Stephen Gostkowski Q&A, 10/29
Posted on October 29, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized
So I’m in the Patriots locker room this morning and there’s not much going on. I look over in the corner and I see kicker Stephen Gostkowski sitting by himself in the far corner near his locker. I start to think, “Jeez, I spent every week in my Metro column saying that if he keeps kicking at his current rate, he’s the one guy in the Patriots locker room who’s guaranteed a trip to the Pro Bowl. Why haven’t I talked to him yet?” So I talked to him — here’s a part of that Q&A:
- On kicking in a new environment—can you do anything to prepare? No, there’s nothing … there’s not much difference between one stadium and another. … You can predict the weather. The only thing we do is try and kick in our stadium a couple of times before our game. That’s not something we really think about. We just kick during practice and do the best we can during practice. We get to warm up an hour before the game, and that’s pretty much all you need. We kick so much and get so many reps in practice. We’ve kicked on it all — grass, turf, old turf, new turf. It’s pretty much the same. Sometimes, the weather is different — you can’t predict that. So you just run with it.
- On his performance this year… It’s not something I think about. I’m just happy we’ve won more games than we’ve lost. Anytime you can perform pretty good and help your team win, it’s an added bonus. But I don’t make any benchmarks or set any goals that I’m trying to reach. I just go into every game and try to make every kick and kick some good kickoffs. If I get caught up in numbers and who’s doing what and how I’m doing as compared to everyone else, it’s just one more thing to distract me from the game. I’ll look at my final performance at the end of the year and then look back at it. Right now, I’m just worried about kicking good at Indy. When the end of the year comes, I’ll tell you how I feel about my performance.
- On going out early to get an idea of the sitelines in a new stadium… We always go out there and run around and loosen up. You look at your aiming points. But it’s not something I get in-depth with. I’m not very … I stick to my routine. I’m not real picky. In college, I had to kick on a makeshift field goal post that was put in the middle of the field. I’ve kicked on it all. Some guys are different than others. Some have a more in-depth routine. Me, I don’t really think. I try to aim down the middle and kick it through.
- On working with Lonie Paxton… Lonie is the best snapper I’ve seen. He’s pinpoint, on the money. He takes his job seriously, and is good at what he does. He doesn’t read too much into it. Having a guy who has been there and snapped for a good kicker before, he’s been through different situations. It’s always good to have someone to lean upon. Show you the ropes. Having Lonie here is definitely beneficial for me. He still helps me out, day-to-day.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.