Patience, persistence pay off for Spencer Lanning

Every time the phone beeped, Spencer Lanning got that familiar sense of dread.

Even after caller ID showed Mom or Dad or Alison, the feeling never went away — it just sunk, only to rise back into his throat the next time the phone rang.

It was NFL cutdown day. It’s a cruel business, and Lanning knew that after being with Chicago and Jacksonville and never being asked to stick around.

He didn’t want his phone to ring. That was the worst thing that could happen. Trying to achieve his NFL dream with Cleveland, Lanning would have preferred for the phone to stay silent throughout the day.

“On cut day, you don’t ever want a phone call,” Lanning said. “You just get that gut-wrenching feeling, hoping if you do, it’s not a 440 number, which is Cleveland.”

The phone chirped. Caller ID showed 440. Lanning squared his shoulders and hit “answer.”

Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor kept it simple. You’re the Browns’ starting punter, and the Dolphins are coming to town next week. See you at practice.

Lanning hung up. For a minute, all the work he had put in through his days at York Comprehensive, then at South Carolina, then trying to make the NFL through countless hours of practice, had been sealed in one five-minute phone call.

But not time to celebrate. Not yet.

“It’s been the other way since I began my journey,” he said. “I’ve always been on the receiving end of bad news. To get good news was great, but the process is never over. You’re competing for your job every day.”

It wouldn’t be official until he was out there against Miami, getting ready to punt in a game that counts. So when the ball was snapped to him and he dropped it onto his foot, Lanning concentrated on where the ball was landing — then if he was going to have to go make a tackle.

Only then could he take a moment.

He made it.

The NFL.

Finally.

“It was a little bit of a release,” he said. “But I still had to think, ‘You’ve won the spot, now you’ve got to help your team win ballgames.’ Even at Carolina, I used to be a nervous wreck every time running out there for a field goal. That doesn’t change.”

Lanning is averaging 43.2 yards per punt (13 attempts) with a long of 53 in his first two games heading into Sunday’s matchup at Minnesota. While the big story this week has been the Browns trading Trent Richardson to Indianapolis, Lanning still could find room to embrace and enjoy the chance he received, the chance he earned.

After a torn ACL led to him giving up a promising high school soccer career to play football, Lanning went from walk-on to scholarship kicker and team captain during his time at USC (2006-10). Much of his rise to starter and leader, the only special-teamer voted a captain at USC since 2006, was because of his work ethic.

The Gamecocks’ kickers drill during the first part of every practice, then head to Williams-Brice Stadium for more workouts. The sessions often were unsupervised, and the temptation to goof off was always there.

Lanning couldn’t, not after what he’d been through.

“It was up to me, a senior captain,” he said. “Coach (Shane) Beamer was awesome to me about it, telling me, ‘I know what you want, and you can do it.’ ”

Working with his dad during the offseason, the “guy with two last names,” as coach Steve Spurrier called him, barely took a day off during his college career and continued that after he left the Gamecocks. Chicago noticed, bringing him in for a tryout before signing Adam Podlesh. Jacksonville was the next to offer; Lanning signed a futures contract only to see the Jaguars draft Bryan Anger.

“Jacksonville hurt his feelings, it hurt my feelings,” said Lanning’s father, Tad. “(Lanning’s mother) Lisa and I were watching the draft and watching the ribbon go by, and I saw Jacksonville drafted a punter in the third round. She said, ‘I think I’m going to throw up.’

“Spencer was at a draft party with some of the Jaguar players. When that came up, the whole room got quiet and looked at him. He said, ‘I guess I should go pack.’ ”

Lanning was claimed on waivers by the Browns, but he was going to have to wait through the summer, through more tryout camps, before the next preseason came around.

Back home, he was splitting time between his native Rock Hill and a place in Charlotte while working at the nearby fields at Northwestern High.

“We probably punted, on average, every other day and sometimes more,” Tad said. “We spent a lot of time working on different aspects of the punting game — hang time, pooch punts. I think that’s more what it’s about, especially at the punting position — to get a chance.”

Cleveland wanted him in preseason camp, and he kept outlasting the other punters the Browns brought in. It was getting close to cutdown day, but after the previous disappointments, Spencer Lanning wouldn’t allow himself to think about it.

“You give yourself a limit, if I’m X years old or whatever, I’m going to stop,” said Lanning, who agreed with his agent that he’d quit as soon as teams stopped calling. “You don’t want to be 40 and still pursuing this.”

But he was the only punter left in camp, and the phone call gave him good news.

All he had to get used to was pulling on an orange helmet. While his sister Alison is a Clemson graduate, Lanning switched to all-USC the moment he was offered a walk-on spot with the Gamecocks. Alison is enrolled in graduate school at USC, and wore USC colors during her brother’s games.

“When you see an orange helmet, you automatically think Clemson,” Lanning said. “After seeing the Browns, the Clemson helmet looks really weird to me.”

But it’s his own NFL- issued helmet. All of the work, the more work, the good tidings from his friends, family and folks who knew that he’d be working every day and stopped by to wish him well, came around. Good things, waiting, so the motto says.

“When I think back to how close I was to just going to Clemson and never playing football again, it’s been pretty amazing,” Lanning said. “I was lucky enough to get to play football for Carolina and Steve Spurrier, and I was lucky enough to get an NFL opportunity. Now I’m lucky enough to pull on a Cleveland Browns jersey.”

Lucky, good, rewarded …

Same difference.

This story was originally published September 21, 2013 at 10:37 PM.