kicking, and it looks like he struck out,' " Akers recalled recently.

In a job without guarantees, David Akers has become the closest thing to a sure thing for the Eagles. He has become a Pro Bowl kicker who has made 31 of 36 field goals this season, including the postseason. He has scored 137 points. When he has been called upon to make big kicks, he has made them. He has been nearly automatic. But kickers hate the word automatic. Nothing is automatic, nothing is guaranteed. Even for Akers. "Every game for me is crucial because I have to prove that I'm worthy of keeping a job," Akers said.

David Akers spent his 34th birthday Tuesday visiting Children's Hospital as part of his Kicks for Kids Foundation, enjoying some rare free time with his family, and feeling pretty certain he wouldn't have to answer questions from the media suggesting his future as the Eagles' kicker was in jeopardy. "I've tried this year not to pay attention to what's in the media," Akers said the other day. "So the only way I knew people were saying things was by the questions I was being asked.

The Eagles' leading scorer pulled on his boots one foot at a time yesterday, methodically, slowly and generally undisturbed in a far corner of the visiting locker room. "I just try to stay as consistent as possible," kicker David Akers said, having just piled up exactly half of the team's points in a 36-3 win over Dallas. "Nobody's perfect. I miss kicks. " Not lately, he doesn't. Akers set a career record with five field goals yesterday, and added three extra points. He has now made 16 of 18 field-goal attempts this season, with the only misses being from 49 yards and 44 yards.

The Eagles' search for a second kicker ended in their own backyard. Rich Maston, a product of Camden Catholic High School and Temple University, agreed to a two-year contract yesterday. Maston, 27, has gone to camp with the Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins, but has been out of football the last two years. He will compete with David Akers for the Eagles' kicking job. The two kickers have worked out together in Florida in the past. Eagles coach Andy Reid has said he wanted to bring in a legitimate competitor for Akers, not just an "extra leg" to share practice time.

Eagles kicker David Akers has said that it would take something almost unimaginable to keep him out of a game. As insurance in case his hamstring injury does so Sunday, when the Eagles play the Oakland Raiders, the team signed kicker Todd France to the practice squad yesterday. The Eagles released wide receiver Michael Gasperson to make room for France. France, 25, a product of the University of Toledo and NFL Europe, was beaten out by Matt Bryant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' kicking job this summer.

E.J. Cochrane doesn't have a chance, and that's just fine with him. The former Pennsbury High School product isn't with the Eagles right now to replace veteran David Akers as the placekicker. He's with them to get an NFL education from Akers in the hope that it leads to a job elsewhere in the future. "This has been a great learning experience," Cochrane said earlier this week after a workout at the NovaCare Complex. "I'm learning from David Akers, one of the best kickers in the game.

There just aren't many NFL stadiums anymore where you can see silos and freshly cultivated fields beyond the grandstands. By the time the Eagles' buses rolled into the University of Illinois' horseshoe-shaped relic called Memorial Stadium early yesterday morning, David Akers could see snowflakes through rain-streaked windows. Those nearby farms, he noticed, were shrouded in mist. "I knew the field wouldn't be too great, either," the Pro Bowl placekicker said. "But that didn't bother me at all. " Akers' focus and consistency are always considerable assets for the Eagles and coach Andy Reid.

Preseason games don't count. That doesn't mean they can't reveal a lot about a team. The Eagles played a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens last night that was rife with intrigue and subplots. They lost, 16-13, at PSINet Stadium, giving them an 0-2 record. The loss wasn't as worrisome as the event that precipitated it. On his first chance to kick a field goal with a game on the line, David Akers was wide on a 37-yard attempt in the fourth quarter. A few minutes later, Baltimore's Matt Stover came back and hit a 42-yarder to give the Ravens the victory.

Linebacker Mark Simoneau's kicking career is over. The Eagles said yesterday that they will audition kickers in case David Akers is unable to play Sunday against the Oakland Raiders at Lincoln Financial Field. An MRI revealed that Akers strained the hamstring in his right (non-kicking) leg on a second-quarter kickoff in the Eagles' 42-3 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Although the injury was not as serious as feared, coach Andy Reid said that the Eagles will possibly take the precaution of resting Akers and bringing in another kicker.

