There's a lot of fun things about this sport, but trying to hoist that trophy at the end is what we all play for.

Every once in a while you do have a bad day.

When you get one blocked and another partially blocked, you've got to see if you're hitting them low or what.

Three surgeries on the same limb, that's a tall order.

Looking back on it, I'm extremely blessed to play on two very good teams, with great quarterbacks and owners.

I know I'm going to shoot a leopard.

I'm a South Dakota kid.

I know I'm going to shoot a buffalo.

I was born with a shotgun in my hand, chasing pheasant through the cornfields. My dad probably started taking me out when I was 4, 5 or 6 years old.

Cleaning out your locker the first week of January is not a whole lot of fun and it always leaves a lousy taste in your mouth.

It's fun running out onto the field. It's much more fun playing in the playoffs.

I learned early that it's very important to approach every single kick you attempt, even those in practice, as if it were in a game.

In golf, there are times when you hit a ball so perfectly that you never feel the ball leave your club.

I first learned about kicking under pressure in 1996, my rookie year with the Patriots. I was signed as a free agent by a team that already had Matt Bahr, one of the best kickers around. To win the job, I had to show coach Bill Parcells that I could make kicks when they counted. That process started in training camp.

Coach Parcells challenged me a lot in my rookie year, and not just in games. Almost every day in practice, he'd stand right beside me as he called for the field-goal team to take the field.

I don't know if I'm a clutch hunter, but I'm an avid one.

Living in Indy, you have to be a race fan.

I suppose any person who's played somewhere for a certain amount of time and then has the opportunity to go back and just reminisce a little bit, maybe it holds a different feeling than some of the other places.

As kickers, it's all about being able to block out the crowd noise, being able to block out certain aspects of the game, and just do your job no matter what the circumstances are.

I'm a Red Sox fan, but I still have a lot of respect for Mariano Rivera, who's the best closer of all-time.

I would compare kicking to being a closer in baseball. This whole game gets played, or the cake is made in front of you, so to speak, and you have to turn around and put the icing on the cake.

The mental aspect of kicking is the difficult part. Physically, we still have to be in shape and perform on the field, but the thing that separates the ones who make it versus the ones who don't is definitely the mental side.

I really don't want to be a journeyman.

Anytime I'm on the field, I need to make every kick that's in front of me.