DAVIDSON - Out here, on the football field, 24 yards seems like nothing at all. A short throw. A quick sprint. An easy kick. Just look at those uprights, so close and so wide, like welcoming arms. Who could miss a 24-yard field goal?

Shayne Graham did. Last Sunday in Green Bay, the Carolina Panthers kicker doinked a 24-yard kick with 16 seconds left to seal a 17-14 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field.

Across the Carolinas, a cry was heard.

"Twenty-four yards? Even I could make that."

On Friday at Davidson College, we let Panthers fans put some leg behind their words. More than 30 answered The Observer's invitation to kick a field goal at Richardson Stadium. Accountants and salesmen, students and retirees, soccer-style kickers and straight-on Lou Groza types -- all with one thing in common:

Twenty-four yards. Their names potentially in the newspaper. Glory or shame.

Of course, there was no football game on the line, as there was for Shayne Graham five days before. Graham also had the disadvantage of large linemen rushing at him, not to mention 63,000 fans loudly wishing him ill. Still, Graham's kick was one he had routinely made on thousands of occasions.

Add it all up and ... we can only imagine.

But imagining, our kickers say, is part of the fun. Certainly, we watch sports because athletes can dunk and throw 70-yard spirals -- and we can't. We can, however, picture ourself jelly-legged at an NBA free-throw line or sweating over a 15-foot putt at Pinehurst.

And a 24-yard field goal?

"My mother could make that," said Peter Volk. "My grandmother could make that."

Volk is 31, a marketing manager in Charlotte. He describes himself as "fat." He has never attempted a field goal before. A 24-yarder, he thought, should be easy. "Oh yeah," he said, nodding.

A holder placed the ball on the stadium grass. Volk kicked. Line drive, wide right.

"OK," Volk said. "That's tougher than it looks."

Brian Ferry, 40, is an engineer from Statesville. He has kicked field goals with his son, Patrick, in their back yard. They both groaned when Graham missed Sunday.

But, he said, Graham had a lot of pressure on him.

We reminded Ferry that The Observer's daily circulation is more than 230,000.

He missed wide left.

So it was with our kickers-to-be. Of the 31 contestants, only 11 made their 24-yarder. (Yours truly? Wide left.) Most of the made attempts came from former soccer players or former high school kickers. One of two women -- 25-year-old Charlotte engineer Jennie Schurr -- was successful.

Said Ben Schwartz of Charlotte, who made his try and held for most of the others: "You could see with everyone, right up until they kicked, their eyes said, `This is easy. I can do it.' "

Instead, most came away with a newfound respect for Shayne Graham, who will be kicking for the Panthers again Sunday. Others appreciated the opportunity to experience a field goal. A real stadium. People watching.

David Dunn is 44 and lives in Davidson. He was in line Friday because he wanted to see what a kick is like. He understands that one of sports' joys is that moment you cozy a 7-iron next to the pin, or you drop a 15-foot fadeaway jumper, and it's as pretty as any shot the pros make.

And this kick? "Money in the bank," he laughed. Then he readied himself and booted a 24-yard field goal, high and long and through the uprights. The crowd, three dozen at Richardson Stadium and 60,000 in David Dunn's imagination, went wild.