The NFL-Plentywood Connection

Dan Carpenter, the Griz kicking great who married a Plentywood farm girl, has converted his attempt to become one of the NFL's best kickers.

They call him "money" these days because of his reliability to make field goals in Buffalo, where he's a big reason why the AFC East first place Bills have a 3-2 winning record.

Carpenter was named the NFL Special Teams Player of the Week after the season opener, having kicked a 50-yarder and the game-winning field goal in overtime at Chicago. This past Sunday in Detroit, he absolutely drilled a 58-yard field goal with 4 seconds left to give the Bills a 17-14 victory.

"It's crazy," his wife, Kaela, says of his success. "It's not something that I ever dreamed of in our future. You stop to think about it, the average career of an NFL player is a little over three years and he's been doing this seven years. We're the old grandpa and grandma now with the players on the team."

They plan on living the country life around Plentywood after Dan's done kicking, but that could take awhile. He's 28, in his prime, and good NFL kickers can play until their mid- to late 30s or longer.

Dan's good.

That 58-yard bomb he nailed in Detroit was historic in Bills Nation the second it crossed well over the crossbar. It earned the Bills their anticipated final victory under Wilson family ownership in the hometown of the franchise's Hall of Fame founding owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr., who died this year.

With the Bills, Dan is putting up his best numbers. He's 12 of 13 from 40 to 49 yards and 6 of 9 from 50-plus yards since the Bills signed him before the 2013 season, when he hit on 31 of 34. He signed with Buffalo after five years with the Miami Dolphins and four with the Montana Grizzlies in which he was named an All-American twice and All-Big Sky four times.

The Missoula campus. That's where Kaela and Dan met. She was studying elementary education and keeping stats for the football team, a skill she picked up as Plentywood High School student Kaela Clawson.

"The whole keeping stats in high school sure paid off, I'll tell ya," she says, laughing.

Kaela graduated from Plentywood in 2003 and is no stranger to Glasgow. She was a Wildcat in track and volleyball, and played softball here in the summers.

In Western New York, the Carpenters rent half a duplex in a neighborhood of Bills player families in suburban Orchard Park, near the team's Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Stadium. They are involved with charities, including efforts to feed needy families on Thanksgiving, fight breast cancer, and help children with cancer. The parents of one son, 13-month-old Colby, they make their "charity night" their "date night."

"We do some charity, then we go out," Kaela says.

On Monday, Kaela appeared on a Buffalo TV morning show to promote the "Billieve" event to raise breast cancer awareness. She'll do the same Friday on a radio station.

"I love Buffalo," Kaela says. "I didn't know what to expect here, but Buffalo is a little like coming home. There are four seasons. The people are more like back home in Montana. When people think of New York, they think of New York City, but it's not like that here at all."

It's a place, she says, that's near the country. It's where people wear camo. Kaela shoots on a friend's land near Buffalo. Dan's hunting for deer, turkey and bear this year.

When the Carpenters moved to Orchard Park, neighbors brought them venison and apples as housewarming gifts, says Laurel Clawson, Kaela's mom and a Dry Prairie Rural Water board member.

"They felt right at home," Laurel says.

Laurel says she's "happy they're happy and planning for a future after football" – raising kids in Plentywood – but she worries that "they'll be seduced" by Western New York's natural beauty, moderate temperatures and down-to-earth people.

But the couple was married on the Clawson Farm & Ranch. The ladies say Dan enjoys Plentywood. The hunting. The fishing. Four-wheeling. Helping Kaela's dad, Keith, with the cattle.

"Hopefully, we'll be lucky enough" for Dan to have a long NFL career, Kaela says. "But it's a double-edged sword. The money's good and you meet a lot of people, but you'd like to settle down and put down some roots.

"I think we will (return). We would like to be in Montana, for sure. We enjoy my parents' farm when we go home. We'd like to have some land to run around on and shoot gophers and be settled. It would be nice to be near family. I love Northeastern Montana."