RENTON — For an NFL kicker, focus is everything.
Missed your last kick? Doesn’t matter, make the next one. Anticipating life-changing news within the hour? Worry about it later, you’ve got a job to do.
Both scenarios came to pass for Seahawks kicker Jason Myers on Oct. 2 in the team’s 48-45 Week 4 victory over the Detroit Lions. With 7:33 to go in the third quarter, Myers sent a 39-yard field goal wide left, his first miss of the season.
But an even bigger situation went down for Myers that day. Before the game, he knew that his wife, Katie, was close to going into labor. In the locker room afterward, Myers got the news that she had given birth to the couple’s second child, a girl named Hailey.
“I talked to (Katie) before I knew she was going in, and then texted her right before the game, and she said she was moving pretty fast,” Myers said. “So at that point, I knew there was nothing I could do but just hope. It was cool to finish the game and win and then run off, and she had just been born, so it was cool to FaceTime.”
According to Seahawks special-teams coordinator Larry Izzo, you couldn’t tell just from looking at him that Myers was having such a milestone day.
“He’s a pro,” Izzo said. “All of that going on, and you wouldn’t know it, and come in the locker room and find out that he had a baby girl like five minutes prior to the game ending. Yeah, he handled all that well and never wavered.”
Never wavering seems to be Myers’ specialty. Whether he is following up a successful year like 2020, or one filled with struggle and frustration like 2021, Myers’ process stays the same.
Last offseason, Myers was coming off one of the toughest years of his football life. After going a perfect 24 for 24 on field goals in 2020, and starting the 2021 season 2 for 2, Myers had converted 37 consecutive field goal tries, a franchise record and the fourth-longest streak in NFL history.
But as quickly as things go right, they can go wrong, as Myers missed six field goals in 2021, including four from within 44 yards, for a season conversion rate of 73.9%. After watching Myers miss a crucial 39-yard field goal last season against Chicago, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had no answers as to why his former Pro Bowl kicker had been so inconsistent throughout the season.
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