As an NFL place-kicker, the Vikings’ Ryan Longwell couldn’t experience a better late season schedule. Yesterday the Vikings played in Detroit’s dome, Ford Field, and next week the team is in the Metrodome against the New York Jets. Then the season ends with games at Green Bay and back home against St. Louis. That’s three games out of four in domes–comforting environments for late December when nasty winds and bitter cold are the norm outside.
After nine seasons with the Packers, Longwell signed on with the Vikings where he has accounted for 85 of the team’s 241 points this season. He has made 21 of 24 field goal attempts.
While he appreciates the advantages of kicking in a climate controlled atmosphere, Longwell doesn’t dread bad weather. “Not really,” he said. “I always took it as a sense of pride that I was always pretty good when the weather was nasty. …”
Even when a late season game will be outdoors, Longwell prefers working indoors at practice to perfect his precision and rhythm. He said practicing outside and struggling with the wind results in going into a “game with no confidence.”
Longwell talks about something more important than just staying warm and keeping his body flexible on game day. “The biggest thing kicking in the cold is mentally you have to get over the hurdle that your body is not going to feel warm,” he explained. “You’re not going to feel like you do in August when you are sweating and loose and everything. You’ve got to know your body is warm even though it doesn’t feel like it.”
Green Bay’s Lambeau Field ranks with the most difficult places to kick late in the season, Longwell said. The Vikings’ game in Green Bay on Thursday, December 21 will be at night so the temperature is likely to be colder than a day game.
Why is Lambeau a challenge for a kicker? “It’s so windy and so cold,” Longwell said. “There are a lot of factors. The biggest thing is you have got to make sure you have solid footing, and if you don’t, you have to adjust for it. You gotta guess with the wind. And in Lambeau since they renovated it, one of the things is the end zone is lower in one end and it makes it really swirly and gusty in there. …”