Lots to Say: Super Bowl Champion Ryan Succop

Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel are joined by Super Bowl Champion Ryan Succop in studio. Ryan talks about playing with the Bucs and being teammates with Tom Brady. Matt asks Ryan about being Mr. Irrelevant and Bobby wonders if Ryan would've preferred being undrafted.  Ryan explains the sports that he played and how he found his way to football...and could've had a future in golf?

Ryan reveals how he stayed warm in the cold and how he felt when he missed a short field goal.  Ryan always wanted the opportunity to kick, unless he was looking at high winds.  Which field goal is Ryan's most memorable and how did he feel about icing the kicker?  Bobby asks about playing under Steve Spurrier and playing golf against him.  While talking about locker room pranks, Ryan explains how one prank went further than he ever expected.

Tom Brady was a great teammate and Ryan gives an example of his leadership.  Ryan had to come back from an injury and talks about going one on one against a returner. How is punting harder than being a kicker?  Ryan wraps up with why kickers are getting so much better on long field goals. 

Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel is part of the NFL Podcast Network 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We got lots, just say, we got lots to save?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
What is better here?

Speaker 4 (00:21):
And we hope you say because we got lost? Just
say yeah we got lost?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Just say Now here's welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
We did two episodes this week, so if you're just
hearing this one, go back and hear the prequel. That's
what we call it. Yeah, the prequel, the prequel. It's
the way before jar Jar Binks. This is the one
with jar Jar Binks. The sequel. Uh, that's Matt Castle.
I'm Bobby Bones.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Glad you're here.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We are gonna talk to well, you already set him up.
I don't need to set him up, so we'll just
go to the interview. Now, this was awesome and it was.
It was a good one. Have we had bad ones?
I don't think we've We've had weird ones. Weird, but
if they're only only if they're on like a not
FaceTime zoom and there's like a yeah, yeah, there's a

(01:07):
pause here and there. Yeah, okay, here we go with
Ryan Sucker. All right, so this is your friend. Oh yes,
he is my friend. At least in most days you
can introduce him.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Then, all right, today we've got Ryan suck Up, fourteen
year NFL that he also is a super Bowl winning
place kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 5 (01:34):
We are teammates for six years. An extraordinary human.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
A great golfer, a great kicker, and we're happy to
have you here today.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Ryan, thanks for coming, bud.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Man, that's the best Joy's ever given anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
But I didn't even mention, Wait until you hear this voice.
I mean, he could do sounds like Josh. I mean,
it's it's just this beautiful voice that you could read
children's books to.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Y'all. Make sure my wife listens to.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Do you sing?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
I would I would love to be able to sing.
That would so when I was in Tampa, I would
fly home every we'd play on Sunday, obviously I'd go
to the team meeting Monday morning. I would catch at
twelve o'clock Southwest flight from Nashville to Tampa every week
to come see my kids, come home for a day.
I'd be home twenty four hours, fly back practice, and
without fail, you sit on Southwest flight and they see
you going to Nashville you sit down, you're talking to

(02:22):
somebody random, and within five minutes they'd be like, oh, man,
like you, are you a singer? Yeah, gosh, I wish
I cannot carry it to in at all. I wish
I could, but.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
You only get a bass voice, like you'd be like
them that morning.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well, I would need a lot of I need a
lot of work.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Then you went to the Super Bowl Champion with the Bucks. Yeah,
who's your coach? Bruce Arians?

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (02:45):
One with Bruce Arians?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Wait did you want Brady?

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Oh yeah he was there.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, we're a big Brady fans. We don't like Brady's
back ups around here, but we're a big Brady fans.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's true. Stay backups are a different story. But Tommy's awesome. Man.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So how many years were you with the Bucks before
that season?

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Oh seeah, that's a great question. I timed it right.
So I got cut. I played for the Titans. I
was just finished my sixth year with Tennessee And actually
is a pretty cool story, man. I had surgery on
my kicking knee that season. Just didn't come back from
the surgery the way I wanted to. NFL we always
say doesn't stand for National Football League. We say it
stands for not for long, right, Like they're always trying
to find somebody younger, somebody that can do it better

(03:21):
than you. I get cut at the end of that season,
and my wife and I she was like, gosh, I
can't believe they'd cut you.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Man.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
You've been you know, you'd had a nice run here
and you get hurt one time and they move on
from you. And so anyway, I got cut in the
twenty nineteen season in Tennessee. Sure enough, end up in
Tampa two weeks before the season started, and that's year
that we won the Super Bowl. Okay, so it worked
out really well. It was pretty cool out how it happened.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
We'll talk about that year too, because that was a
year you got picked up on a one year deal
and it's a make or break year for you, and
you go out and you ball out right.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
You don't miss a field goal or a field goal.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Temp or a pat during the entire playoff run and
it was an incredible run. But also just talk about
the pressures going into that season knowing, hey, I got
to go out and perform.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, it was that that was certainly was pressure cast
for sure, and you know how that is in the NFL,
when you're on a one year deal, it's approve it
year for you. You want to keep playing. But I tell
you what was kind of unique about that year was
when I before I signed there, I was even a
little nervous about signing because I was like, man, like,
I hope I'm healthy. You kind of have you kind
of play that game where you have some doubts and
you're like, man, I think I'm recovered, but I haven't

(04:24):
done this in six months. Like and with Tom and
that team, all the games were primetime games. You were
always on the national spotlight, and so it kind of
it kind of made you better because it was like
you were the pressure of it. I think guys, some
guys either you know, you can go one or do
one or two things when pressure happens. And for me,
I think it really helped just increase my focus. I

(04:45):
did not want to be the guy. Like I saw
the way that Tom was working. I saw the way
that he was practicing every day, and it was kind
of like your dad, You're like, you don't want to
disappoint your dad's That was kind of how I took it,
and I was like this guy's busting his tail, like
I don't want to be the reason that we don't
win a game. And so for me, man, it was
a blessing. Had a great season. Obviously, the team had
an amazing year, and that was really special to be
a part that year.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
When did you two start to play together?

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Actually it was my first year in Kansas City and
it was your first year in the league. You got
drafted by Kansas City that year as mister irrelevant. Yeah,
talk to us a little bit about being mis irrelevant,
because it's a pretty big deal. Did you understand what
that meant when you got drafted.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
I didn't know anything about it when I got drafted.
Then within like ten minutes I learned a lot about it.
So they obviously was I was the very last pick
of the seventh round. Mister irrelevant had to you know,
very last got picked. Well, they have a whole week
for you to celebrate you out in Newport Beach, California,
out by you know, your nods cast. And what I
learned about it is that they actually, I say celebrate you,

(05:44):
it's really the kind of roast you and toastia. And
the problem is that I'm already a placekicker my last
name suck up like they didn't need any more ammunition,
and I'm just like giving them layups and so anyway,
I mean, it was an awesome week. It was an
embarrassing week. They have a parade for you out at
the Newport Beach Yacht Club. You'll like this story. Cast.

(06:04):
I don't know how much time we have, but I'm
right out. So I literally they have the whole town
a Newport Beach gets behind this thing, and so I'm
sitting on a They're like, Hey, we're going to take
you down to the Balboa Yacht Club and we're going
to bring you in on a boat, and everybody's waiting
for you at the beach. I'm like, this is awesome,
Like I love this NFL thing. Well, what I don't
know is that we're walking past all these like beautiful yachts,

(06:26):
these beautiful sailboats, and we keep walking past them. I'm like,
which one are we getting on? And we and we
pass all of them and we go out to the
end of the dock and I see this little dude
in a little canoe with a like five horsepower Johnson
handheld engine on the back of it, and I hear
him coming around the yacht club and kind of like
that right, And I'm like, wait, I'm getting on that,
aren't I. And they're like, that's that's yours. And so

(06:48):
because I was drafted by the Chiefs, they say, hey, canoe,
I had to. You probably couldn't do this nowadays. I
had the headdress on the whole thing, and that was
my grand entrance into the end of the beach and
there's like a thousand people there and here I am
coming up into the beach in a canoe. It was
really embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
But do you have to go to that?

