Vikings kicker Blair Walsh spoke to the media after Wednesday’s OTA session and one of the topics that came up was the team’s move indoors at their new stadium.
Walsh said it’s “always easier to kick indoors,” but added that he felt he “had one of my better years as a pro” while the Vikings were playing their home games outdoors in 2015. That was true for much of the season, although Walsh’s final kick at TCF Bank Stadium is the one that most people remember.
That was the 27-yard field goal that he hooked wide left with 22 seconds left in the team’s 10-9 playoff loss to the Seahawks. Walsh says the kick was one moment in his career that he “won’t define me” as a player.
“I’m way past the point of being upset about it or, you know, to the point where it bothers you like that,” Walsh said, via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “It’s something I’ve already dealt with and gone through. On a day-to-day basis, no, I don’t think about it. I really don’t use it like that. That initial month or so period, I definitely looked at it as motivation for me. But, like I said before, I had a good year. That was enough motivation for me going into this year.”
Any high-pressure kicks that Walsh has to take this year will come with some added intrigue and any misses in those spots will surely lead some to conclude that he wilts in those situations. If Walsh makes them all, though, the definition of his career will include more than one bad kick on a cold January afternoon in Minneapolis.