The Fragile Minds Of Kickers
October 11th, 2017
Did Bucs cause Folk to suck?
Kickers are headcases. All of them.
That’s the word from Super Bowl-winning quarterback Phil Simms.
Last Friday in his weekly appearance with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio, Simms all but said the meltdown of former (?) Bucs kicker Nick Folk was directly ignited by the Bucs themselves.
Simms went on a rant that the worst thing the Bucs could have done is set up a kicker competition this offseason between Roberto Aguayo and Folk. In doing so, Simms said, it mentally destroyed both kickers.
“I talked to Bill Cowher about this,” Simms recounted. “I think one of the – I think it is wrong to go to training camp and have competition between the kickers. Have your kicker. He is your guy. Go to training camp [with that kicker]. When you make them compete, it puts them on edge. We don’t see who they really are. That’s what they did down in Tampa. So they let their second round draft pick from a year before go. Now they give it to another guy. There can’t be a great confidence level.
“So, it is a little pet peeve of mine. I said that to Bill Cowher. I said, ‘Bill, did you ever have kicking competitions during training camp?’ Without hesitation, he goes, ‘No way! I would never do that.’ It creates doubt.
“It is the one position in football where the mind can get ahead of the body.”
You know, when the Bucs decided to bring Folk in to either push Aguayo to improve or make him earn his keep, Joe never heard one word from anyone that this was all of a sudden a bad thing.
Basically, what Simms is saying is, these kickers are such headcases and so feeble-minded that they have to be babied and coddled like infants. BS!
As for confidence, Joe once again pulls out one of his many favorite quotes from Bobby Knight. When Knight kept inserting, benching and starting off-and-on a player while at Indiana, a reporter asked if the constant yanking in and out of the lineup would affect the player’s confidence. Knight shot back, “What about my confidence?”
October 11th, 2017 at 12:59 am
True dat
I think not bringing in 2 other kickers to compete with each other. 4 in total Come to look at it Folk was cut by the Jets. Go figure
October 11th, 2017 at 1:01 am
I didn’t think we had to use the kicker so much anyhow. Our scoring offense is off track a bit. Kicker got exposed out there
October 11th, 2017 at 1:34 am
I could try, l like Simms, to get inside a kickers head.
I choose not to.
Its like herding cats in there.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:41 am
It’s Swaggy’s fault. His taunting ruined the kickers. LOL.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:43 am
So what was Roberto’s excuse last year? Since he had no competition he should’ve been fine
October 11th, 2017 at 1:48 am
All I know is Aguayo came to Tampa with all the confidence in the world and an impeccable record, THE BEST college wide. He was a 2nd round pick for a reason, the BUCS needed that caliber of talent, but this fan base beat in the ground how it was ridiculous and absurd that Jason went high for a kicker…and you pounded that young kicker merciless!
Ironically the VETERAN kicker only beat him out a tiny bit…(during HARDKNOCKS) and with all his experience he failed to perform…maybe it’s time this cruel, umrealistic fan base hold up a mirror and look long and hard at the problem. Folk was kicking fine til he got to T-Bay.
For awhile it was EVANS, MCCOY, DAVID, CONTE, SIMS, DOUG, and NOW JAMEIS and so many more. Each one of these players are ELITE but have shortcomings sometimes but you will beat them down if they make a mistake or have a bad game🙃
October 11th, 2017 at 4:25 am
Nole4 Jaboo
Yes sir! You are correct.
Believe it or not- many of the players read fan post.
It effects how they view the community
October 11th, 2017 at 4:55 am
it’s all swaggy’s fault…the swaggmeister folked him overrrrr!
October 11th, 2017 at 5:57 am
The flip side to the Sims/Cowher argument is that if they can’t hold up during a training camp what would lead one to suspect they’d do fine in January with the game on the line and a trip to the SB? DUH? Would you rather know you had a choker in August or Janauary? At least we’ve found out in August and now in October….let’s hope this is the last go around with kickers.
If you get the yips you’re done it’s a simple as that!!! It doesn’t even matter how good you USED to be….get the yips and it’s over in the NFL or on the PGA Tour.
October 11th, 2017 at 6:28 am
This is football people!!!!
Stop treating the kicker like twinkle bells will you!!!!
FOOTBALL!!!!
AND THEY ARE GETTING PAID!!!!!
You must be physically and mentally fit. You either qualify or not. As simple as that.
smh
October 11th, 2017 at 6:51 am
^This is PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. If you are ready for a six figure check, then you are not a victim. You earned your spot in the team.
This is not college anymore. This is when you speak quietly and carry a Big Stick.
Is time to be MONEY!
October 11th, 2017 at 6:52 am
^softly
October 11th, 2017 at 7:05 am
“Basically, what Simms is saying is,”…..
“I’m still Butthurt over the way Chris’ career was mishandled and his life almost ended down in Tampa so I will continue to badmouth the Buccaneers at every opportunity as long as I have a voice in this sport.”
What a stupid premise Phil is pushing here. So kickers as a whole are so mentally weak that they can’t stand any competition for their job like every other NFL player must endure? Yet they must somehow find the internal fortitude to walk out on the field cold, on the road in front of 70,000 fans screaming at said kicker to miss and yelling all manner of things to get in their head – and still somehow find the mental strength to kick an oddly shaped ball 50 yards through the middle of 2 posts set 6 yards apart with the game on the line and the entire team and millions of fans counting on your ability to do so?
C’mon Man!!