Speaker 3 (07:04):
You have to go. It's mandated by the league. So
if you're mister yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's
put on by the league. And I remember that. I
remember like going into Todd Haley's office and I'm like hey,
like because it's during OTA's and I'm like the low man.
I mean, I'm literally I'm the last pick of the
seventh round. There's already another kicker there, Like I'm scrapping
in clawing. It's no guarantee that I'm going to make
the team. And I'm like, hey, like, I know you're

(07:26):
probably aware of this, Like I'm not going to be
here next week because I got to go to a
relevant week and that's like not the thing that you
really want to go, imagine Todd. Yeah, I didn't really
want to go. Tell my head coach that, but thankfully,
like he's like, no, we know, it's it's mandated by
the league. You got to do it, like have fun,
and it was. It was interesting, it was a good week.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I can't believe. That feels like there's that you get,
like a golden raspberry or whatever that thing is in
Hollywood if your movie sucks and sometimes they go and
sometimes they don't. If you're I figure that was like that,
like if you had the extra time and you were near,
you just swung by. I can't believe the league makes
you go.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's mandated by the league. You gotta go.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
So would you've just rather not been drafted? Not about
mister Irelan and that and that whole the pageantry of
that amazing event, but would you have rather not been
drafted in general so you could have picked your spot?

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Okay, great question, So there's an argument to being made
for that. And I actually remember kind of as the
later round, like in the as the seventh round was
going on. I had teams call and like, hey, we're
probably not gonna draft you, but we want to sign
you as an undrafted free agent. And I remember like
being kind of nervous because'm like, man, I've got three
or four teams that are all good options. I don't
really know what I'm doing. I got to make a decision.
So for me, it was kind of a relief when

(08:33):
they called because it was like, all right, I don't
have to make the decision, which was great, and it
really did work out. I mean it was it was
a great opportunity. I never would have met this guy
over here if I didn't didn't end up in Kansas City.
And more than that, I think it was it was
kind of neat because whether you really are an underdog
or not, Like I feel like America loves the underdog,
and so anytime they hear the name like mister irrelevant,
people are kind of like, oh this guy, you know,

(08:54):
they kind of want to cheer, they kind of want
to pull for the underdog. So it was it was
a cool experience and uh, something that I'm really I'm
grateful for it.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
It was cool of those teams that called because as
a kicker. I'm sure that you're looking and evaluating everything,
including environment because Kansas City gets cold. Yeah, right, it's
windy all the time. It gets cold later in the year.
Was that something that would have factored in your decision
for going somewhere else as a free agent?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Don't? Yeah, hell yeah, give me a don't.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah. Domes are nice. Yeah, I think it would have.
At the same time, I was also looking at it, like, hey,
where do I have the best chance to make the team.
You're kind of looking, Hey, you're kind of sizing up, Hey,
who what's their kicker kicking situation look like? And you
don't really know because you're a college kid. You're twenty one,
twenty two years old, and you're kind of trying to
guess it the best you can. But yeah, I mean,

(09:41):
I think if you sometimes there's an argument to be
made if you're undrafted, you kind of have that decision
and maybe you can go somewhere that's a better fit
for you.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
We think of kickers unfairly as the least athletic person
on the team, but most kickers that I know were
like dominant athletes until they got to college and they
had to just focus on kicking. Well, were your senior
year of high school and you play football? What position
did you play?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah? So I only kicked.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
No way tak talk about when the coach came back
and got you and you cause you weren't going to
play football, right yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:10):
OK, soccer so fair enough. So I uh. People they're
always like, hey, how did you get into football? And honestly,
I I played everything so football. So I played growing up.
I loved h I played basketball, I played baseball, I
played soccer, and I played golf and those are kind
of sports I loved. And my freshman year of high school,
I was in North Guy. I grew up in North
Carolina and football and soccer were both in the fall,

(10:30):
and so I'm trying out for the soccer team and I'm,
you know whatever, I'm gonna make the soccer team, and
soccer coaches like all summer, he's like, man, you got
to go kick for the football team, and I kept
telling him no. I was like, look I'm not. I said, look,
I'm playing soccer now, I'm gonna play basketball in the winter,
and then I've got baseball and golf in the spring.
But you were a super athlete, oh, stud Well, I
don't know about that, but I I loved playing sports.
I don't know how good I was, but I loved

(10:50):
playing and and finally, the week of the first game,
he made me go to the first football practice. So
one of my first fotball practice was the week of
the first game. Yes, I went to my first practice
on Tuesday, and they were like, hey, this looks great.
And I had never played football before. I had kind
of messed around doing it with my friends, like in
the backyard, so I kind of knew what I was doing.
And I'll never forget. We had a soccer game Wednesday,

(11:12):
We had soccer game Thursday. I go to the football
game Friday. We played at East Burke. It was an
away game. I get to my locker like two hours
before the game. I have no idea that this is
when you had to wear the girdle with the hip pads,
the butt pads, the thip. I literally am like asking
one of my buddies, I'm dudeyeh, where's all this go?
Like I've never done that? And uh we won that
game seven nothing. I had one extra point and that's

(11:34):
how we It's how we got into it.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
You never practiced until the first week of the first game.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
That was the first time went to football.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Was it weird to kick that shape?

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Not really?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Like?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Uh, I think soccer definitely helped. Having a soccer background
kind of. I would mess around and do it on
the side with friends and that type of thing. But
I had like absolutely not done it any uh at
any like organized level. So that's how it fell into it.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
So you played soccer that entire season while football season's
going on. You just basically went to a practice or
so and then went out and played on the weekends.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
On Friday nights.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, I would go to if I was lucky, I
would get like one FOOTBA practice a week because we'd
have soccer game Mondays and Wednesdays awesome, So usually I
usually I'd go to the Tuesday football practice and that
was and then I choke on Fridays.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
When did you become really good your senior year to
where you thought and maybe you never knew because you
didn't play enough to know actually what was really good?
Because I like you'd been right a bunch of other
football kickers. When did it start to happen where people
were going, hey, you're good enough to actually play outside
of high school?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Honestly, probably after like my freshman year, I think I
kind of I kind of realized, like, hey, God's kind
of given me a little gift to do this, and
maybe I should, you know, really try to refine this
and perfect this a little bit. And I think I
started going to maybe a camp or two that guy
after my freshman year, went to a couple of camps
and kind of thought, Okay, if I know, if I
work at this, maybe I could be pretty good at it.
So I would say that was.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
When I kind of realized was there ever a decision
to be made to continue to play soccer?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Because you were an All state soccer player for what
three years?

Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yeah, you were a really good a really good soccer player,
not just like a guy that went out and I'm
good at soccer. I'm not great, but he was a
great soccer player. Were you getting recruited for soccer as well?

