Mark Alan Royals (born June 22, 1965) is a former American football punter in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars.
[3] Royals was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Dallas Cowboys after the 1986 NFL draft.
On August 8, he was released before the start of the season, after not being able to pass incumbent Mike Saxon on the depth chart.
On September 30, 1987, he signed as a replacement player with the St. Louis Cardinals, after the NFLPA strike was declared on the third week of the season.
On October 14, 1987, he signed as a replacement player with the Philadelphia Eagles, to help solve the kicking problems the team was having.
He received AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in the ninth game against the Buffalo Bills, after hitting a 58-yarder and downing 3 punts inside the 20.
Royals is also known for a bad punt he kicked in the AFC wildcard game between the Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs on January 8, 1994.
With 1:43 remaining in the fourth quarter and on 4th down, Kansas City quarterback Joe Montana threw a touchdown pass to receiver Tim Barnett.
Kansas City kicker Nick Lowery eventually kicked the game winning field goal for the Chiefs eliminating the Steelers from the playoffs.
He was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week, after hitting 6 punts for a 57-yard average against the Arizona Cardinals.
He was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week, after downing 5 punts inside the 20-yard line, including 3 in the fourth quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On August 4, 1999, he was signed as a free agent by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to replace Barnhardt.
He appeared in all 16 games and ranked third in the NFC with a team single-season record gross average of 43.13 yards on 90 punts.
He broke Frank Garcia's franchise record for career punts with his 378th against the St. Louis Cardinals.
On April 15, 2002, he was signed as a free agent by the Miami Dolphins, after they were not able to reach a contract agreement with Matt Turk.
[15] On October 10, 2003, he signed as a free agent with the Jacksonville Jaguars, to replace Pro Bowler Chris Hanson.
[16] During that season, head coach Jack Del Rio placed a wooden stump and axe in the Jaguars locker room as a symbol of his theme advising players to "keep choppin' wood".
After his teammates had been taking swings at the wood with the axe, Hanson followed and ended up seriously wounding his non-kicking foot, which forced him to be placed on injured reserve on October 10.