Will Reichard with Common 8-4-26

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Minnesota Vikings 14 min 1 speaker 6 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Common 0:00

Delighted to welcome American-born football player. That's what it says in your Wikipedia page, you're American-born. Because there are football players that aren't American-born, and they get your sidewinder, right? Soccer-style kicker.

Will Reichard 0:11

Yep, yep.

Common 0:12

Will Reichert, the place kicker for the soon-to-be big game world champion Minnesota Vikings. Thanks for joining us.

Will Reichard 0:17

Of course, thanks for having me.

Common 0:18

I noticed, looking through your Wikipedia page, You went to a kicking camp in sixth grade? That's when you first started kicking?

Will Reichard 0:26

Yeah. I started in second grade. Second grade? Yeah. When I was very, very little. And then my first ranking camp, I guess, whatever, was in sixth grade, yeah.

Unknown 0:38

Was that like parents pushing you in second grade? Like did you know in second grade, hey, I want to kick? Or like how did that come about?

Will Reichard 0:43

Yeah, so soccer was like my first passion. I grew up playing that.

How did Will Reichard first get into kicking and what childhood sports shaped him?

Will Reichard 0:47

And then my dad decided that I needed to be tougher on the soccer field, so he signed me up for football. It turns out I didn't get any tougher because I became the kicker. So I just kind of fell in love with it and started to take it serious. And I was like, oh, okay, I'm pretty good at this. Back then in Little League – you would get one point for going for two, and you'd get two points for kicking extra points.

Unknown 1:13

So it was like an advantage.

Will Reichard 1:14

So my coaches and friends were like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. We're getting an advantage every time we score a touchdown. So it kind of kept me in it and kind of fell in love with it that way.

Common 1:24

Well, you know, I'm significantly older than you, and hard to notice. I know you probably think I'm probably about the same age, but... When I played football, by the way, I did. Just to let you know right away, I'm not one of your normal reporters you talk to or media members, out of shape, unathletic. I played football at a young age. I played both sides of the ball.

Why did Will switch from soccer to football and when did he start specialized kicking camps?

Common 1:43

It was a fierce pass rushing, rocket your route to run, stopping defensive linemen, and a precise route running, sure-handed pass catching tight end. I was really good at both positions. And that was back when I was in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. So both sides of the ball saw that toughness your dad was looking for. I had it. I look back, if I could change anything, I'd be a place kicker because you don't get hurt when you're a place kicker very often. Have you stubbed your toe? Is that the worst injury?

Will Reichard 2:05

Let's knock on wood a little bit here.

Common 2:06

Yeah, okay. But, I mean, you play in the National Football League. You make a good league. You sign a contract for $4 million, right? Yep. So you've got a big contract, and you get to kick, and you don't have to tackle people, and you don't have to block people. You've got the best of both worlds. You're smart. yeah it's great is that that alabama education i guess yeah pretty much yeah i saw in 2020 you didn't miss a field goal yep did you think you would never miss a field goal the rest of your life at that point i mean how do you go was it the number was astonishing you were like 98 for 98 or something crazy yeah i think we only had 14 field goals that year so it's a little bit misleading i mean that's really not that much i mean last year i think i had

Will Reichard 2:45

33, I mean, you know, almost triple the amount of attempts, or I guess, you know, at least over two. Yeah, but, yeah, no, it was a fun year for sure. We had a really good offense that year, too. We weren't, I mean, we had the Heisman winner, Matt Jones. smitty and we were putting up like 50 points a game so they don't really need me to be kicking yeah well alabama's always been aren't they yeah always yeah and you grew up there i'm assuming alabama fan or uh no i actually grew up a florida fan okay um my dad was from the panhandle of florida um i was a big tintivo fan he was like you know the best player in the world in my eyes and then um when i started to get recruited kick recruiting for kickers is weird

Will Reichard 3:25

because normally schools are only going to take one scholarship guy, and they're going to play for four years and kind of recycle that way.