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yea, I had some I had some chances to play
soccer in college, and I I was I could have
played some more small for soccer, but probably not uh
definitely not football. But the one that the one that
haunts me is I love to play golf, and I
had some chances to play college golf, and even like
my first couple of years out of the league, I'd
be would we would go back to Charleston, South Carolina

(13:25):
the off season and we didn't have kids yet, and
I'd be playing golf four or five days a week,
and would I would start being like, man, I wonder
if I should have done this? And my wife would
sit me down and like, Ryan, don't you think about it.
But there you were in the NFL. You are not
going to go try to be a golfer. And uh,
but that's the one that I always look back on
because I just it's probably because I just love the
game so much, but that's the one I always look back.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
On in wonder were you a soccer Were we a striker?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I played center mid? Yeah, I played center miding forward.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
In soccer, So you were also kicking the ball ye
oh yeah yeah, yeah, that's wild. Yeah, that football just
kind of happened, yep, and then it became your thing.
I think a j. R. Smith though, like you know,
he played in the NBA, then went back and played
college golf. Yeah, like at like thirty five years old. Yeah,
when you walked in, most people don't notice that the
set that we shoot this on is actually a big

(14:11):
golf simulator and there's a huge screen behind us, and
it just actually turned into a really cool place that
we could shoot the show. And you said it almost immediately,
and I was like, oh, you must play golf a
lot and was asking him, then you start a good
golfer like doesn't want to say he's good. That's like
the joke, right if anybody's ever like, I'm good at golf,
he's not. Yeah, I know they're not good at golf
if they say they're good at golf. But you kind of,

(14:33):
you know, hemmed and had about it. What's what is?
What's your handicap?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Oh Man? Probably about a plus two and a half
right now?

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, plus plus two and a half.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
And he just got he just got a coach to
help him refine his swing at a plus two and
a half to find what.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Yeah, exactly so interesting enough, you said, j R. Smith
just a minute ago, and actually I think it's this
hat I'm wearing. In the past year, there's a group
that's gotten together and they have started a a golf
tour for current and former professional athletes. So we've had
three tournaments so far, roughly twenty five NBA Guys, twenty
five NHL, twenty five MLB, and twenty five NFL and

(15:11):
j R. Smith is one of the guys that plays,
and it's been really cool. We're at this coming up
in twenty six We're gonna have a full tour six events. Uh,
if you play well enough on you know, in the events,
you are high enough on the money list, you'll qualify
for a seventh event and then an eighth final event.
So it's gonna be like a true tour. And guys
like JR. That are really good players, we're all kind

(15:31):
of grinding and that's where I'm at. I've played in a.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Couple of dream Come True's.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Dream Come True. Man, I'm so fired up about it,
and there's guys like I love to play, but there's
guys that are better than I am, and so it's
like I'm chasing them and that's why you played. Like, Yeah,
So Marty played, He finished in the top five. We
just had an event in Alabama, like a month ago.
Marty was in the top five. Joe Pavelski the hockey
player won, Tony Romo's really good, Matt Ryan's really good,

(15:55):
Mark Mulder the pitcher Greg Maddox, John Smoltz, all those
guys playing.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Uh, there's a Smolts is like a small course in
his at his house.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, so smaking the back. Schwaltz is actually he's the
commissioner for the year. He's the commissioner of course, and
he he really is, and he's doing an awesome job.
He's putting so much energy into it. And guys like
me were like all fired up because it gives us
something to chase, and so we're you know, we're worth
for you to win money, can't you. Yeah, there's yeah,
there's there's a prize. Each tournament has like a has
a decent, decent purse you.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Put your own money in. No, like a cash game,
that's it because you're all rich. So it's like a
big just a big cash game you call a tournament though.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah, actually no, this is like they've got some sponsorship
behind it, they've got some companies behind it. We're hoping
that it gets picked up on you know, one of
the networks here in the next year too. We'll see
what happens there. But yeah, it's it's there's actually like
a pretty decent person guys are we're grinding man, we're
trying to we're trying to win.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
That's cool, and that probably scratches that itch through that
the competitive itch.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
One hundred percent. That's like for me, it just gives
you something to work. Like I literally yesterday I was
out at the golf club at Tennessee working with uh
Brian Lackey, working with you know, swing coach out there,
like I'm trying to get better.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
So it's, uh, it's all hilarious.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
So talk about you have that golf background and it
takes a certain mentality of focus and everything like that,
and you have such a specialized position kicking the football
and big time moments. Do you think that there was
any carryover from that background of playing golf and then
the position that you played in the pros?

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, I think so. I think kicking golf, you're kind
of out there on an island by yourself. Like when
you're playing golf, it's an individual sport. Kicking obviously is
a team I mean football obviously is a team sport.
But at the same time, like what I do is
very like if I make a kick or miss a kick,
it's ninety nine percent of the time it's on me
and you kind of have to be able to deal
with that, right, like the pressure that comes with it.

(17:55):
And so for me, I think they definitely go together,
I believe it or not, a lot of the lessons
I learned, you know, mechanically kicking the football kind of
relate to hitting a golf fall, the timing of it,
the rotation. There's a lot of things that sort of
go together where, you know, I think I look at
a lot of these golfers that are really good that
are playing in our events. A lot of them are kickers, quarterbacks, pitchers,

(18:16):
guys that are like those rotational athletes that are used
to timing it up, And I don't know, I think
it definitely goes together.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
What about guys who psychologically have to be able to
forget the last shot or the last kick because you
can't have it effect the next shot or the next kick.
Like I hear the similarities like in your brain as
much as I do anything mechanically.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, for sure. I mean I had to coach my
rookie year in Kansas City and he was like, hey, like,
if you kick long enough in the league, you're gonna
have some valley moments and like you're gonna miskicks. But
what's gonna determine how long you play is how do
you respond after the miskick? And so, like you're exactly right.
Sometimes when you miss one, it's really easy to like
fall into that Pitmam, what did I do wrong? Overthink it, overcorrect,
and then it affects the next one. So that's something

(18:58):
where you have to I've learned, like, hey, you trust
your technique, you trust your preparation, and sometimes you're gonna miss,
but you have to go out there with the mentality
of like, hey, I'm not I'm not allowing that to
affect my mentality on the next kick.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
I mean your rookie year, didn't you set the NFL
record for most kicks made by a rookie of any
franchise in the history of the NFL.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
I mean, it's a pretty good deal. How about this.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
We're third I think it was the third week of
the season, We're in Washington. We needed to rely on
this guy. I think he had five field goals in
that game. We actually ended up getting the win. And
so after the game they come over to interview me.
I don't know why they should have been interviewing him,
and for whatever reason, I have just a complete brain fart,
and they're like, so, talk about your kicker. I was like, yeah,
Ryan Suckoff did a great job. I literally call him

(19:41):
Ryan suck off three times and he comes up to
me a cast it suck up and I was like,
son of a gun dud, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well it is true. And what's funny is one of
my best buzz growing up his grandfather, who was like
eighty five years old, what he would call me, Hey,
how suck off doing h and so like, it wasn't
the first time I'd heard it, but it was a
little more embarrassing when your starting quarterback says it to
the media not once, but three times. So it wasn't
a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
There wasn't a lot of interaction, let's be honest.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Because they call it themselves the specialists, right, it's usually
the punter, the place kicker, and then their snapper. They
kind of do their own thing, yea, And you don't like,
we don't spend a lot of time in eating together
or anything like that. So early in the season, Ryan's there,
and of course I know who Ryan is. But then
all of a sudden, the moment came to say his
name correctly, and I was like, I kind of know

(20:28):
how to say it.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
I'm just gonna go with suck off it, ye, suck off,
suck off it is.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
When you get to Kansas City and it gets cold,
the things change with how you prepare. Like he gets
cold at a certain time of the year, not just
the city, but you get like November, it starts to
suck it's.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Cool, Yeah, it does. He gets cold out there. Yeah.
I think the hard part is like a lot of
times that field out there would kind of stay frozen,
like you get into December, because they at the time,
I think they've changed it now, but they didn't have
like the heating coils under the field, so you would
go out and you'd have to like try to figure
out what kind of plant you to wear because the
field is literally frozen. So that was always like the
hardest thing. And then obviously you're kicking a ball that
is a rock that doesn't help you get no compression

(21:08):
when your foot hits it, So it's definitely more challenging.
But thankfully those heaters on the sideline are pretty nice
cast and well, let's.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Be honest to you, the kickers don't wear anything right,
They're always in. It looks like they're wearing shorts because
late later they're not gonna put a bunch of pads
or anything in there. So I can only imagine how
cold you get because you might kick once in the
first quarter and it might not be until the biggest
kick of the game in the fourth quarter that they're
asking you to come back in. How do you stay
warm in the during those moments you're just sitting by

(21:36):
the heater.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
I see you kicking all the time on the side line.
I don't know it's going through your mind.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
No, I would. I would definitely have one of those big,
the big Parka jackets, you know, those things would keep
you going. I'd go get one of those and stand
it right in front of the heater and just open
it up and just take all the all the flame
from those heaters, which which actually worked, and then just
try to keep moving because you're right cast. It's like, man,
you may have a kick in the first quarter and
then you may not be up to the third or
fourth quarter. So you got to stay in the game,
you know, obviously mentally, but physically as well. So if
you miss like a twenty eight yard or do you

(22:00):
feel like a loser. I've had some Yeah, I've had
some self talk over the years. You know you missed
a short one. It's you can be hard on yourself for.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Sure, Like what would be the reason you had missed
a short one?

