It’s a phenomenon usually associated with golfers later in life, and I’m not talking about the one-word golfers won’t even say but it begins with “sh” and ends with “ank.”
I’m talking about the “yips.” A mental block combined with racing anxiety that prevents golfers from making even a 3-foot putt. Shaken confidence leads to shaky hands and a putt you’ve made thousands of times now seems impossible. The “yips” control your state of mind and have effectively ended more than a few professional careers.
NFL kickers are also “yips” candidates, but their misses come with harsher and faster results. You could make 20 straight, but within a matter of weeks you could be looking for a new house. Miss a few easy ones, perhaps one that might have won a game, and it starts to creep into the back of your mind. It builds, making the next kick just a bit harder. Suddenly it’s a slump. Two weeks, later it’s over.
For the record I’m not talking about specifically what the Saints have endured this season in Wil Lutz’s absence, even with rookie Brian Johnson leaving the roster this week. It’s been a tough year for kickers all around the NFL. It’s a position that has always been about the now, and what you did yesterday doesn’t matter.
When I was at James Madison University, we had a kicker named Scott Norwood. Yes, that Scott Norwood. He was beyond awesome. Three decades ago in 1991 and at that point a 6-year veteran, Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal in Super Bowl XXV that would have given the Buffalo Bills a title over the New York Giants. It sailed just a matter of feet to the right. It set a new course of history for the Bills, and clearly for Scott. The Bills brought him back to kick the following season, but it didn’t go well then, either. That was it, career over.
The Saints’ current kicker, Brett Maher, was also the first kicker signed back in August with the team seeking a stand-in for Lutz. He can empathize with Norwood and the hundreds of other kickers through the years just like him. Maher in 2018 and 2019, with the Dallas Cowboys, became the first kicker in NFL history to make three field goals of 60 yards or more. Hat tip to ESPN’s Mike Triplett for that tidbit. In 2018, he made 80% of his field goals. He featured a booming leg and uncommon accuracy. But He featured a booming leg and uncommon accuracy. But the next season his consistency waned, making just shy of 67% of his kicks. The Cowboys released him. It can happen fast.
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Now, I want to be clear: I’m not saying Brett got the “yips.” Regardless, missing field goals or extra points can lead any kicker to lose their confidence, and eventually their job. Now the longer a kicker remains with a team the more leeway he is given for slumps here and there. If those misses don’t come in, you know, the playoffs.
The Saints’ third kicker this season was veteran Cody Parkey. He had become somewhat of a YouTube sensation for missing field goals, clanking them off the uprights or double-doinking them off the upright and then the crossbar. In his one game with the Saints, a victory over Washington, he missed two extra points and, yes, one did doink off the upright. If you are thinking: ‘Well, here’s a young man who just couldn’t handle the pressure of being an NFL kicker, and was out of the league quickly,’ you would be wrong. The Saints play the Philadelphia Eagles tomorrow. The Eagles kicker who holds the franchise’s single-season record for scoring? That’d be a rookie back in 2014 by the name of Parkey. He made 89% of his FG attempts and all his extra points on the way to Pro Bowl. But it didn’t last and after 2 years in Philly he’s found himself on a different roster in each of the next 6 years.
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As I said, it’s been a tough year (years) for kickers. If anyone asks you what’s going on with the Saints kicking situation this season, all you must do is say this: The Saints had not one, but two kickers injure their groins in pre-game warmups. I mean, are you kidding me? Two kickers, same season, each fighting for a job. They injure themselves warming before a chance to really earn it.
Anyone want to take a guess at their names? Brett Maher pre-Baltimore. Cody Parkey pre-Washington. That pretty much says it all doesn’t it.
But Brett has healed and he’s back again, and I believe the Saints will need him dearly tomorrow. Points will be at a premium. This team, and this kicker, needs something good to happen tomorrow, and maybe it will for Brett. It is his birthday, after all. #GoSaints