Nate Kaeding’s Pro Bowl injury has put a wrap on his devastating end to the season, but we thought we’d revisit his self-described “nightmarish scenario” again because of an excellent article by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune Thursday.
Kaeding recounts what the last two weeks have been like for him in grisly detail, like a detective explaining a crime and its aftermath.
“It’s impossible for me to not think about,” he said. “There haven’t been 30 seconds that have gone by since that game that I haven’t thought about it.”
The most accurate regular season kicker in NFL history didn’t sleep after his missed kicks, and was back at the Chargers complex at 5 A.M. the following morning to watch what went wrong. He said he was hurried on his first kick.
“On the other two, it was my inability to mentally get over that first miss,” he said. "... On that day, I wasn’t mentally strong enough to come back and swing through the ball.”
After his latest setback, he’ll have to wait until next regular season to prove his mettle again. But Kaeding understands he can’t silence doubters until he hits a big postseason kick again.
“I understand, looking at it from the outside,” Kaeding said.