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Honestly, most of the time, probably like a lack of concentration,
just not like I would. I remember, I would always
be the if I had a pre game where I
didn't miss in pregame, like you go out and hit
twenty in a row and hit them perfect. Those are
the games that would sneak up on you and you'd
miss one in the game. Likewise, like the Washington game
when you talk about Matt that went well for us.
I remember I had like a terrible pregame. I was

(22:33):
missing kicks left and right, and then it was like,
oh man, I better lock in, Like I better lock in,
and then you out and have a great game. So
I think on a short one, I think it's just
like a discipline of like really locking in and not
taking it for granted.

Speaker 4 (22:43):
Is there an adrenaline rush for you when you get
to the fourth quarter and you see the team in
a two minute drill and no, man, this might be
a really big moment for this team if we can
go down and get ourselves into position. Obviously you're like,
get me inside.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
That thirty five.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Don't give me the fifty yarder, but get me inside.
But do you feel that energy inside of you? And
how do you kind of suppress that as it's going on.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, that you definitely feel it. That's probably the one
thing I'm miss I was I'm maybe a little different
or maybe a bit of a sicker. I like that,
Like I kind of liked that feeling of like coming
down to the it's a rush, Like it is a
rush that I haven't been able to replicate anywhere else.
Maybe this golf thing will if I can get in contingent,
maybe that'll scratch that edge a little bit. But uh, yeah,
it's a rush. And I think the thing that I

(23:26):
had to learn like early on where I would mess
up is I would get too like emotionally involved into
it right like before it And so one of the
things I had to learn was like, hey, I got
to stay really really steady the whole time because if
I get too high with the excitement of the game,
then it's like my heart rate gets up too high.
And now when I'm out there for the kick. I'm
not how I'm usually am in practice or how I
usually am in the game. So like trying to keep that,

(23:48):
you know, really steady with something I had to learn
how to do. And you know, the more that you
do it, like anything, the more comfortable you get with it.
And that was kind of a little bit of a
learning curve for me, for sure.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Did you always want the ball? Meaning did you always
want the kick? Or at times would you have rather
they just scored the touchdown and you not have to
worry about it?

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Most of the time I would want to kick, unless
it was like a third mine hour wind day and
it was raining, and then I was like, man, let's
just go ahead and punch this in in. So like
those are the days where I would I would be
just fine if we, you know, just scored.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
You you kicked a ton of game winning kicks throughout
your career, obviously, Or is do any few standout or
any one in particular?

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Great question probably the one actually when I was here
with the Titans, we were talking about weather. It was
the coldest game in Erahead history. It was zero degrees
at kickoff, and I think the wind chill was like
twenty below eighteen or twenty or spit was freezing.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah, but you would spit and it would freeze on
your face mask.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, that's how cool. Yeah, if you had if you
took a shot of the water bottle and you missed,
by the time you would wipe it off your beard,
it would be it'd be kind of frozen in your
in your beard. But anyway, we I had it, and
it also was sweet because Kansas City had cut me
a couple of years before that. I started my career
in Kansas City. They had cut me, which is part
of it. And lost story short, we had I had

(24:57):
a fifty three yarder with I think no time left
to beat him, and that was like a kick where
it was just if you gave me that kick ten times.
And I said at the time, like as cold as
it was that day, like I don't know how many
of those I would have made, but made, but it
was just like it was just the perfect one.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Man.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
It just timed up and UH was able to put
it through, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
That was awesome, but didn't didn't they call a timeout,
so they.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Tried to ice them in an icy day.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
He kicks the first one and it misses, but they
coach ice him right, so they called the time out.
So then he gets three t boom through the goalposted.
It was wild, it was big.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
How do you feel about icing the kicker?

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Great question? I like it, Like if you call the
time out. It allowed me time to go out and
sort of like I'm a big visualization guy, and yeah,
it wasn't gonna make me any more nervous, Like it
would allow me to go out, take my steps, visualize,
make sure the plant you know where I'm planting's good,
see what the wind's doing. It just gave me a
little bit more time to prepare. So I always liked
it when I would get iced. If I was a

(25:55):
head coach, what I would do if I had a
time out left or two timeouts left, I would sit
over there by the official and look like you're going
to call it and not call it? That will mess
with the guy? Does this mess with you? Well, you
kind of had to learn. So I had to learn
not to ever look over there. So I had to
get in my head like if they had a time
out left, if you allow yourself to play the game
of like, man, I wonder if he's gonna call the

(26:15):
time out. I wonder if not, you're not gonna be focused,
and then he doesn't call out, you're gonna have a
better chance to miss that kick. So that would always
be my strategy. But like calling the time out right
before the snap, like like that one in Kansas City,
Like I knew that he had called time out, and
I'm like, well, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna
hit one. Because it's like you guys play golf, like
the second t shots always easier than the first. My
mulligan always I'm gonna go hit. I'm gonna go ahead.

(26:36):
Say that's the second guy he can play. That second
guy he can he can play.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Oh gosh, I.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
Mean I remember that day that that was a crazy
day in the weather and everything else. But I was
so happy for you after that game. Is there anything
better than kicking a game winning kick? Because you know,
like you guys don't get all the credit in the world.
In a lot of times, you only get credit for
when you have a game winning kick or if you
do something where you miss, ye.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Oh well damn kicker one job.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
But that's right.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
But when you do get it done, and I mean
everybody on the team feels that and like I just
remember coming out on the field on those types of
moments and celebrating and what's that what's that feel like
for you?

Speaker 3 (27:17):
It is it's awesome because you're doing it, like you
know how it is like there's nothing like the locker room.
Like the locker room is the most awesome place man,
where you're you're doing it with your boys, you're working
hard together, especially like on an away game, a game
winner on an away game where it's like just your
guys in the locker room after the game, the plane
ride home. It's just a like you can't really create
that everymain places. So that's that's what you miss, is

(27:38):
like those those moments where you're just getting to celebrate
with your boys and it is. It's a it's a
it's a cool feeling for sure.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Let's go back to college. You play South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Plays South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Were you as a kicker? Were you like big man
on campus football player as a kicker at South Carolina?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I don't think so. I know. I mean, listen to
South Carolina was great as far as like the fans,
they love their football team, they love you know, they
love supporting it. It was an awesome place to play, had
a great experience. But no, I tried to. I tried to,
like I wanted to be, uh, you know who's who's
your coach there, Steve spur spur You got to give.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
A communication with him, like did you talk with him?

Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yes? Because coach Spurr is a huge golfer and so
he knew that I played golf. And actually when he
recruited me, I was actually getting ready to go to Auburn.
I got offered by Auburn really late. Coach Spurr came
to my house, did the visit, and he's like, Ryan,
if you come to South Carolina. He's like, I I've
always give my players that are good golfers. I always
give him a chance to beat me. He goes, I've
never been beat because spur loved to play golf. And

(28:34):
I was like, man, like, it's not the reason I
went to South Carolina, but I was I'm gonna stick
to yeah, but I was thinking, like, man, that would
be cool to like play off with the head coach.
Long story short, I end up committing to South Carolina.
I go to school there. I'm going into my senior
year and we've never played golf, and in the back
of the line, I'm like, man, that dog like he
was just trying to get me to come here. We're
never gonna play golf. Well, sure enough, the spring game

(28:55):
of my senior year, he comes up to me and
he's like he actually called me sucky.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
That was my.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Sucky. He said, hey, what you what you doing tomorrow?
And I'm like, coach, I got I got nothing. I
mean's you know. He's like all right, He's like, tomorrow
is my sixty third birthday. He goes, I'm playing sixty
three holes of golf. Why don't you play the first
eight team with me and see if you can beat me.
I'm like, in the back of the line, I'm thinking, like, man,
I hadn't hit a golf ball in six months. Like
I'm in college, I'm playing football, but I can't say no.
If I say no, I'll never get a chance. Man.
I go out. I'm like five over through the first

(29:21):
three holes. He's even par. We're playing his teas, like
I can't hit dry. I'm hitting three iron off every tea.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
You know.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
It's just like he's he's got it. So anyway, I
end up like playing a little bit better on the
back nine, get it, I think, all tied up and
then I end up hitting a shot on a par
three over the green, make bogey. He makes par and
he beats me.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Oh yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
And he he beat me, and you know that was
he he he loved it though he was competitive, he
was a great player. And uh yeah that was that
was cool to get to play with him.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Did you get a picture of that day like afterward
with you and Coach Berrier?

Speaker 3 (29:53):
You know what? I don't think I did.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Man, you missed.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, that would have been That would have been cool. Yeah,
that would have been cool. I don't think I got
a pick. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
So, locker room, like you said, is a very interesting place.
And I know that you and Dustin Cole were They
were like two pranksters and they would do all this
stuff in the locker room that nobody ever really knew
about until you actually figured out the prank was on you.
So tell me some of your favorite memories being inside
that locker room, some of the pranks that used to
pull on people.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, well, let me just say Dustin was one of
a kind, uh Tennessee, Tennessee. Of all, I'm sure a
lot of people around here love Dustin. He was great.
I think the one that comes to mind was the
one that was kind of you know, like the best
pranks were usually like Allen accident almost and I'll never forget.
I'm driving in to the facility, and in Kansas City,
the practice facility you kind of have. You have the
Royal Stadium, you have Arrowhead, and then you have the

(30:39):
practice facility. They're kind of all all together. And I'm
driving in one morning in probably about this time of year,
probably in October, and there was a little field right across
from the practice fields, and I look out and there's
like a really nice white tailed deer, like an eight
point buck out in the field. And I loved the
bow hunt and kind of you know, enjoyed doing that.
So I go in and tell Dustin about it. I'm like, dude,
there's a nice buck out there. Like we need to
set up a trail camp. So when Matt and everybody

(31:00):
else were in offensive and defensive meetings, you know, we
had two hours before practice with nothing to do because
we're specialists, and we go down to the Bass Pro
shop that's like ten minutes down the road. We get
a bunch of corn, we get the trail cam. We
set it all up and we start getting like unlo
I mean, we're getting pictures of like beautiful deer, turkeys,
you know, you might have like the neighbor's cat on
their show up. We're getting all these pictures, and guys

(31:21):
started taking interest in it. So we would put the
we would print the pictures out of all the wildlife,
and we would put it on the board in the
locker room because everybody woud always asking, hey, what'd you
see last night? Because we go out and check the card. Well,
I never forget were getting really played New England on
Monday night football and I'm eating pre game meal and
I think it was Brandon Albert. You remember, was he
from like Brooklyn, New York? I think yeah, he was
a New York Yeah, And Brandon's like, hey, suck up, man,

(31:44):
what else do you guys seen on that trail cam? And
a buddy of mine, like thirty minutes before that, had
just randomly sent me a picture from like a random
trail cam. It was like going around the Internet of
a mountain lion that had a deer by the throat,
this gnarly looking mountain line, and it just like hitting
it was like that light bulb moment. I'm like, Brandon,
you're not gonna believe this. And I pull up the
picture and I show them the picture. He's like his

(32:05):
eyes get this big and he's like you saw that
out outside offcil and so, and I just I'm like
in that wild like I just kind of let it go. Well,
sure enough, we go play New England. I think we
I don't think we won that game. Get back, you know,
early Tuesday morning. Like I go into work on Wednesday
and I have like five or six guys come up
to me and they're like, hey, what's the deal with
this mountain line? And so I'm like, man, look like,

(32:26):
don't worry about it. I'm like, man, these things, you know,
I said, they're only the only time these things are
even moving is either at dawn or dusk. Like the
rest of the time they're just sleeping. Like, don't worry
about it. And I know that the guys get there,
they get there at sunrise, they leave at sunset. So like,
so Dustin's in on it. We got we got three
or four guys that are in on it. We're all,
you know, sticking to our guns. Well, sure enough, I'm

(32:46):
driving into work one morning and I start noticing in
October it's it's typically still hot, so you would want
to park up against the tree line in the parking
lot so that you would get a little shade. And
I drive in one morning, I start noticing, like nobody's
parking along the tree line anymore. They're all parking like
as close as they can, as close as they can
to the door. And uh so then I sat there
and watch them, and you know, you'd watch guys get

(33:06):
out of their car and not that they would like sprint,
but you could tell it was like a brisk walk
to the you know, to the facility. They were worried
about this thing. So Dustin and I we thought it
was hilarious. Todd Haley actually was in on it. He
loved it. He thought it was hilarious. Well, sure enough,
this goes on for like three weeks. I'm driving home
from work one day and on the local sports talk
radio they start talking about how.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
The Mountain line.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yes, first of all, they're like, we had lost like
two or three games in a row, and they opened
it up. They're like, if things aren't bad enough in
the locker room, now they have to contend with a
mountain lion that is running Arrowhead Stadium. So this gets
on the news and I'm sitting here thinking I'm like
a second year guy and I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is not good. Like I'm responsible for this. Like,
don't be a distraction, is what Scott Poley would say,

(33:49):
all the guys, don't be a distraction. I'm thinking I'm
a distraction right now, like I'm gonna get you know whatever. Well,
sure enough, the media ends up asking Todd Haley about it.
In the Friday press conference. He played along with it. Basically,
he was like, yeah, I've seen the pictures of the cat.
I've told all the guys or leaving the facility. The
buddy system is in effect. So this thing, like this thing,

(34:12):
this thing goes everywhere. You could still read articles about
it about the mountain lion that was roaming the Chiefs facility.
The neighbors that lived in the area ended up getting concerned.
So the Department of Wildlife ended up calling the chief
to find out to see the pictures. And that's when
we had to tell them, hey, this is a locker
room joke.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
That excellent.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
It was. That was probably my That was probably one
of my prouder you know, that was one of my
Prouder pranks.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
It's a great moment right there.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, it was pretty good. It need the local news.
It was pretty good. Plus take news, take news.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
When you win the super Bowl, you're in Tampa, you
win the super Bowl. Obviously it's not as cold down there.
Is it weirder? Is it even more harsh when you
have to go somewhere cold when you don't constantly live
somewhere cold?

Speaker 3 (35:08):
No, Like, so people would always say, like, oh, you're
in Kansas City, like you get used to the cold. Like, no,
you do not get used to the cold. Like it
cold is cold. I don't care how often you do it. So, like,
even when I was in Tampa and we would like
the NFC Championship, we played in Green Bay and it
snowed like five inches that morning and thankfully by the
time the game started the snow had cleared out, but
it was really cold and we were coming from Tampa
and we like, I was fine, you know what I mean?

