Are You Always Blaming the Kicker?

By James Bridges

Are You Blaming the Kicker?

Joe and I love college football. As proud alumnus of USC we didn’t get the pleasure of watching our school play in the bowl season; however, we still got to watch our fair share of games.

At the college level everyone is playing for pride. There is a much different feeling watching someone playing for pride in themselves, team, and school than someone who is worried about their next contract; but I digress.

With top teams battling each other, offensive shootouts, and tough defenses, many of the games have gone into overtime. Going into overtime, or even trying to escape going into OT in the final seconds generally means the kicker is involved.

The kicker has a tough role in football. While he may get jeered by teammates for having a clean jersey and no scratches on his helmet everyone wants that kicker to nail the ball between the uprights. When it comes down to the final seconds of a game, the kicker is center stage. Generally he is separated from his teammates, to get total focus. The entire sideline watches as the ball is snapped and when it’s a tight one you can see most people leaning to help that ball make it in.

Are you asking enough “HOW” questions to get to the real problem in your business?

When the game is on the line and the kick is GOOD, the entire bench can unload and rush the field.

When the game is on the line and the kick MISSES, it’s like everyone got punched in the stomach (both fans and teammates)

Analysts will start to evaluate the snap, the holder, and just went wrong. The kicker may just stare at the posts wondering what he could have done to make it right.

Although fans, analysts, and maybe even a few teammates may put the blame of the game on the kicker the reality is that no game is decided by a single kick. With 60-70 plays on average (per team) throughout a game it isn’t that last second kick that decided the game.

Finding what really lead to the loss (and yes even the victory) takes going through film, meeting with coaches, and asking tough questions. When you ask enough questions you can get to what really went wrong and instead of blame, you can ask HOW we can do better next time.

Instead of “blaming the kicker” I invite you to consider asking “HOW” questions in your own business. Dig deep with your questions and you will find the answer. Just a few that we commonly get asked on our 1 on 1 calls: