- 5 months ago
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00:00River Island's guest line, and when you go live to Wisconsin, it's always good to have this sound first.
00:05All right, let's do it. Let's go out to talk to our friend Mason Crosby,
00:09now a radio host out there in Green Bay, long-time kicker for the Packers as well.
00:13We want a little perspective on this situation here on Willard & Dibs.
00:17Mason, how you doing, man? Thanks for the time.
00:19Yeah, I'm doing great. Yeah, y'all having a little kicker issue out there?
00:24Y'all just feeling a little nervous right now? What's going on?
00:27Mason, Mason, the body does not feel good when you line up from 45 yards with the game on the line right now.
00:36Just a little tension there, huh?
00:39Just a bit. Yeah, so I don't know what to think about this.
00:44To me, we've kind of seen enough, and I've got to think there's somebody out there better,
00:50but it's a third-round draft pick, there's money involved, there's pride involved.
00:54Kyle Shanahan says they're going to stick with him, but what's your thought when you watch him kick?
01:01So, Jake, this is his third year?
01:03Correct.
01:04Yeah, third year.
01:05So, I mean, I have to look at my situation whenever I came in the league,
01:10and being in a good organization, an organization that expects to win games and do all of that.
01:20They were able to kind of ride the wave with him early on, still found a way to win games and stuff like that.
01:28So, I know my first four years, yeah, I guess first four years, there were ups and downs.
01:35There were moments where it was like, gosh, this is not going great, but you invest a little time,
01:41you invest like the sticking to the process and allowing a guy like that to develop,
01:47and then you just kind of hope it doesn't cost you too much, you know?
01:50And I do think this seemingly is an important year, especially with what the expectations are in the kicking game now,
01:58that Jake needs to have a good year if they're going to roll with him.
02:03And I would assume he'd be on a relatively short leash going there.
02:09But, you know, you had Greg Joseph there in camp and decided to move on from him pretty early.
02:16So, that's seemingly, you know, that's telling to me that they're going to roll with Moody,
02:21at least for the time being.
02:22So, how much of the kicking game from your standpoint is just purely mental versus, you know,
02:28the physicality that you need to make the kicks?
02:32Oh, gosh, you know, it's, I mean, it's all of it.
02:35It's going out there and being able to have freedom in those moments.
02:39So, I think the mental side is in all that preparation, you know, getting your mind right
02:44for what each one of those moments is going to look like, feel like, you know.
02:49And that comes with experiencing the good and the bad moments.
02:55I do think teams at times are a little too knee-jerk on, you know, moving on from somebody.
03:02You know, and you see that historically with teams that have four or five kickers a season
03:08and they've had eight guys in the last four years or something like that,
03:12just because they just do not, you know, they don't let guys develop
03:16like they do with other positions sometimes.
03:19So, that's some philosophy, but, yeah, I think it's experience.
03:24I think it's the preparation on a daily basis of getting your mind
03:28and then preparing your body to go out there and just be free in those moments.
03:33So, I'm going down to a golf event in Alabama, actually, starting tomorrow,
03:38and I think about that all the time.
03:41I'm like, if I don't have time to go to the range, then I get on the course
03:45and I'm, like, working on my game, and that's always recipe for disaster, right?
03:49So, as long as I go out and I separate, all right, when I'm at the range and I'm doing this,
03:53I can tweak and work on some things.
03:56Once I get on the course, I'm out there and I'm cutting it loose and now it's performance time.
04:00And I think for young guys, that has to be the mindset where it's like, I'm working,
04:04I'm doing these things, I'm getting myself, my mind, and my body right,
04:08and come game day, I'm just going out there and I'm cutting it loose and I'm performing
04:12and let the chips fall how they may.
04:14Long-time kicker Mason Crosby with us on Willard and Dibs 95.7 The Game.
04:18Okay, in both answers, Mason, you've used a word that I want to dig into,
04:22and I'm going to freely tell you before I even get to this question,
04:26this is probably a crappy take by somebody who has never been an NFL kicker,
04:31but you've twice used the word develop.
04:33And I'm thinking to myself, other than the stage being bigger,
04:39what really is it that y'all are developing?
04:42Like the ball's on the ground, you kick it straight, right?
04:45Like what is it that you need to learn when you get into the league?
04:49Well, I mean, you've got to think, like, what, you know,
04:52a quarterback's throwing a ball forever, what do they need to learn?
04:55You know, they're learning new play, they're doing different things.
04:56Yes, ours is much easier.
04:59We don't have to learn plays and do all of that,
05:01but the game, the rush, everything speeds up.
05:04You get moving too fast sometimes, so you've got to slow everything down.