(35:29):
It was it was still cold, but I don't think
it necessarily would have helped to have been there all
week to practice. I just I feel like it's gonna
be cold no matter what you do.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
What was the after party like for the Super Bowl? Well,
it was it had to be Epic Mountain, Lion Mountain.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
A lot of cougars run around those parties.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Okay, so you're not right, man. So in truly enough,
the super Bowl we were. It was in Tampa. We
played the super Bowl in Tampa, so we were like
the first team to win it in our home stadium
and it was awesome to do that. But it was
also the COVID year, so the super Bowl party had
to be outside, so because there were all these rules
and all this stuff. So we had it at like
the Tampa Aquarium or something on the water. And I'll

(36:12):
never forget. Like, you're going to the super Bowl, gets
over at whatever time, eleven o'clock at night. By the
time we get over there, it's midnight. My wife is
like seven months pregnant. You know, she's exhausted. She's been
taking care of our other two kids all night. And uh,
we walk in, but my family's there. We walk in
and it was uh, I think Ludacris was playing and
Migos Is that is that? Okay? Yeah? And so they

(36:34):
come in they're playing the music we're all hanging out,
and I'll never forget. I look over my dad. I
mean he's probably seventy years old now, he's just whatever,
sixty seven, sixty eight, and you know, here's Migos wrapping,
and I just see my dad. He's just kind of
he's just kind of digging the music and he's like, man,
this is this Migos. Guy's really good. Yeah, Dad, he's awesome.
But no, it was awesome. I remember we probably left

(36:55):
the super Bowl party at like two thirty three in
the morning. We were staying in a hotel because you
stayed in the hotel the night before the super Bowl,
even though we were in Tampa, and I just remember
it was it was kind of this like shurreal because
you get in at three, I'm wired, we just want
the super Bowl, can't sleep at all. And then I
have two young kids and they're up at like five
point thirty just read it rock and roll. They could
care less. They just wanted to go to the park.
So at like seven am, we're at like some random

(37:16):
park in Tampa, just like pushing my kids on the
swing and they could care less about the super Bowl.
But I guess that's what was sweet about it.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Can you give me a Tom Brady story from that year?

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Yeah, let's see, Okay, this is this is probably like
I don't know if this is when it's like exciting
or anything, but this is Tom, and I always share this,
like Tom was an unbelievable leader, unbelievable teammate, but I
don't think a lot of people know, like he is
a genuinely good dude. And I'll never forget. He has
this guy Alice Carrero, who like takes care of all
his tissue work, his nutrition. Like he's been with Tom

(37:46):
for like what sixteen, I mean, he's been with him
for forever. And Tom would always work with him really
every day of the week, but particularly on Sunday on
game day. And so Tom was like generous enough to
let other guys work with Alex when he wasn't using them.
And I'll never forget. I would always try to get
the stadium like super early because I never wanted to
like be in there in being Tom's way. And we're

(38:07):
playing the Vikings my first year out I think it
was my first year down there, and I get there,
you know, eight am for a twelve o'clock game or whatever.
Alex is on. I'm on the table, Alex is working
on me, and Tom came in early that week because
I guess he was dealing with something. So he comes
in to get some tissue work and I'm trying to
get off that table as fast as I can. And
Tom's like, no, no, no, like hey, you're good man, like
you finish up. I'm like no, no, no, like hey, you

(38:27):
come get your work out, like I'll come back later,
like I know where I stand in this deal. And uh,
Tom's like no, no, He's like I'm serious. He goes like
you guys, take all the time you need. He's like,
we need you to feel good because if you feel good, man,
it's gonna help us. That's gonna help us win today.
And I look at Alex, and Alex like you heard him, like,
you know, sit back down. So I'm laying on that table.
Tom's just sitting there. He probably waited for like another
I don't know, ten twelve minutes while Ox is like

(38:48):
finishing up. I feel super uncomfortable, but then like sure enough,
he's like so gracious about it. We go out. I
think we ended up hitting a field goal like pretty
late in the game, not to win it but kind
of put put the game away. And uh, that's just
kind of who Tom was, like he was or who
he is, Like he was so great to his teammates. Uh,
like really like genuine humility to let other people. I
don't know. That story just always stood out to me,

(39:08):
Like what a real leader he is to let somebody
as low of a position as I was to sit
there and him wait on me. I don't know. That
just always like stood out.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
He always kicked me off the table immediately, and then
he didn't even need the table.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
He was like you, I don't know your name. Yeah,
well you guys also played the same position cash. It's true.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
But like even when coach are trying to put me
in for a few reps at the end of a period,
he'd be like, hey, I need this one coach. I
was like, really, you just had the whole practice like
they're literally handled.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
That was also kind of his mentality, right, Oh.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
He didn't want anybody else to touch that position, and
I understand it. He always said, you never want to
see somebody else playing your position, which held true.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
That's how he got his job.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, when you.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Hurt yourself, yeah, your knee issue. Jeff surgery, I did.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
I had surgery.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
I got to think that's as much physically as it
is hard to come back that mentally you got to
trust it again.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
How difficult was that it was? It was hard because
I was the timing of it. Like I had the
surgery probably five or six weeks before training camp started,
and I was hoping to get back in time, and
it just just some things happened where it just didn't
go the way I wanted it to, and so then
you're like trying harder, and then you're like stressing harder,
and then that's like the worst thing to try to
heal and to recover is when you're like stressed on

(40:17):
top of it. So it was just kind of a
culmination of all that because you want to get back
so badly, but at the same time you're physically just
not there. And that's that. That was a hard year.
I learned a lot that year.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Did it take a minute to get the confidence back?

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, Like I tried to come back and play probably
halfway through that season, and actually my first game, I
had the worst game of my career. I missed three
I miss three field goals that game and then I
played probably four or five more games that season. It
just I just wasn't where I needed to be. It
did not go well, and that was that was how
I ended up in Tampa. And that was probably where
I had some doubt going into that final season. Was like, man,

(40:49):
am I can I still do this? Like I'm you know,
I was probably thirty four thirty five at the time.
I was kind of on the older side. You start
kind of having those like real doubts, and so I
think it was a blessing for me to get an
entire offseason, you know what I mean, Like that happened
in the middle of the season. I got five or
six months before I had to do it again, and
when you know, when the bullets were really fine. So uh,
that was it was hard.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
But talk about the psyche too, because look, there's only
one place kicker, one one field goal kicker on the
team every year, and they're constantly bringing people in, especially
as you get older, your salary increases and all of
a sudden they want to go younger. Talk about like
just the competitive nature of that position because there's only
thirty two of you in the entire league. It's not
like you have a backup and a third string guy
that you can make a roster do something like that.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
It's really one guy per team.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yeah, no, you're exactly right. There's there's one guy that's
going to do it, and it's I guess That's what's
so like awesome about the position is that like if
you can be that guy, like if you can show
a team that hey, you can handle the stressful the
stressful kicks or you know you can, they can count
on you, you can stick around for a long time.
At the same time, it's like that's where the pressure
comes from because it does not take much. Man one
or two games and it's like, dude, they're they're moving on,

(41:53):
So you have to you have to be dialed in
like every week for seventeen weeks and then playoffs because
it just doesn't take much for them to lose faith.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Let's say you kick off because you were a kick
off specialists.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Too, you say, yeah, I did from my first like
probably my first eleven or twelve years, I was. I
was doing it all.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, the guy breaks, it's you and it's him. What
the heck is going on in your mind?

