Ridgewood Grad, Falcons Kicker Younghoe Koo Named To Pro Bowl

ATLANTA, GA — Prior to the 2019 NFL season, Younghoe Koo was struggling to stick in the highest league of professional football, and had yet to stand out in the minds of football fans as more than the viral video guy.

That changed in 2019, when Koo broke out for the Atlanta Falcons. His legend is only growing in 2020, after he was named to the Pro Bowl this week.

Koo, who leads the league in scoring through Week 15, is one of four Korean-Americans to play in the NFL, according to NFL.com.

He and his family immigrated to Ridgewood when he was 12, and he quickly picked up football while he was a student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School.

After graduating from Ridgewood High School, Koo accepted a scholarship to Georgia Southern and was a finalist for the Lou Groza award during his senior year, awarded to the top kicker in college football.

An undrafted free agent, Koo signed with the Chargers in 2017 but was waived after just four games. He bounced around the NFL and Alliance for American Football before landing on the Falcons roster in 2019.

Now, Koo has planted himself firmly in the conversation for best kicker in the league, and that viral video is no longer the headline to his story, just a sidenote.