October 11th, 2017 at 8:04 am
We had a kicker when Licht got here. Been a sht show every since. Classic example of Licht thinking he is is the smartest, craftiest guy in the room by making a really stupid decision. If Patrick Murray works out Licht should not be applauded for it. He should be blamed for the four plus years of kicking hell he put this franchise through. Total dope
October 11th, 2017 at 8:46 am
this is not true plenty of legend kickers have been through kicking compititons and didn’t break mentally because of it. adam vinatari comes to mind
October 11th, 2017 at 8:56 am
So kickers aren’t even strong enough to compete for their jobs? GTFOH. I would love to know what Bill Parcells, Simms’ former coach and who was hard as hell on Simms and pushed him towards NFL success, would have to say on this topic of kickers and their “mental fragility.”
October 11th, 2017 at 8:57 am
Yeah, and I guess these kickers were just handed their jobs in college too. This was the first time Folk, the 10 year vet ever had competition!? Sheesh!!
October 11th, 2017 at 9:01 am
I totally disagree with Simms. The Bucs problem was not the competition, it was the kickers involved.
There isn’t a sport where competition doesn’t make great players greater.
I know kickers who thrived on competition. Why? It gave them another shot to show their worth in public.
Sorry, Simms, but you are projecting here. You may have been mentally weak playing for an Alpha coach like Parcells. Others crave the opportunity to show their mettle.
And Simms: what you don’t realize is YOU became a better QB because of the “competition” Parcells threw at you. Competition comes less from another player at your position than it does from being challenged by a coach.
I suspect Folks problems may have been physical pain that affected his mental approach to his game. He doesn’t seem fragile to me, not like Aguayo was.
October 11th, 2017 at 9:11 am
Kicking and putting have a lot in common, in that the slightest issue, physical or mental, can cause the putt to go awry.
Kicking isn’t just the kicker. It’s the entire “system”: set—>snap—>hold–kick initiation—>kick—>follow-through. any of those are “off”, the probability of a kick going through the sticks is lowered.
I read where supposedly Folk has tendonitis in his plant leg, thus the IR designation. Depending on where and how severe that could be enough to cause significant mechanical problems. I know in college I got a bad hip pointed on the opening kick-off and I had real problems kicking that game. I lost a lot of distance, leg velocity and the follow-through was off. I missed a FG and about 15 yds off my kick-off with reduced hang time.
October 11th, 2017 at 9:28 am
I had to take a knee whil reading this post
October 11th, 2017 at 9:29 am
i disagree….
we heard no one saying anything about NOT getting Roberto some competition….this is BS….GO BUCS!!!
October 11th, 2017 at 9:29 am
Who chris got his nads from when he played with broken ribs and damn near died on the field, we’ll never know. Wasn’t from his pops. Must’ve gotten it from his moms side of the family.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:04 am
Common sense from Cobra!
October 11th, 2017 at 11:24 am
Some of you cheese balls are hilarious, Its Lichts fault, its the fans fault, its the coaches fault, its the other kickers fault. Every bodies fault except the guy who is kicking the ball. This truely is the age of participation trophies and no accountabity.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:28 am
Maybe Folk developed attention deficit syndrome and all he needs is a pill to pay attention, like the Drs like to prescribe for all the 12 year old boys who aren’t paying attention in class. Then he will be able to focus and kick that ball straight through the uprights!
October 11th, 2017 at 12:16 pm
I said then and I’ll say now … we should have kept Aguayo … but no, I don’t think having a kicking competition is automatically a bad thing … though I would tend to agree with the Chin and Simms over many others …
October 11th, 2017 at 12:57 pm
@cobra…I hope you tried out….cant be any worst than what we’ve had….I played cb for Bethune cookman….as much as im a gator fan, im thinking about taking VHG’s job….
I read somewhere that his confidence is shot…I know playing that position can be tough but he has to remember he’s one of the best of the best…plain and simple….he’s in the nfl for a reason…he was a first round pick for a reason…
I can tell he’s thinking too much…he just needs to go out and play…don’t worry about getting beat…don’t worry about the wr making the catch…just go play…GO BUCS!!!
October 11th, 2017 at 12:59 pm
Aguayo was already reduced to mush before TC.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:07 pm
@813: My time is past. My last pro team was 41 years ago. I coached ST’s for a Div. I school to get through grad school in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
But the mental approach and mechanics haven’t changed, the players are just bigger, stronger and faster, and angles have changed.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:50 pm
that’s ridiculous. i would bet that only a small percentage of kickers currently on NFL rosters competed for their job. maybe not year in year out, but definitely the year they became “the guy”. there are only so many established kickers in the league at a given time that show up on a new team and have the job outright. most people are pitting 2 nobodies or pitting a nobody and a has-been against each other, and hoping for the best
October 12th, 2017 at 11:05 am
When you know a player isn’t playing up to his potential, you gotta motivate him. Competition should be the most effective way to motivate. If the kicker is that feeble minded, how’s he going to handle the game winning kick with 4 seconds on the clock? Mental toughness should be a requirement for kickers. But, how do you screen for that without putting them in pressure situations? The Bucs are hardly the first or last team to have a kicking competition.
I will say that drafting Aguayo in the 2nd round was a lot of pressure for him, I can understand that. But, Folk just had to kick better than him and nothing more. Maybe some of these kickers should be put in leadership roles or something. Not entirely related to football, but off the field. Build their confidence in other avenues and it should transpire onto the field. Like VH3, it’s not a mental or skills breakdown but more of a confidence breakdown. A lack of confidence is making them play differently, over analyze, and over correct mistakes.