Ryan Longwell hears from a lot more kids who want to be NFL kickers. Naturally, in today's world, he hears it from their parents first.
"With all the concussion stuff going on, a lot of parents tell me, 'I want my kid to be the kicker,' " said Longwell, who spent 15 seasons kicking for the Packers and Vikings.
Being the kicker protects the brain physically. Mentally and emotionally? Not so much.
So when Longwell meets with prospective young kickers, he sort of channels one of those old "Scared Straight" prison scenes where the convicts confront the blossoming criminals with the harsh reality of the business.
"The first thing I tell them is if you want to do this for a living, you have to be OK with missing the winning kick in the big moment because it will happen," Longwell said. "If you're not OK with that, you'll never have the freedom to swing away. And if you never have the freedom to swing away, you're never going to make it because it's too hard to make a kick when your legs are Jello."
Training the mind to forget a bad miss is impossible, Longwell said. Training it to move on is easier said than done, but achievable.
Longwell's second game as an NFL kicker was eerily similar to now-former Viking Blair Walsh's infamous Seattle playoff game, minus the finality of a postseason contest.
It was Sept. 7, 1997. The defending Super Bowl champion Packers, who would win the NFC again that year, were at old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.