NFL players hear various things from the crowd on a game-by-game basis. One position that might hear the most is the kicker. Fans often paint them as ‘having one job’, and that’s not really wrong. With as many games as there are that come down to field goals, fans often have a strong opinion on their kicker also.
And so do opposing fans, who try to get in their heads. On his podcast, posted Thursday, Christian Kuntz told a lighthearted story about a Patriots fan trying to get into Chris Boswell’s head.
“In New England, a guy was screaming at Boswell on the sideline, ‘you have tiny feet, ‘” Kuntz said. “Just screaming out. Boz is giving him like a thumbs up, he heard him, he’s front row screaming at us. But it’s just like, shit like that could make a normal human crumble… It’s cutthroat. But hey, you know, that’s why you get paid. That’s why we’re professionals.”
Although kickers might look most like “normal people” out of pretty much any athlete, it takes an incredible amount of composure to perform under such circumstances. The “you have tiny feet” line is more lighthearted than anything else, but the general point from Kuntz makes sense. It’s impressive that players like Boswell are able to remain composed in environments with tens of thousands of fans trying to get in their heads.
On the field, Chris Boswell has been as good as ever. As usual, the Steelers have relied on him. He kicked a game-winning field goal in Week 1, and the Steelers won by just three points in Week 4. He’s perfect on his extra points and has made nine of 11 attempts on the year, but one of his misses came last week when he was lucky not to be injured while slipping on a poor field at Acrisure Stadium.
With the Steelers, Boswell has become one of the best kickers in the NFL. He can take the heat from any crowd and make just about any kick. Fans will have to find something better than “tiny feet” to get in his head, it seems.