05:09You've got to slow your mind down.
05:10You've got to slow all those processes down
05:13and just stay in the rhythm and in those moments.
05:17And then, you know, there is a difference with kicking that ball
05:20and with the hashes.
05:22It's weird, like, the narrower hashes give issues sometimes
05:28just because your angles are changing.
05:30And they become very subtle.
05:32And then it just seems, too, sometimes like these young guys,
05:35they bang 50-plus yarders with ease,
05:38and then it's those 45 to 35 yarders that give them, you know,
05:42give them a little bit of a headache.
05:44I will say that, you know, I think these college kickers coming from college
05:50where they're kicking 20-yard extra points to that transition,
05:54and now you have, you know, 50-plus, 33-yard extra points every year
05:59that you're expected to make the same as you were that 20-yarder.
06:03It doesn't sound like a long kick, but whenever you do it over and over again,
06:07you know, it adds to it.
06:09It's taxing.
06:10You have a field goal that you have to go out there and make every time.
06:14That only counts for one point.
06:15So I do think all of those things play a factor.
06:19And then the stage is just, it is just that much bigger.
06:22The pressure is that much bigger.
06:23I talk about this all the time on my show about NIL
06:26and how we're going to see, you know, professional athletes not play as long
06:31just because it is hard to be a professional for a really long period of time.
06:37It is taxing.
06:39Once you're getting paid, once that money is coming in,
06:41the expectations get higher and the pressure gets even more.
06:45And I think some guys just, you know, just feel that a little bit more than others.
06:49Yeah, you had a great long career, 400 career field goals made.
06:53And, you know, Jake Moody now in year three, new long snapper, new holder,
06:58new step approach to the ball.
06:59How much of that is kind of a learning curve
07:02and how much room should Jake Moody be given as he tries to go through these changes?
07:07Yeah, you can't discount that operation, you know, being different.
07:11I mean, we saw it with, you know, with Justin Tucker.
07:15He had the same two guys forever.
07:17Not that he, you know, fell off immensely with his percentage,
07:20but, I mean, he was a 90-plus percent guy.
07:23And then he dropped into, you know, the mid-80s there
07:27whenever they kind of switched some of those things.
07:29It's timing.
07:30It's rhythm.
07:31It's how, like, it's weird stuff for a kicker whenever you're there.
07:35It's how the holder catches the ball.
07:37It presents it, how quickly he gets it down.
07:40It's kind of all those things.
07:42I mean, it's like a lot of sports, pitching and, you know,
07:45a pitcher and a catcher, their relationship, you know,
07:47quarterback with his center and his wide receivers running the routes.
07:51Like, all of that timing and all that rhythm really makes a difference.
07:55And if it gets off a little bit, you hesitate for a moment.
07:59That's when all that, all those demons can creep in.
08:01So, it's easier said than done to just say, yeah, just, you know, go out there,
08:07cut it loose.
08:08You've done this a million times.
08:09Like, just, you know, have freedom, trust that it's going to be there.
08:14It's, you know, that's definitely easier said than done.
08:16But I always hope that these young guys get a little more leeway.
08:20They just give them a chance to go out there and, you know,
08:24get through some of these moments, but the business doesn't always, you know,
08:29doesn't always allow for that, right?
08:30It's just, it's a different game.
08:32When I came into the league, if you were 85%, you were, you know,
08:36you were probably top five kickers in the league.
08:38And now it's the expectations.
08:40You're making 90% of your kicks and you're making everything inside of 55 yards.
08:44It's just, it's changed.
08:46It's changed dramatically.
08:48And then that adds pressure to the job.
08:51Mason, I'm looking at your, your stats right now.
08:53And if we count those three games at the end with the New York Giants,
08:5617 years in the league, you never missed a kick in,
09:01like that was less than 20 yards.
09:03If it was, if it was 29 yards or less, you only missed twice.
09:09This is in 17 years.
09:11And you know what disappointing about those misses also is both of those ended
09:17my longest, like make field goal streak.
09:20Both, I think both kicks I missed inside 30 yards.
09:23I ended at 24 make streak and a 27 make streak on both of those.
09:28Oof, but then like the second one,
09:31the second one happened in 2011.
09:34And then you went, you went 13 years without missing one of those.
09:39And then you've missed 21 extra points in 17 years.
09:44So Mason, and I bet some of those were blocked too.
09:46So like, talk to me about, and I know the distance changed a little bit at some point,
09:52but the idea of just missing an extra point when everything went right and you just missed it.
09:58Like how often is that excusable?
10:00Uh, not, if everything's right, like it's, it is inexcusable.
