Once a fixture on the Bucs sidelines, Tiger Woods now inspires Connor Barth.

Joe explored the brain of Connor Barth yesterday and found a kicker who refuses to allow negative vibes to infect his spirit.

Simply put, when Barth misses a field goal — thankfully a rare happening — he doesn’t go back to the film to see what went wrong. Lots of kickers study tape, Barth said, but he prefers to just get back to field work and employ the Tiger Woods strategy of positive imagery.  

“I only watch kicks that I make, just because that keeps positive mental images in my mind,” Barth said.” I like to watch Tiger Woods in interviews because if he’s ever asked about a bad shot, he always changes it around and says, ‘Hey, look at the good shot I had on this tee shot, or this green,’ or whatever. So I just try to look at the positives. I rarely, rarely watch misses just because any kicker knows exactly what he did at that time. There’s no reason to go back.

“Maybe if it’s a bad, bad hit, then maybe, but for me it’s moving on to the next one and trying to be positve about everything. There’s just no point. Kicking is such a mental thing. You need to have those good vibes in your head.”

This reminded Joe of serial adulterer Tiger Woods hanging with Chucky on the Bucs’ sidelines (sadly TMZ  never pursued that connection. And how lame was it that Woods disappeared when Chucky was fired? You know Raheem would have embraced Tiger.) Barth’s words also reminded Joe of John Madden saying in an interview many years ago that he never watched/listened to himself call a football game.

Madden explained that going back to the video would only force him to focus on his flaws and distract him from preparing for the next game.

Hopefully, Barth can keep his focus as he churns toward a Pro Bowl season. He’s a huge strength for the Bucs, and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that will fizzle out quickly, ala Martin Gramatica.