On the eve of veterans to report to training camp, the Raiders are swapping out some legs. They added former undrafted punter Corliss Waitman and in a corresponding move waived former practice squad kicker Dominik Eberle.
Waitman is an interesting individual. His family is from the South American country of Suriname. His father Jose played pro basketball overseas. So, Corliss was born in Belgium. When Corliss was young, his father signed with a team in the Netherlands, so that’s where Corliss spent his childhood.
At 15, Corliss moved to 15 with his family where he switched from soccer to football as a punter and attended his father’s alma mater at South Alabama. Last year Waitman was signed by the Steelers as an undrafted free agent. He was released in May of this year.
Oh, and he’s left-footed.
That’s all unique enough. But to top it off, Waitman is a black man. Which we know is rare for punters or kickers in the NFL. The Raiders had Marquette King at punter for a few years and he is still one of just a handful of black punters in the history of the NFL.
It doesn’t seem like it should be so rare, but it just is. And it makes Waitman that much more unique. Along with all the other details of his life’s journey.
As for Eberle, he too went undrafted in 2020, signing on with the Raiders and spending all of last season on the practice squad.