Rolf Joachim Benirschke (born February 7, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a former American football placekicker in the National Football League for the San Diego Chargers from 1978 to 1987.

Rolf attended La Jolla High School in San Diego where his father Kurt Benirschke was pathologist at UCSD medical school.

Rolf Benirschke attended college at the University of California at Davis. He was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the 12th round of the 1977 NFL Draft, and was then traded to the San Diego Chargers for his rookie year in the National Football League.

In his rookie year in 1978, Rolf made all 12 of his 12 field goals. In the off-season before the 1978 season, his second season, Rolf developed chronic fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. He learned that he had ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease. Despite staying in the hospital for weeks on end, he made 34 of 38 field goals that year. He was named the NFL Man of the Year in 1983.

Living with ulcerative colitis

However, the problem worsened in the 1979 season, when, on the team plane coming home from a road trip, Benirschke collapsed. He underwent two surgeries to remove his large intestine and he was in the intensive care unit for weeks. When released from the hospital, Rolf was only 123 pounds and had to adjust to life with two ostomy appliances. His ileostomy was eventually reversed in a Koch pouch procedure.

On Sunday, November 18, 1979, Benirschke made his dramatic return to the Chargers in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While he did not play, he was named honorary team captain for the game, which was a sellout. Louie Kelcher, a Chargers' defensive tackle, assisted Rolf and held his hand out onto the field. In 1980 Rolf returned to kicking and played seven more seasons with the team before retiring in 1987 as the team's all-time leader in points scored (766).

Many Chargers fans did not worry if a field goal was attempted within 50 yards, as Benirschke routinely made kicks of that length.

One his more memorable moments was when he kicked a game winning field goal in overtime to win a famous game known as The Epic In Miami.

Benirschke was named the NFL Man of the Year, the NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and the NFL Players' Association's Hero of the Year. He was selected to the Pro Bowl after the 1983 season. In 1997 he was the twentieth player inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame.

Life after football

Rolf hosted the daytime version of the TV game show Wheel of Fortune for six months in 1989. Once while hosting, he said on-camera that he did not know what to do in a tie situation. (In this case, no bonus round was played, and all 3 players returned the next day.) When NBC cancelled the show and CBS picked it up, he was replaced by Bob Goen. In November of 1996 he published his book, Alive and Kicking! Married with four children, Rolf is active in the San Diego, California area, volunteering his time with organizations like the San Diego Zoo, Scripps Hospital, United Way, the Chargers, the Boys & Girls Clubs of East County and the San Diego Blood Bank.

Every year, Rolf is in charge of the Rolf Benirschke Legacy Golf Invitational, held at the Rancho Santa Fe Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Every year, some of the money is donated to charities like the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.