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Okay, so you know what, I know what I learned,
and again I was not good at this like early on,
but I figured out if you just get down there
and get in the way. So like the if I
would kick off and if I knew they were running
it out, I would try to high tail it down there,
because if I could be the top of the triangle
and just be a body, most of the time those
guys would cut one way or another and somebody else
would make tackle. But if I hung back, if you're last,

(42:38):
they had space, Like I was going to embarrass myself
because those guys, those guys move a lot better than
I move, and I didn't want that. So I would
just get in the way and I would just pray
that they would go left or go right. And every
now and again you would have to just sit there
and just kind of take it, like you know what,
like on field goal we say, we say to the lineman,
like die the slow death, Like the offensive linemen are
going to get killed on field goal. And I would

(42:59):
just kind of have that in back of my mind,
like dude, just just take it. If you just got
to take one, just take one. And most of the
time they'd go one the other way. So that was
kind of my strategy.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
What's the hardest hit you've taken in that type of
situation or did you always just basically never hang back
and always just acted like you're in the way so
that they could run for a touchdown if they had to.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Uh. The the hardest hit I ever took was actually
in college. It was against LSU. I was punting and
I outkicked the coverage little bit. Trendon Holiday was the returner.
He he returned for a touchdown, but there was a
there was a it got called back for a hold
and Uh, I was actually like high tailor to the sideline,
did not see a guy, got totally blindsided, totally decleted.
It was one of those moments where like everything just
went black for a second. And it was right in

(43:39):
front of the LSU bench and it was I think
it was Ali Highsmith. He was there, all American linebacker
that got me. And I remember when I opened my eyes,
he was standing over me like this and I saw
the uh, all the LSU bench just go oh. And
I remember he was exactly seriously I like, and I
was like, dude, yeah, laid me out like I'm the
I'm the kicker man.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Like that's like harsh Manning is Sam Houston. He guys
over the top of him. Are you punted and kicked
in college?

Speaker 3 (44:04):
I did?

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, Could you have been an NFL punter?

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Maybe? I think I was more comfortable kicking. I actually
did have a couple of teams that wanted me to
punt instead of kick. But I'm thankful I didn't go
down that road. Punting is hard, man. It's hard to
stand back there, and you got to have really good
hands to mold the ball, don't I don't think I
would have been as good as a punter.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
So, all right, three final questions. I go first, So
I know Cam Little a little bit. He's the Markansas. Yeah,
so I spent some time with them. He made that
seventy yarder. Yeah, preseason, which is pretty unbelievable. Yeah, dude,
people just kick farther now? Or are the balls like?
What's happening?

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Man? Okay, So great questions. It's both, all right. The
kids that are coming out now, like obviously Cam is
super talented. It's a combination. The guy's coming up there
better do Their training is better, they've been doing it
at a younger age. They're better athletes all that. At
the same time. The NFL just switched the rule this year.
So when I played, when I played, you know, like
we had it so hard, Matt. But in all seriousness,
when I played, we would get the quarterback balls, and

(45:00):
you have the K balls. So the quarterbacks get their balls,
they get fifteen balls on Monday and they have all
week to break them in K balls. We would get
six K balls for the game, brand new out of
the box, sixty minutes before kickoff on Sunday, and your
equipment guy would have sixty minutes to break in six
footballs by doing what like dirt ruh, yeah, rub dirt
the brush. You would try to break the seams in

(45:20):
as best you could, so find like a you know,
the corner of a table and try to bust the
seams as much as you can. You're trying to break
that ball in as much as possible so that when
they hit your foot you can get more compression, because
that's what's going to make it go farther. And so
when you only have ten or fifteen minutes per ball,
there's only so much you can do. So we were
really kicking like pretty hard footballs. Well now they changed
it and they get all the kicking balls. They get

(45:41):
all sixty of them at the beginning of the season,
so they have the entire season to break them in.
So like, not only are the guys better, they are better,
no question, but you are going to continue to see
monster field goals because you give me a ball that
you have broken break in or all week to break in.
It's gonna be a big difference.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah, I don't even realized that. I didn't even think
about it. I mean, I figured it would be.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
I think about kickers. Quarterback, you know, I was always I.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Was always the backup holder, just God forbid, Like I
had to go in there and fumble that the.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
Same way you. Me and Ben we had a good
little thing. Then we've been on Thursday Thursday practice.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
They put me in there and Benny would be in
the yeah, and it usually.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
He would always yell at me too, He's like, cast
a little bit more to you, a little bit more.
I was like, beat it, bro, I'm just trying to
put it in the dirt where he just told me
right here. Now, I'm usually off my spot. But we'd
make we make some good kicks.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
We did. We teamed it up, man, We did our best.
What was your go to cleat.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
You know, I know that there's always two different cleats
that you guys wore. I always told him he should
wear like a cowboy boot with a spur on the
plant foot, like just to add a little flare to
the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
But we did always say cash if we knew it
was my last year and we were still playing together
in Kansas City, because this would be well received in
Kansas City. We were gonna wear lu Casey on the
left foot and maybe that would be my first sponsorship
deal and clean it up, yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
And have you smoke on the sideline and like.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
I feel a fine coming though.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Absolutely Matt said he would cover it for me.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
I'd cover We just put the Nike swoosh on it.
Last question, what kickers, golfers, tennis players, like anybody that's
on an island. Because you play, it's a solo sport.
Like you said, it's not a so football is not
a solo sport, but a kicker is a solo sport
inside of a team game. Yep, superstitions, you had to
have them.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
You know what. Honestly, I know a lot of guys
were superstitious. I mean, I knew guys that would like
they had to wear the same boxers every game, or
they had to eat at the same place. Like, I
don't know, man, I that never. I was never that way.
I would always, you know, i'd say a little prayer
before the game. That's you know, that was kind of
my thing, and I just leave it up to the
Lord and try to go out and be free. But

(47:42):
I really didn't have like a had to do this
or do that. I really wasn't that way.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Final final question, Final final question. Ever have a ball
that's going in and for some reason it just hooks
like crazy at the end and you're like, what the crap?

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Yeah, yep, one hundred percent. I remember one really like
I remember one really well that like I hit it.
I looked up, it was going right down the middle,
and I was, you know, gave it a little one
of these look down to get my holder a high five,
and he looked on his face and I'm like, did that.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Not go in?

Speaker 3 (48:10):
He looked at you, and I look up and it
hit the right upright, and I was like, oh, that
was a gut punch. So yeah, that most of the time,
you know, like ninety nine percent of the time when
you hit a ball, like you know whether you made
it or not. And that was one where I thought
for sure I made it and it was going straight
and it like took a right turn really hard. I
don't know. I still don't know what happened.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
Okay, last question, Yeah, last last night, last last last
night's last question. Okay, when a field goal is blocked,
how much of it is due to the trajectory of
the actual ball being kicked low versus protection breakdown?

Speaker 3 (48:43):
They're all it all depends. Now, I'll say this, Like
my mentality was always like hey, it's on me, Like
I just think that's the way to be, Like, hey, I.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Would never say that. I'd be like, dude, that's on
you guys.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
Here's the thing. This was always my thing, Like field
goal protection. You talk to any line then or tight
ends on field goal protection, they will tell you that
is the worst plane, Like that is the hardest playing
football because they just get teed off on those guys.
Like after every season, you better believe I'm going to
the best steakhouse. I'm getting gift cards for all of them.
Like I wanted to know, like, hey, y'all have a
hard job. I really appreciate this, and the last thing

(49:16):
you ever want to do is sit there and try
to blame it on one of those costs because they're
gonna block for your next game. So like my thing
was always like, hey, it's on me, because then they
would you know, they're they're gonna have that mentality like
hey this he's you know, he's not gonna blame it
on us. We're gonna go out and fight harder for him.
That was my approach. But there's no doubt, like I've
had I've had balls that got blocked that like one
were on me. I didn't hit a good ball, they