10:06I mean, missing an extra point, regardless of the distance is, uh, it's hard.
10:11It's hard for teams to swallow it.
10:13I think it, I think it affects these kids, like it affects kickers more than yeah.
10:18Missing a, you know, 45 yard.
10:20Like you, you send one on the way, like when catch it, whatever, like something happens,
10:24uh, you can almost move on a little bit easier.
10:27Like you miss an extra point that's creeping in because now you're saying, all right,
10:32that's a 33 yard or there's fun to, you know, it's fundamentals.
10:34It's some of these things.
10:36And yeah, really have to just, it's like missing a four foot putt.
10:40You just got to kind of like, wow.
10:42You know, in a sense, laugh it off and be like, all right, well, I'll deal with that after this game.
10:47Don't let that creep into my next one because you see that happen a lot.
10:51Someone misses an extra point and then they come back and they miss that, uh, you know,
10:55that kick later in the game that, uh, is even more costly, but those things add up and you
11:00got to try to try to really, and that's probably where the mental side comes in because your
11:05mind will tell you, well, all right, something went wrong with my swing, with my kick.
11:10If I missed a kick like that and you have to, you have to combat that nonstop all the time.
11:16And, you know, it just, it takes work and it takes energy and takes effort, um, before
11:22you get it in those moments, uh, for those things to not creep into your mind.
11:26And is part of the challenge being on an Island as a kicker, because you don't often see guys
11:31come up to the kicker and give them an attaboy or try to, you know, coach them up if they're
11:35in a tight spot.
11:36Is it really a case where the kicker is basically just on an Island throughout the game?
11:41Uh, sometimes, yeah.
11:44You know, there's, um, there's always, there's certain guys that have, are always just like,
11:48all right, like, yeah, we're not going to mess with our fragility of these, uh, you know,
11:51these specialists, but I always felt that was pretty fortunate.
11:55I had, I had good teammates that, uh, if I, you know, if I missed the kick, if I had tough
11:59times, like they'd put their arm around me and it's like, all right, let's get this thing
12:02going.
12:03Uh, just like I would do with them.
12:05And then, you know, in a similar moment, it's like, all right, and that's what makes
12:08teams special as well is that, um, you know, those, those moments happen, things happen.
12:14We put ourselves on the line all the time and, uh, and we make sure that, that we support
12:20one another.
12:20So that's also a culture and a team thing as well.
12:24Um, can't be afraid to step into those spaces whenever, whenever it's going well and whenever
12:28it's going tough because, you know, ultimately sometimes you got to just show up for each
12:33other and be like, Hey, I got you, bro.
12:35Like we're going to, we're going to step up and just a little inside football is I had
12:40missed some kicks, uh, in games that we won and, you know, we went a game and I'm kind
12:45of a little bummed, you know, it's like, oh man, I didn't, you know, I didn't do my job
12:49fully.
12:49And then I've missed, uh, you know, I've, uh, you know, I've, I've, I've missed the kick
12:54to lose a game and I can't tell you how many guys, you know, come up and they're
12:58just like, well, I should have caught that pass in the second quarter.
13:00I should have, you know, we should have scored the touchdown.
13:02Like everybody goes through a moment in a game where they're like, if I had just done
13:08a little bit more, that wouldn't have happened.
13:10So I think those are important things to remember as well.
13:14Mason Crosby, longtime kicker, 17 seasons in the league on Willard and Dibbs.
13:18Here's what I wanted to ask you.
13:20And, and it probably won't apply much to Jake Moody because he kicks here in California,
13:26though, I think the first big kick that he had in weather came in his rookie year.
13:33Niners were five and O lining up for a game winning 41 yarder in Cleveland in, in, in a
13:38rainstorm and he missed it.
13:40And you're from Texas.
13:42Um, and then you ended up in green Bay.
13:44I want to know like the process of learning how to kick in weather.
13:49Oh, well, you know, you know, you know what they say.
13:51You're just built different whenever you grow up and are from Texas.
13:55So, um, I don't know.
13:58Some of that is a mindset thing.
13:59And I will say like, uh, I was fortunate enough to have great, uh, great parents and
14:04some guidance on just how to move, move on from good and bad and try to just stay even,
14:09uh, even through all of those moments.
14:12Um, but it, but there is a learning curve.
14:14Like I said, my first four years, uh, today's standards would have been way below par, you
14:20know, it was, uh, but I was fortunate enough to go to a place that was building something.
14:25We won a Superbowl in year four.
14:26So that, you know, definitely helped.
14:28Um, but we were, you know, we were building a team then.
