Kickin’ It
The lone 2011 Pro Bowl player with local ties is Dallas Cowboys punter Mat McBriar, the former UH kicker. He tells MidWeek about his love of Hawaii, his shock at the speed of the pro game, and a recurring nightmare
By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
|
and you see your head coach get fired, it makes you realize that anyone can get fired and maybe you started taking things for granted, and it forces you to look at things differently. It’s amazing, the focus shift when Wade was released, and that was the spark we needed to reassess everything. It was definitely a shock at the time. I could-n’t believe it.”
McBriar says the talk about Phillips’employment status wasn’t a burden on the team because things had gone so bad, so fast that no one had time to think of other things.
“It was a tale of two seasons,” he says. “We couldn’t work out exactly what it was. I think we were all trying to think it was just one thing but that was frustrating. You look around and you say, I wouldn’t trade any of the players. We’ve got some of the best players in the league and we just couldn’t buy a win.”
McBriar may not have expected Phillips to be fired, but nearly everyone else in Texas did. Cowboy fans have very little patience. It’s win or get going. This type of passion can be too much for some to take, but McBriar says the football fanaticism in Texas didn’t shock him when he first arrived. In fact, he said Hawaii’s football culture was a much bigger surprise.
“I was really surprised about the interest in Hawaii when I was there. You’re the only game in town and, yes, there is high school football and people are really passionate about that. I remember guys from the team always knowing what was going on with their high school teams but we were treated different. I don’t think college kids at other schools and even at big schools are treated like you are at Hawaii. At Hawaii you’re somewhat of a celebrity even before you play for the college. I was probably as well known playing in Hawaii as I am playing Dallas.”
Punters have a strange role in football. They are never cheered when entering the game. Their arrival means the offense has faltered and the best they can hope for is polite applause after pinning the opponent against their own end zone.
“I’m more than happy to go out there and punt once or twice a game,” McBriar says of his infrequent jaunts onto the field. “That suits me just fine. I’m the No. 1 cheerleader for the offense. I don’t want to see many three-and-outs, but you have to have the mind-set that you are going to be called on often and when you do go in it’s a bonus.”
Punters must be stronger mentally than physically. But even the most well-adjusted have Bull Durham moments when their private anxieties surface in the quiet of their own bed.
“I have dreams every now and then that it is fourth down and I don’t have my shoe on and I can’t find my shoe. I don’t know where that comes from. It’s an uncomfortable feeling waking up in March and thinking, ‘Did that really happen?’”
Though McBriar is quickly erasing most Cowboys punting records, he holds no dreams of one day seeing his name on the team’s famed Ring of Honor.
“I’ve never thought of that at all. I guess I don’t work that far ahead. Plus I’m a punter,” says McBriar with a huge laugh.
“I mean there’s only one punter in the NFL to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Ray Guy).
“That’s funny!”
Page 2 of 2 pages for this story < 1 2
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
