Mike Nugent benefited from an NFL reboot last season.

An outstanding kicker at Centerville High School, then at Ohio State University, he seemed a sure thing to extend that success with the New York Jets. It didn’t happen.

Landing with the Bengals, the team he grew up admiring, for the 2010 season was a dream come true. Blowing out the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and meniscus in his right leg on an onside kick that season was a kicker’s worst nightmare.

Fully healed, Nugent had a career season last fall. Just last week he signed a franchise tender of $2.654 million for this coming season. It’s a one-year deal and a nice present to him and his fiancee, Emily, who he met on Chris Spielman’s Buckeye Cruise for Cancer. They’ll be married in two weeks.

Nugent, 30, addressed all that and more as the featured speaker during Thursday’s annual Sonny Unger Foundation banquet that benefits Centerville football.

Q: Were you always a football guy?

A: I was one of those guys who always played a different sport. I played baseball in the spring. I always played soccer, but soccer and football were in the same season. Once I got to sixth grade, I thought I’m going to take a break from soccer and try football. It was time to try something new. I started kicking a little bit just because I played soccer so much. I went back to soccer in seventh grade and back to football in eighth.

Q: Growing up an hour from Cincinnati, were the Bengals your favorite NFL team?

A: It’s funny. My parents have pictures of me as a 2-, 3-, 4-year-old kid in my Bengals gear standing on the dugout at Riverfront Stadium. It’s surreal to be playing for the team that you cheered for all those years.

Q: Is a career reboot accurate?

A: It really is. Things obviously didn’t look good. From my point of view, I was like, ACL? Everybody comes back from an ACL. I’ll be fine. But maybe on the outside people were thinking, OK, he just finished his seventh season and got hurt. And ACL is a big injury, especially with a (preseason camp) lockout. Everything is working against you. (Rehabbing) is one of those things that took time and a lot of discipline. But it’s fun when you do it for your job.

Q: You go from a blown wheel to a franchise player. Ever have to pinch yourself as lucky?

A: You do; yeah. I would rather have a long-term deal. Hopefully, we can keep talking and negotiate a new contract. You want to be wanted. If a team wants you back, that means that you’re doing something right. Hopefully, I can stay with the Bengals and play for a long time.

Q: Citing a high injury risk, the NFL moved kickoffs up five yards to negate runbacks. Good or bad move? Should kickoffs be eliminated?

A: I admit, as a kicker, it takes a lot of the excitement out of the game. I love it. I’m kicking against (Cleveland’s) Josh Cribbs and I get to get five yards closer. They did prove their point. Hopefully, they keep it, because it’s 50 percent of my job.

Q: Best NFL moment?

A: Sometimes I wonder, what am I doing out here? I was lucky enough to be a captain for the Jets in ’07. The people I got to shake hands with were (Patriots QB) Tom Brady and (Broncos QB) Peyton Manning. That was the coolest thing ever.

Q: You play for seconds and single plays. How do you spend most of your game time?

A: I’m a regular fan on the sideline. I don’t focus on one position; I look at the ball like everybody else. The quarterbacks are so impressive. Whatever you see on TV and how hard it looks like they throw the ball, double it. It looks more accurate and is thrown so much faster in real life, especially on the field.

Q: Who’s the best player?

A: No. 1 is Brady. I’ve never seen someone pick up on other team’s mistakes (like him). If the defense isn’t paying attention for a second, he’s on top of the ball and getting things done. I don’t even know what my record is against Tom Brady. It’s got to be 2-10. I hate playing the Patriots. He just blows people away.