14:31And then, you know, we won the Superbowl and then I, then I started, you know, kind of
14:36getting my game together, but it took me, yeah, it took me a while to learn Chicago.
14:40Honestly, it took me a couple of years to figure out when we went and played Chicago, some of
14:44the wind patterns in there.
14:46Um, it's experience.
14:47You almost like, again, you sometimes have to just get lucky and, uh, you know, have
14:53good weather in some of those tough spots or whenever it's tough, you just don't have
14:57kicks that are just going to be too taxing.
15:00Um, but the ultimate thing is learning from those moments as well.
15:03So yeah, Jake, Jake missing that kick there.
15:06Um, if, if that, if that is something that is in his mind nonstop, those demons can creep
15:12in there and it just, uh, it can become overwhelming and, you know, it's, it's hard to, it's hard
15:17to flush those out sometimes.
15:19So for me, it's, uh, it's that too, it's like, and you talked about the mental side.
15:24I think it's, it's see those sports psychologists, they have everything, you know, everything in
15:29those buildings now.
15:30And you, you know, you have money, you have resources, just go in, you know, and just dive
15:35into that because sometimes it's not even what's going on on the field.
15:38That's bugging some of these guys, they're humans, they have life, they have all these
15:42things.
15:43You just got to be able to flush all of that stuff out.
15:46And then whenever that job is there and you're present in that, on that game day, you lock
15:52in and you, and you do the work, but you know, it takes time and it takes, uh, you know, it
15:56takes getting into those moments.
15:58And, you know, I, I do see it sometimes guys that play in San Francisco or in California
16:03and that, um, you know, you're not going to, you're, you're almost unlucky whenever
16:08you hit a bad weather or a tough situation game.
16:11Like say Jake for that Cleveland game, it's not all the time.
16:15So you're not able to prepare as often.
16:18I got to prepare every once November hit, I mean, we were outside and it was like, all
16:24right, I had a thousand kicks and really tough situations before I ever took, uh, you know,
16:29took the field on, on game day.
16:31And so by year four, it was like, all right, I've, I've ticked a million times in this type
16:35of, uh, type of, uh, condition.
16:36Now it's just go out there and get the job done.
16:39Mason Crosby.
16:40All right.
16:40Before we send you off to play golf in Alabama, tell us your favorite story of someone, uh,
16:47someone coming up to you and expressing either frustration or gratitude because of something
16:53that you did for or against their fantasy team.
16:57Oh, the fantasy team.
16:58Yeah.
16:59I mean, I honestly, I think fantasy football was the best thing that could have happened
17:03to, uh, to my position as well, because I think it, it backed some hecklers off a little
17:09bit.
17:10Um, and I, I had, I had a couple bad, uh, bad goes there in Detroit.
17:15So Detroit fans loved getting after me, uh, on the sideline and things like that, but every
17:21once in a while.
17:22So I, I definitely had, had one guy, um, that I swear he was there every time we played those
17:29must've been his season tickets.
17:31And, and it was funny how one, one time there was a shift and he was like, I had no choice.
17:36You were the last kicker, you know, starting kicker available.
17:38So I had to take you.
17:40And he was just like, don't, you know, don't suck today.
17:42Like you did last year.
17:45Well, I guess that's like a, it's like a, you know, backhanded compliment, I guess.
17:49Like, it's like he wanted me to do well, but still wanted us to lose, uh, extremely bad.
17:54And unfortunately that was for him, that was the year after my bad, uh, bad, uh, kind of
18:00horrible game in, uh, in Detroit.
18:03And I ended up taking a game winner against Detroit in both those games.
18:06And, uh, in 2019, so it kind of came back twofold, but, um, yeah, it's, I do think
18:12fantasy football just changed, changed that atmosphere a little bit because there's so
18:18many times where it's like, I want y'all to lose so bad, but Hey, make all your kicks
18:21because I'm a fan of the game, I'm a Niner fan, but I've definitely at least used you
18:26as a bi-week fill-in before Mason.
18:28That definitely happened.
18:29Every once in a while.
18:30Yeah.
18:30Every once in a while.
18:31Hey man, thank you for doing it.
18:33Ton of fun.
18:34Uh, appreciate it so much.
18:36All right.
18:36Yep.
18:36Let me know.
18:37Hopefully, uh, yeah, hopefully Jake gets it, uh, gets it turned around and get to go in
18:40the right way.
18:41And, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll see it, see how that goes.
18:44I'm always rooting for these young guys to, to make a good career out of it.
18:48Hit them straight out there, man.
18:49All right.
18:50I appreciate you.
18:50Okay.
18:51Mason Crosby joining us here on Willard and Dibs, 95.7 The Game.
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