First off, what have you been up to since your time in the NFL?
After I retired I realized financially I was too young – I had a fine career but needed to do something more for a piss! For the first couple of years I didn’t do a ton- I had young kids and my focus was on them. We moved to San Diego where we live now – right around the time I signed with the Steelers.
I was interested finance – that’s what I studied in Australia. I took an initial role with a small fund out here then changed course the last few years and became an analyst on the natural gas trading floor.
I also came across an earplug business in Turkey and started working on that as a side business. They were in Europe and Australia but not in the United States. I spoke with the founder and partnered with him to get them in the states. We just launched them here and rebranded them – they are called Shh… and we just had a big order from CVS. It’s been a passion project for me. With my family on the other side of the planet, I’d like to see them more. If this gets off the ground it’ll allow me to be more flexible.
As an Australian, how did you get interested in American football?
The NFL had an office in Melbourne when I was in high school. Darren Bennett then was the godfather of Australian punters in the NFL – he played for the Chargers and would come back to Melbourne in the offseason. The NFL office ran a punting competition with him to find the next Darren. Well, I didn’t win it – most of the guys were much older than I was. But he told me I should go to the U.S. – I was the perfect age for college. I had no plans to go to college in the U.S. – I planned and did go to college in Australia.
I had no idea how big college sports were in America. I followed up with Darren – my parents told me they could back me financially for one year so I’d need to get on a team as a walk-on then get a scholarship. I got connected with Holy Cross, then Western Kentucky. Jim Harbaugh’s dad coached there so he introduced us. It went well but he couldn’t guarantee a scholarship even if I got the starting job. I was also introduced to June Jones at Hawaii – Darren knew June from his days at San Diego. June told me if I won the starting job I could get a scholarship. I played three years there and loved every moment. I didn’t follow the NFL then though – I feel like my head was in the sand – I knew I was headed in that direction but didn’t really think about it.
What was your biggest adjustment to the NFL?
A lot of teams were interested after the draft – I spoke with Darren and he felt like Denver would be a good fit so I signed there.
I was a little naive. When I was there they told me their kicker didn’t do kickoffs and asked if I could do that. I never did that in college and just thought “Oh, that’s not good.” I tried but those weren’t the muscles I was used to using – and my punting started to suffer as I was trying it.
My welcome to the NFL moment was before practice – the third week of camp – when all the media is still around before practice begins. Coach Shanahan called me over and thanked me for all of the hard work and told me he just traded me to Seattle. He said he spoke to Coach Holmgren and felt like I could beat out the punter there – former Denver punter Tom Rouen.
I had no idea what to do. It was a wild moment. He told me I needed to fly out that night to Seattle. I got to Seattle late that night and ended up having dinner with a couple of Seattle players at the team hotel, but was never introduced to anyone. The next day was the third preseason game – they had four punters and I was told they’d only keep two after that game. I warmed up but never played. They ended up keeping me and Tom Rouen though.
The next day I went to the Special Teams Coach Pete Rodriguez’s office – he didn’t want to talk to me. He just told me that they were set for the position.
That must have felt great…
He told me he didn’t think Mike Holmgren knew anything about punting. I just thought to myself “Ok…this is different…” I told him I was there, so I was going to give it my best, and that I felt like I was a very coachable player.
I ended up having a really good week – Coach Rodriguez told me then that it was a coin flip now between me and Tom. The funny thing is that last week of preseason we played Denver. The guys there told me they had no idea what happened to me!
What brought you to Pittsburgh in 2013?
I had a really strong career in Dallas and hit my peak in 2010. In 2011 though I had a nerve issue – I got foot drop during the season. My foot kept falling asleep and it got to the point that I couldn’t move my toes. They gave me a device called an IFO so I could play, but I could barely walk. That was my last contract year in Dallas too, so after that they wanted nothing to do with me.
My head got screwed up – I was pretty much handicapped. I was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on – no one could figure it out. My father-in-law was doing a residency at the time at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota with the sports medicine department. They ended up working with me and figured it out. I had surgery and in 2012 my nerves were regenerating – I could wiggle my toes by that Summer. After that I was signed by the Eagles – but I was a power kicker and I still didn’t have the balance on my plant foot – it would fail me at times and I had some awful punts.
One of my best friends still today is Shaun Suisham. He reached out to me then and told me that the Steelers’ punter Zoltan Mesko wasn’t doing well and he felt like they were going to bring in workout guys soon. He told me to talk to my agent – that Mike Tomlin was the best leader he’s been around.
What happened after that?
Well I knew Danny Smith from his days in Washington, so I called him directly. They worked me out and signed me.
That season the weather was just awful – I never saw anything like it. The stadium was tough to learn at first too – it took me a few games. It’s really a lefty’s stadium – the wind blows off the water from the right side so it gets tricky for a righty. But I enjoyed my time there.
What sticks out to you most from your time there?
I did ok that season. We were right there fighting to get into the playoffs. I got the first completion of my career versus Green Bay in Green Bay too! I was just a bit hit or miss there at that point.
I spent most of my time with Shaun and Greg Warren and Danny. One funny thing I remember was during the workout. Mike Tomlin came over and said “Ok, let’s see you throw!” I was like, “Oh, ok….I’ve never done that before!” In Dallas they told me that the last thing they’d do was run a fake. Now, here I am rolling out and throwing passes for Mike Tomlin and Danny Smith! And a football is very different than an Australian rules football to throw!
We ran the fake a lot in practice – Danny told me it was up to me to get this down, because when we get the right look we were going to run it.
And you did….
Well, we first got the right look versus Miami. The upback -Robert Golden – he didn’t make the call though. The coaches were really upset on the sidelines when we didn’t run it – they brought it up again in film sessions the next day.
The look is that we would be thin on the right side and I’d throw it to the upback, and if he was covered, to the tight end. In Green Bay we got the right look again and Robert called it, but he didn’t get open. I had to hold on to it longer before throwing it to David Paulson. I also got whacked late after the throw so that tacked on a 15-yard penalty to it.
It’s funny too because before the game Danny spoke to the referees and told them we’d run the fake and watch out for me in case I was creamed. He knew I was going to get murdered! But that was a really cool moment and it was an important game. We scored a touchdown on the next play.
What happened after that season ended?
I wish I could have hung around for another season – I really enjoyed it there. I was ok but didn’t set the world on fire. The was the best run team I’ve been around. The ownership was there but it didn’t meddle like other owners did. I found that to be very different.
It was a completely different feel. When a team has just had three head coaches it feels different. When Parcells went to Dallas the team got turned over.
The Steelers were also an older team – thought they did have a lot of talent too. Antonio Brown was amazing to watch. But I was just signed to the end of the season and was in my mid-30’s. They could get a guy who was cheaper and who could do the same job at that point for them.