LONDON – When Denver Broncos Players scan the crowds of punters who flocked to Wembley Stadium’s historic Wembley Stadium Sunday. Corliss Waitman The one who finds the most familiar faces will win.
“It will be a little weird,” Waitman said. “OK, a lot weird. Of all the things I thought could happen in football, I’m not sure I would have said I’d be back in Europe, with so many friends and family coming to see me play a game I didn’t really know anything about until I was in high school. This is something I couldn’t have predicted.”
Waitman, 27, was raised in Belgium. After high school, he moved to Florida with the help of his father. He is dual-citizen of the United States and the Netherlands.
“I had to ask them which passport they wanted when it was time to get ready for this trip,” he said.
The Broncos, last seen at Wembley on 10/10/10, will be facing the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday, at 9:30 AM ET, streaming exclusively on ESPN+. Waitman purchased 18 tickets for friends and family, including his mother Aldolphine, who lives in Amsterdam and hasn’t seen Waitman play in an NFL game in person.
This Sunday’s event will be a connect the dots moment for a player that has been with four teams in the past two seasons. Pittsburgh Steelers, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots and the Broncos — which have been waived four more times
In February, the Broncos claimed him and he won a fight for the job as a veteran. Sam Martin Preseason ankle injury. Waitman refused to take a pay cut. Waitman has been busy this season with the Broncos scoring only eight touchdowns. He is currently tied for the league’s lead in punts (39) as well as leads in punts taken within the 20 yard line (18).
“Corliss is someone that is really talented,” Broncos general manager George Paton said. “ … He is lefty with a big leg and we thought he might have it. [a] Unique combination of hangtime, direction, very strong athlete, very well holder.”
Waitman’s father, Jose, played professional basketball in Europe for 15 seasons and was the MVP of the Dutch leagues in 1986-87. Waitman lived with his mother in the Netherlands until his father moved to Pensacola in Florida.
Jose Waitman, 49, died in 2013 from complications following a stroke. Waitman lived with his grandfather for the rest of his life. He then went on to play football at South Alabama University.
“I didn’t really do much with football when I was in Europe,” Waitman said with a laugh. “I was all about soccer and basketball and some track. Michael Vick was huge back then in Europe. Or at least that’s what I remember. Everyone seemed to have known the Falcons back in those days.
“I was nervous to move, you didn’t know what high school was going to be like in the U.S., it was really only what I had seen in the movies, Like the ‘Breakfast Club’ or something, just what you saw on the movies. So, when you’re a teenager, you don’t know, was it like bullies and the jocks battling all the time like in the movies?’’
It didn’t take long for Waitman to discover the athletic pecking order either. Football was king. Waitman was a sophomore when he arrived at Milton High School. He started by taking on some kickoff duties before becoming an all-state punter in his senior year.
“Soccer is just the No. Waitman stated that soccer is the No. 1 sport in Europe. Nobody I knew ever played any other. “Then I move to Florida, soccer wasn’t really a thing when I was in high school, it was a lot more casual and I wasn’t used to that. … It just looked more serious to me, but I was playing basketball, soccer and some track, so didn’t really go all the way into it until my senior year when they needed a kicker.’’
He was then able to travel to South Alabama, where his father played basketball. Toss in the quirky odyssey of a punter or kicker trying to carve out a spot in the NFL, which is often multiple years of an assortment of workouts and Waitman said “I’ve been kind of out on my own since college.’’
His 10-punt extravaganza in the Broncos’ Week 3 win over the San Francisco 49ers included six landing inside the 49ers’ 20-yard line and four inside the San Francisco 13-yard line as he was named AFC special teams player of the week. Dwayne Stukes, Waitman’s fiery coach has told him he needs to control Waitman’s aggressiveness at times.
“He can get greedy sometimes, and it might just be me trying a little to push him, saying that this ball is absolutely necessary inside the 10-yard mark,” Stukes stated.
When the NFL released the 2022 season schedule in May, Waitman ran his finger down the Broncos’ calendar and saw “London’’ and “Wembley Stadium’’ next to Oct. 30.
“It sort of hit me then, just looking at the schedule, if I can somehow, some way, make the team, I could play in front of my family, a lot of my friends,’’ Waitman said. “And here it is.”