High stakes at the Super Bowl Heres how Rams and Patriots kickers deal with the super pressure

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ATLANTA -- There's a fine line between famous and infamous and it's a highly pre surized line that every NFL kicker has to walk when they play in the Super Bowl. Hit a game-winning kick on the NFL's biggest stage and you'll become a legend forever. knows all about that. On the other hand, one mi sed kick can turn you into a national punch line for the rest of time as kicker Scott Norwood found out in the waning seconds of Super Bowl XXV. Happy 58th birthday to former Bills K Scott Norwood. Unfortunately we had to post this moment again. Four Verticals (@FourVerticals_) There's so much pre sure in the Super Bowl that every kick over 40 yards is basically a crapshoot. In the 52-year history of the game, kickers have connected on just 54.5 percent of their attempts beyond 40 yards (To put that in perspective, NFL kickers combined to hit 72 percent of their kicks over 40 yards in 2018).The pre sure of the Super Bowl has a way of wilting down even NFL's best kickers. Even Vinatieri has had his struggles in the Super Bowl Nate Sestina Jersey . In five career games, Vinatieri has hit just 70 percent of his field goals, which is well below his career average of 84.3 percent. More NFL Everyone deals with pre sure differently and the two kickers playing in Super Bowl LIII are a perfect example of that. One kicker openly admits that he gets a little nervous before big games while the other kicker doesn't seem like he's ever been nervous in his life. One kicker watches Netflix the night before a big game while the other one says a prayer. Welcome to the life of kicker and kicker .Gostkowski will be playing in his sixth Super Bowl on Sunday, which will be tied for the second most in NFL history, and yes, he still gets a little nervous after all these years. "I can honestly say, being nervous before a game is a good thing," Gostkowski told CBSSports.com this week. "Not having any emotion at all, to me, is the thing you have to worry about. If you have to get yourself geared up to play in this game, then there's something wrong with you. It's a good nervousne s. It's an excited nervousne s."Whether it's a "good" or "excited" nervousne s, it's one that Zuerlein apparently won't be feeling on Sunday. The Rams kicker, who drilled a 57-yard field goal in overtime to beat the in the NFC Championship, seems to have nerves of steel."I've never played in a Super Bowl, so I don't know if I'll be nervous. I would think not, but I don't know, we'll find out," Zuerlein told CBSSports.com this week. The reason Zuerlein doesn't think he'll be nervous is because he almost never gets nervous. The Rams kicker even says that he wasn't really feeling any butterflies when he lined up to kick his game-winner in New Orleans."No, not D'Angelo Russell Jersey really," Zuerlein said. "On the sideline, you get like, 'OK, this is what this could mean,' but when you go out there, you're focused so solely on making the ball go where you want that you're not thinking about anything else. It's just do your technique like you've done and nothing else comes into your mind."Kickers are all about their routine, and for these two, that's how they're able to overcome the pre sure of a big kick. Gostkowski has hit 5 of 6 field goal attempts in his Super Bowl career (83.3 percent) and he tries to do the same thing on each kick, no matter when it might occur in the game. "You try not to do anything differently," Gostkowski said. "I mean, it's impo sible to say you don't feel any different. You have cameramen following around your every move for big kicks , but the more you can focus on your fundamentals, your technique, your form, not the actual situation of the game, the better off you'll be, so I just try to not do anything different than I would do on a normal kick. And really, just try and calm myself down."Although the two were interviewed separately, Zuerlein agrees that treating every kick the same way is a huge key when it comes to dealing with pre sure. That's why he doesn't view a 57-yard game-winning field goal in overtime as more important than a 29-yard field goal in the first quarter."No, because they're all the same," Zuerlein said. "That first quarter kick can come back and be the points at the end of the game that matter. Points are so important in a football game, so it doesn't matter when it is." Being a kicker in the NFL means you have to deal with mind games and there's no bigger mind game than a potential icing on a high-pre sure field goal in the fourth quarter. Coaches love to do it, but according to both kickers, it's basically a waste of a timeout because it just doesn't work. At least not on them."I don't really care, either way," Zuerlein said of being iced. "You prepare to go out there and kick the first one. You prepare the exact same way for the second one, so I think each kicker is probably different, but I don't think it matters either way."Gostkowski also seems to be impervious to the fourth quarter icing."I honestly don't think about it and the few times that it's been done to me, I just run back to the sideline and wait for them to call for the kick again and then I just Reggie Perry Jersey run back out there and try and kick it like a normal kick," Gostkowski said. "It's really not something you think or worry about." Ironically enough, the only time Gostkowski admits to actually feeling any pre sure during Super Bowl week is BEFORE the game, and we're not talking about hours before the game, we're talking about an entire week before the game."The build up to the game is more nerve-racking than the actual game," Gostkowski said. "Honestly, the closer I get to the game, the more normal about it I feel. All the crazine s that comes with the Super Bowl as far as tickets and hotels and how hard it is to get stuff and media and all that stuff, but the closer you get to the game, the more comfortable you feel because it feels more like what you would do in a normal week."One thing that definitely stays normal for both kickers is their sleep schedule. You won't seen Gostkowski or Zuerlein staying up all night with the nervous sweats. On Zuerlein's end, he has no trouble getting to bed because he puts his trust in a higher being to take care of things. "I'll do Chris Chiozza Jersey some visualizations, say some prayers," Zuerlein said. "Just being confident and trusting whatever God's plan is and let that happen, because, at the end of the day, this is a game and in the grand scheme of things, it's not all that important."As for Gostkowski, you might actually be doing the same thing he's doing on the night before the Super Bowl."I'll watch a movie and I'll go to bed," the Patriots kicker said, without revealing the movie. Besides watching movies, Gostkowski has also picked up another habit that helps him keep his mind off his high-pre sure job."This year, I've been doing puzzles when I go home," the Patriots kicker said. "Jigsaw puzzles to keep my mind sharp. When you have one job, you want to think about it enough to do well, but you can't overthink it, it's not rocket science, it's just trying to kick the ball through the uprights."Kicking the ball through the uprights might sound easy, but when more than 100 million people are watching you on TV around the country, the pre sure of the moment has the power to melt the ice in anyone's veins. Kicking is a lonely job, but one of these kickers will make a lot of friends fast if he can boot his team to a Super Bowl win on Sunday. and it will air on CBS and streamed and for .
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