HONOLULU - Talk with David Akers, and you want to get to what really matters first. The thing that is more important than kicking footballs and helping the resurgent San Francisco 49ers to the NFC Championship Game after leaving Philadelphia, where he performed so well for so many years. Real life. As in, how his daughter is doing. Halley Akers was 6 when she was diagnosed with a malignant cyst on her ovary in late 2010. Now? "She's doing very well," Akers said yesterday, after the NFC's Pro Bowl practice at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The Norman Braman-Harry Gamble tenure of owning and running the Eagles will be remembered for many things, but their failure to reach a Super Bowl despite some talent-laden teams could be the most infamous. Now they have a chance to get there - at least by proxy - with Gamble's son and Braman's surrogate son one win away from having the team he helped build in the Super Bowl. Tom Gamble is director of player personnel for the San Francisco 49ers. While constructing an NFL roster is often a group effort, Gamble has been credited with picking many of the 49ers - including former Eagles kicker David Akers - who will face the New York Giants Sunday in the NFC championship game.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - It's the week of the NFC Championship Game and it's New York, so a minor illness to the starting quarterback becomes headline fodder. After Eli Manning was limited in Wednesday's practice because of a stomach bug, the front cover of the New York Daily News read "Big Flu" with an illustration of a bedridden quarterback. Don't make your bets yet, though. Manning returned to practice yesterday, said he took every rep and feels well. There is no concern about the quarterback missing Sunday's game against the 49ers.

Eagles running back LeSean McCoy and left tackle Jason Peters were named to the Pro Football Weekly-Professional Football Writers of America all-NFL team on Monday. Right guard Danny Watkins was named to the all-rookie team. Coach of the year was the San Francisco 49ers' Jim Harbaugh. The group named Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers the MVP. Former Eagles kicker David Akers shared the Golden Toe award (best placekicker or punter) with 49ers teammate Andy Lee.

Eagles running back LeSean McCoy and tackle Jason Peters were each named to the Associated Press All-Pro team. McCoy had a breakout season, finishing fifth in the NFL in yards from scrimmage, fourth in rushing, and first in touchdowns and first downs. This is his first all-pro nod. Peters had an outstanding year under new offensive line coach Howard Mudd. He led all tackles with 27 votes. Peters has been an all-pro four times, but this is his first time on the first team.

49ers 19, Seahawks 17 SEATTLE - David Akers kicked four field goals, including a 39-yarder with 2 minutes, 57 seconds left to lead San Francisco over Seattle. Larry Grant sealed the win by forcing a Tarvaris Jackson fumble, which was recovered by Donte Whitner with 1:07 left. San Francisco, which already clinched the NFC West, remained in position for the No. 2 seed in the conference. Akers set an NFL record with his 42d field goal of the season. San Francisco 0 3 10 6 – 19 Seattle 7 3 0 7 – 17 First quarter   Sea–Baldwin 13 pass from Jackson (Hauschka kick)

METS SHORTSTOP Jose Reyes , now a free agent, was spotted at the Continental (2nd & Market) Tuesday, which fueled rumors that he was meeting with the Phillies. The team says it is not interested in Reyes, despite several sources telling us that there was some type of meeting between them. But we can tell you that the married Reyes visited his daughter and baby mama, a Daily News Sexy Single, while in town. Ay. Dios mio! Bam 'Unstable'? "Jackass" star Bam Margera slept through most of US Airways Flight 797 from PHL to LAX yesterday, but while awake he read a script called "Unstable," a possible TV pilot by "The Mighty Macs" director Tim Chambers and producer Vince Curran . Pinup party Overbrook-based pinup photographer Celeste Giuliano was the guest editor of a new special edition of Retro Lovely magazine that features only photos by her. The 88-page magazine features 40 models, many locals, whom Giuliano has shot in her studio.

AS YOU WORK your way through the Eagles' locker room, it is easy to notice the void. The question you ask isn't complicated: Now that your team is 3-6 and all but eliminated from the playoff race, who steps up? With a season of such promise smashed against the rock, which players are going to pull this unit together and convince it that the last seven games matter, that the team has to keep pushing through? And there is the problem. You pass by the quarterbacks, the defensive backs, the wide receivers, the defensive linemen, the offensive linemen.

Alex Henery remembers the exact place and time he received the call. No, not that call. This was just before the draft, when Henery was working at Memorial Stadium, the home of University of Nebraska football, where the kicker booted field goal after field goal on the way to becoming a Cornhusker legend. But Henery wasn't on the field practicing his chosen profession, or at least the one he had hoped would entice an NFL team to draft him. He was waiting for an elevator that would take him to the skyboxes that were being built for the Cornhusker fans who consider Nebraska football a religion, and in certain cases have built shrines to the kicker from Omaha.