Kicker Eddy Piñeiro brings calm to lives of 49ers, and his parents: ‘They deserve the world’

49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro (18) celebrates with teammates after kicking a field goal during the first half against the Buccaneers on Sunday in Tampa, Fla.

Chris O’Meara/Associated Press

Because of the nature of what they do, sending footballs into the skies, it’s poetically apt that NFL kickers get blown around like autumn leaves.

Eddy Piñeiro knows the drill. Flying high one day, diving like a broken kite the next.

On the first Sunday of this NFL season, Piñeiro, one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history, was home in Miami, 30 and unemployed.

Article continues below this ad

Three days later, Piñeiro was being driven to the Miami airport by his father, to catch a flight to Atlanta to sign with the Falcons.

Then Piñeiro got a call from the San Francisco 49ers. The day before, they had released their kicker, Jake Moody, after he blew two field-goal attempts in a narrow win at Seattle.

“They called me and said, ‘Don’t sign, don’t go over there, we want you here,’” Piñeiro said Wednesday at his locker. “I made a decision with my agent, didn’t get on that flight, came here (to Santa Clara) the next morning.”

What if the 49ers had called two hours later?

Article continues below this ad

“I wasn’t going to just get on a flight and come back home,” Piñeiro said.

Whew. Kickers might seem like they’re a dime a dozen, but the 49ers were desperate for a proven, accurate kicker. Moody’s approval rating among fans, and no doubt among players and coaches, had plummeted to near zero.

Piñeiro was the antidote to all that anxiety. Though he missed his first 49ers’ kick, a PAT attempt, he has been perfect since, 15-for-15 on field goals and 7-for-7 on PATs.

It’s the leg, sure. Piñeiro is No. 2 on the NFL’s all-time field-goal accuracy list at 89.4% (behind the Chargers’ Cameron Dicker at 94.6). Social media is warming to the nickname “Dinero” Piñeiro, dinero being Spanish for money.

But Piñeiro has also brought a sense of calm to the 49ers. He settled into the locker room like a soothing cloud of aromatherapy. Players like to believe that when they bash their brains out for three hours, their blood/sweat/tears won’t wind up in a trash can because of an errant kick.

Article continues below this ad

Moody, who kicked a game-winner for the Bears on Monday night, and who might become a star, always looked worried. His statements added to the concern that he lacked rocklike emotional stability. It’s silly to judge a player by outward appearances, but football is a silly game.

Piñeiro projects an easygoing confidence and calm. After five games as a 49er, it’s as if he’s been here for years.

He said he’s mentally resilient because of his experience. You build up that resilience, he said, “by missing kicks. That’s how you build it up, by missing game-winners, by missing important kicks, creating a foundation. At the end of the day, we’re not going to be perfect.”

Piñeiro beat the Rams in overtime with a 41-yarder that caromed off the left upright. Had that been Moody, it would have been further proof that the guy is as wild as a one-eyed jack in a poker game. But this was steady Eddy, so fans just figured he called bank before that kick.

That calm seems to extend to Piñeiro’s life. Though he makes only kicker money — $1.17 million this season — Piñeiro apparently feels he’s set for life. Years back, he bought a home for his mother and father, two doors down from his place in Miami. Two years ago, he told his parents that they were officially retired. Dad, a pro soccer player in his younger day, was working in construction and cabinetmaking.

Article continues below this ad

Piñeiro was born in Florida. His father emigrated from Cuba, his mother from Nicaragua.

“My dad will never work another day in his life again,” Piñeiro said. “He’s done everything for me, he’s been there for me, he’s worked his whole life to give us the best life, so now it’s time that I give him the best life. … He played pro soccer and he didn’t have the best money management. Now he’s got me. We’re good.”

In high school, Piñeiro’s first love was soccer, he wanted to follow in his old man’s boots, but he quit soccer and devoted himself to kicking footballs because of the potential for an NFL payoff. In college, he chose Florida over Alabama because he wanted his parents at every game.

When Piñeiro told Mom and Dad he was picking up the tab from here on out, “They were super happy. They deserve the world, this is why I do it, I do it for them. If it was up to me, I’ll live under a bridge, I’m OK. As long as they’re living good, that’s all that matters.”

Piñeiro hasn’t forgotten all the mornings when he and Dad would drive to a field at 5 o’clock to kick balls for an hour in the darkness. Dad would drop Eddy off at school and go to work, then every evening they’d go back to the field to kick for another hour.

Article continues below this ad

Even now, Eddy Sr. and Eddy Jr. talk every day, the old man providing encouragement and counsel. One favorite: “You’re not as good as they say you are, and you’re not as bad as they say you are.”

Eddy Sr. had a heart attack two weeks ago, but was well enough to attend last Sunday’s 49ers’ game in Tampa, where Dinero Piñeiro was 4-for-4 on field goals.

“I wanted to do really good in front of my mom and dad,” Piñeiro said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m still a little kid. … I want ’em to be proud of me. Having them there, I felt a little extra pressure, because they haven’t seen me in over a month.

“Seeing my mom was super special to me, being able to hug her, it’s just the little things that sometimes we take for granted. I can’t see them, they’re in Miami, (so) just being able to hug her and my dad, just feel them there, felt really good.”

On Sunday Piñeiro will kick against the Falcons, who missed signing him by two hours. Thus blow the autumn winds.