pbmax
02-03-2017, 09:10 AM
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/02/03/nfl-super-bowl-38-xxxviii-brian-kinchen-new-england-patriots
At practice that day, he launched the first snap high over Walter’s head, just as he had a few weeks earlier. And then the third snap, high. Wrestling with self-doubt, he snapped in the bowels of the stadium until six that night, desperately trying to isolate the cause of the problem. The next day at practice was no better. “The ball literally just fell out of my hand, like a bowling ball,” Kinchen says. “I’m freaked out because I don’t know what is going on. It’s like riding a bike, and I can’t put my feet on the pedals.” An avid golfer, Kinchen now likens his meltdown to a bad case of the yips. “It was like a two-foot putt that wouldn’t go in.”
The team flew to Houston that Sunday. The yips traveled with Kinchen. During one practice, Kinchen took 24 field-goal snaps; 22 of them skipped off the ground. “I was soaking wet from sweating, and my abs were killing me because I was pulling the ball up so much,” Walter says. “Bill went up to him and said, [B]‘Kinchen, you have one f---ing job!’”
[long snapper tells Pioli he's quitting and going home after not being able to solve the yips]
The next day at practice, Kinchen looked over at the coaches and caught Belichick giving him a thumbs up—about as heartwarming as it gets from Belichick. He figured then that Pioli had briefed Belichick on their conversation. “Bill had that half-smirk on his face,” Kinchen said. “That thumbs up was his small way of encouraging me to keep playing.”
Well worth reading through, it gets better right before the Super Bowl.
At practice that day, he launched the first snap high over Walter’s head, just as he had a few weeks earlier. And then the third snap, high. Wrestling with self-doubt, he snapped in the bowels of the stadium until six that night, desperately trying to isolate the cause of the problem. The next day at practice was no better. “The ball literally just fell out of my hand, like a bowling ball,” Kinchen says. “I’m freaked out because I don’t know what is going on. It’s like riding a bike, and I can’t put my feet on the pedals.” An avid golfer, Kinchen now likens his meltdown to a bad case of the yips. “It was like a two-foot putt that wouldn’t go in.”
The team flew to Houston that Sunday. The yips traveled with Kinchen. During one practice, Kinchen took 24 field-goal snaps; 22 of them skipped off the ground. “I was soaking wet from sweating, and my abs were killing me because I was pulling the ball up so much,” Walter says. “Bill went up to him and said, [B]‘Kinchen, you have one f---ing job!’”
[long snapper tells Pioli he's quitting and going home after not being able to solve the yips]
The next day at practice, Kinchen looked over at the coaches and caught Belichick giving him a thumbs up—about as heartwarming as it gets from Belichick. He figured then that Pioli had briefed Belichick on their conversation. “Bill had that half-smirk on his face,” Kinchen said. “That thumbs up was his small way of encouraging me to keep playing.”
Well worth reading through, it gets better right before the Super Bowl.