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Brien's personal head games affect his foot

By JOHN ROMANO
Published January 16, 2005

PITTSBURGH - You can't think about it. That's the trick.

While fans are shouting, while players pace or pray, while your wife is trembling, you have to look inward and find the calm no one else can see.

You can't think about it. That's the secret.

That's what Jets kicker Doug Brien will tell you. That kicking is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental. That when you are lining up for a winning field goal, your mind should be as clear as a sunny day.

You can't think about it. Thinking is for later.

Like in the offseason.

Or the rest of your life.

The season is over today in New York. They can blame Brien for that. Of course, it nearly ended a week ago. They can thank Brien for avoiding that.

So goes the life of an NFL kicker. In an overtime game against the Chargers last weekend, Brien kicked the winning field goal. In an overtime loss to the Steelers Saturday, Brien missed two potential winners.

"Last week was great," Brien said. "This week s----."

That was Brien, standing alone on the sideline during overtime. No one seemed inclined to offer consolation. No one was stepping forward to provide encouragement. Brien had missed two field goals in the final 122 seconds of regulation, and New York had missed a chance for consecutive upsets.

His helmet was hanging from his left hand, his reputation was withering on his right foot. He could have been carried from the field had he chosen in San Diego. Now, as the game ended, he ran alone to an uncertain future.

"God has a way of humbling us all," said Jets punter Toby Gowin, who also is the holder on kicks. "This will be tough, but Doug is a strong man."

The strong man's eyes were red when the locker room doors opened Saturday evening. His voice was weary, his words were clipped.

He didn't talk about the way he wakes at 6 a.m. each day and meditates for an hour. The way he trains his brain to focus and his body to relax.

He didn't talk about the sports psychologist he turned to for help early in his career. The way he has learned to avoid pressure by clearing his mind.

He didn't say much at all.

Without admitting it in so many words, Brien seemed to suggest he was undone by the one thing he has spent an entire career avoiding.

He let himself think too much.

Strange how it works. In some ways, Brien is the thinking man's kicker. The 34-year-old has a political economics degree from Cal and a master's in business from Tulane. He could talk all day about the cognitive and emotional demands of kicking. He will insist that failure is often a product of overthinking.

And he has Saturday's game as proof.

On the first miss, with 2:02 remaining in regulation and the score tied, Brien thought he hit the ball perfectly on a 47-yard attempt. He was turning to celebrate with Gowin when the ball hit the crossbar and bounced backward.

Maybe he didn't hit the ball as well as he thought. Maybe the wind was stiffer than he realized. Maybe the cold air kept it from carrying.

Whatever the reason, Brien let it get in his head. When an interception gave him a second chance at a 43-yarder with four seconds remaining, Brien was a different kicker. He was thinking about the earlier miss and thinking he had to put more leg into the next one.

"I was surprised I didn't have the distance on the first one, so I thought I had to hit it harder," Brien said. "The second one ... I just missed."

The snap was fine, the hold was perfect and Brien pulled the field goal badly to the left.

It was the first time since he left New Orleans in 2000 that Brien missed two field goals in the same game.

That hadn't happened in his two years in New York. It didn't happen in Minnesota in 2002, nor during his two-game stay in Tampa Bay in 2001, when he briefly replaced a banged-up Martin Gramatica.

"There was nothing else we could do. You have to kick the field goal," Jets coach Herm Edwards said. "He's been a good kicker for us. It was just a tough day."

It probably won't matter much to Brien today, but Heinz Field is notoriously challenging for kickers who must navigate winds off the rivers surrounding the stadium. In the four years since it opened, opponents have converted fewer than 43 percent of field goals of 40 yards or more.

It might not even matter much to Brien that his 11-year career has been largely successful. That he is among the top 10 most accurate placekickers in the NFL.

All he knows today is that in the biggest moment of his career, he failed to come through. Not once, but twice.

"It's going to be hard," Brien said. "It'll take a while to get over."

Try not thinking about that.

[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:34:19]