(49:37):
were low whatever, and then I had somewhere I'm like, man,
I hit that ball good that would have been you know.
And so it's just part of playing football. It's just
like other guys in their team that they're getting paid
to they make great plays and sometimes they just you know,
they just it goes both ways. Man.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
So no more questions. But this is in parentheses. This
is my question in parentheses, and we're down with all
the questions in parentheses. If you got called today and
they're like we the Titans, They're like, we know you're
close games in an hour, Like where would you kind
of cap out.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
At as far as like branch train. Well, you know what,
I'm actually filming something here in about two weeks, so
I'll I will report back to you and let you know.
But I don't know. That's a good question. I hadn't
kicked the ball in a long time, so I've been
focusing on the golf. Uh it would it would take
a little time to warm.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
That range, all right, don't Oh.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can still do that. I think
actually that I still try to, like, you know, I mean,
I'm not castle over here on the tunnel five days
a week, but get it in. I try to try
to trust stay moving a little bit. I think I
could still your wrecked there.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
You're like a rip dude. Yeah, but he's a freak
of nature. Yeah, it's like him and I like, look
like we're in shape. How you doing, buddy, Well, I'm
been working at that.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
I'm on the tune five days a week.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
It's just a couple of retired professional athletes like.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, I'm living my life to the fullest. Hey, we've
both got championships. I got a mirror of ball, he's
got a Super Bowl ring.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
I've got three national championships. But that's way back. That's
not even professional, is it.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
I must I must tell you this. I don't know
if you know this about Cast, but how long have
people be doing the show? A year?

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Two?

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Yeah, whenever. This was like a year and a half
ago too. We're at our our boys play baseball together
and I'm talking to Cast one day. Why could you up?
To man? He's like, I'm doing this and this. He's like, man,
they want me to do this podcast. Some guy he's
like pretty big on country music and radio and now
he's got all this stuff and I'm like, who is it?
And he's like, Bobby Bobby Bones. I'm like, Castle, like

(51:30):
you need to do that, Like you need to go
do it.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
I definitely didn't say like I said, Bobby Bones.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
You know Bobby Bones, Billy Jones, Right, I'm.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Like, I love him, but sometimes you know these we
got to help him out.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
I've learned now.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, that's that's why I'm here. So we really appreciate
the time. And this is been awesome. I'll let you
in this though. This is your guy. Oh he is
my guy.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
He's one of my favorite people I've ever played with
and I'll tell you he's so humble and he's got
such a great humility about him that he'll never talk
too big about himself. But he was an incredible player,
incredible teammate. But also when you see him interact with
his wife, his kids and anybody around, the respect that
everybody has in the community for him, it's just, uh,

(52:13):
it's always something.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
That you strive for. And I'd say I always tell
people this.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
I said, if there was one person that I'd ever
let marry my daughters, obviously not at your age now, okay,
but but the type of person that you'd want to
marry your daughters, it's Ryan Sucking.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
That's there's nothing more like. It's the greatest intro and
outro in the history of our show. Man.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
I need to come hang with you guys more. I
feel feel better about myself today.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Man.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
Well, that's that's the whole point of this. Okay, lift
you up and then as soon as you leave, we're
going to tear you down.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
Yeah, we can record this. Your wife just asked that
we do this to build you up. Y. Yes, your
microphone actually is not working.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Ryan. I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
All right, that was it. Ryan does allat if you
played golf with.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Him multiple times, and I don't like to. I like
to watch him play golf, but when you play with him, he.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Just makes you feel like such a golfer because he's
so good. Jakesal me a coke? H all right, kind
I'll get you a coke.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Yeah, that's why. But it is he's a sight to
see on the golf course. And I'm not I'm talking
about his golf game?

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Is he because he is so good? Does he still
make you feel worthy? A great shot? Chaos? Yeah, great shot, cass, Hey,
you're you're all right?

Speaker 4 (53:41):
And I'm like, dude, beat it, Like if I was
that good and I'm playing with my buddies, I'm talking
so much smack to you, like.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
How you like that ball?

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Like you know, just just a nice guy, that's what
I am. Yeah, you are a hugger. You better believe it.
I have a friend named George Burge. He's got a
couple of number one in the country music and he
played golf at Texas University of Texas. That's a pretty
big deal. He's awesome. But the craziest thing about him
because he's probably a plus one right because he gets

(54:13):
playing a bit on the road, you know, he's out.
The craziest thing about him is he's such a nice
guy when he plays, and he roots you on so
hard that even though he's so good, you like playing
with them, which is a bit counterintuitive because you think
if you were playing with somebody that was so good,
you would feel so inferior that it would be bothersome.
I do feel inferior. M yeah, But but.

Speaker 5 (54:33):
He doesn't make you feel that way, is what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Not at all. If anything, you're like, man, I'm just
a couple of things by being like you, George. No reality, never,
that's never the Once I did a deal with a
certain golf brand and because I had a sponsorship deal
with him, and I'm not very a very good golfer,
like I'm a twelve and so, but I like to
play some and I'll play a lot for a couple
of months and I haven't played at all in like
seven weeks. So, but I was doing enough, and I

(54:58):
was playing some of the celebrity games at the time,
back when I was a celebrity, and they were like, hey,
we want to So I did a deal with him,
and I said, hey, I want to do this series
with our guy Kevin, and we'll try to do like
Break ninety because Kevin was just like playing golf for
the first time. And so they say, Kevin, all these clubs,
you got them fitted like thousands of dollars worth of
clubs whole think we never did the series. Oh man,
can you put them again? Because we just we just

(55:20):
never had to. I don't really know what happened. I'm
not with them anymore. That's not why I wonder why,
but we just never Yeah, we we filmed like one
day and then it just kind of fizzled out when
we're on it. I mean that's just the I'm not
even sure.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, that's why you guys get free
stuff around here.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
It wasn't on purpose.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
Well that's awesome though, And the fact that you got
new clubs, that's oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
They're a plus.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
I mean, can I give like a like a.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I wouldn't plug them because then if somebody's listening from it,
they'd be like, oh yeah Ice Range.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
I mean probably all together about thirty five hundred bucks.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Good good group of good group of clubs. Yeah, we
were supposed to do it, but they never even were like, hey,
where's the dead? I think they just throw so much
stuff out to the people they were with, and then
I stopped working with them. That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
My deal ran now fire they forgot because I definitely
need new clubs.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
You No, no, we're not doing We're not. I'm not
going back to it.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
I haven't deal with them.

Speaker 4 (56:16):
I was promote you in whatever capacity I have to Bobby.
Bobby's already committed to the show.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
I'll say this one final thing and don't do it now.
You never change your Instagram name. That's how that's how
little you think of us.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
No, I think of you.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
And I asked because it's so weird because who is
m Underscore Castle? Like nobody knows? And when I'm like,
knows that Underscore. But if I was like, be Underscore
B thirty two, it says my last name. If it
said even Matt Castle sixteen. But when I'm like, hey,
I'm doing this show, you should watch. Here's a clip
me and Matt Castle, they were like me a clip

(56:50):
and me and Underscore m Castle.

Speaker 6 (56:51):
I don't think people know who that is. I think
it's hurting us. All right, I'll get it together. Already
went and talked about social media. No, I literally talked
to him. He's like, I think that you're the where
you're at right now.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
Enough people know that this when they come to this page,
is that it would be this, that and the other
to change it. So it's probably more to it than
that conversation. But I swear on my love for my
family that I did have that conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
It's fine. I'm just saying when I tag you and stuff,
I have no I have to write, hey, I'm doing
the show with it. I have to write your name
Matt Castle parentheses M underscore And it looks like if
you don't know, it looks like Cassell. No, it does,
it always has, always has. I just changed it in
my phone last week. Yeah, I have my phone is

(57:35):
m underscore Cassel. All right, we're done, Thank you guys.
Thanks to Ryan. How'd you call him suck off? I did?
I felt so bad out Thanks to Ryan suck Off.
That's Matt Castle. Let's kick off, Kevin, that's Brandon Ram,
Bobby Joon, We'll see you next week by Buddy.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.