News
September 21, 2012
Chris O’Leary
Edmonton Journal
Bad punts? Attempted game winning field goals missed? Blocked attempts? Sideline confusion?
Burke Dales has seen it all and then some, and the 35-year-old punter insists that the kids will be all right.
The Edmonton Eskimo kicking game has had an increasing amount of questions swirling around it through the three-game losing streak, but Dales – the glue, it seems in hindsight, to the kicking game – said on Thursday that Grant Shaw and Brody McKnight would get through the scrutiny they’re currently under.
“Really tough to watch,” Dales said of the lowlights tied to Shaw and McKnight in the last three games.
“Any time you’re injured and you’re watching from the sidelines, it’s frustrating.”
Dales was having a great season, averaging a league-best 47.2 yards per punt before he hurt his non-kicking foot in the Labour Day Classic. Now on the nine-game injured list, the former Calgary Stampeder has watched as Shaw missed a pair of field goals that would have won both ends of the back-to-back series with Calgary (42 and 48 yards, respectively).
It grew worse on Saturday in Hamilton, when McKnight had his first CFL field goal attempt blocked – it was also a 48-yarder, the same distance that Shaw missed from in the first quarter – and returned for a touchdown. The play opened the door for Hamilton’s blowout 51-8 win.
The Eskimos found a way to make the situation worse, too. Shaw went out to take that field goal, only to see that the coaches had already asked McKnight to make the kick.
“You see things that happen in the game, in the middle of the game – in the tornado, I call it – on the sidelines and it’s harder to see,” Dales said. “I’m trying to help out as best I can.”
That includes taking McKnight, 22, and Shaw, 28, and in the first full-time kicking role of his career, under his wing while he recovers. He also did that with the Stampeders, mentoring young receiver Johnny Forzani last year.
“If there’s anything I can do to give them tips on their punting style, skill, help them hone their skill … I’m in this for the team,” Dales said. “I’ve been trying to help them both on the mental side and with the skill side. I’m doing everything in my power.”
Dales will also likely recommend a sports psychologist to the two kickers. He swears by Florida-based Dr. Frank Lodato, having linked up with the 86-year-old during seven years with the Stampeders.
“I’ve always been a big advocator of having a mentor, having someone you can run your ideas off of,” Dales said. “I’ve always worked with a sports psychologist and I think that’s helped me a tremendous amount in my career. A lot of guys will push it away, they won’t use it, but I think that it can be good for any athlete.”
Dales said he speaks with Dr. Lodato on the phone for 20 minutes every game day. He’s passing on the advice he’s received from the doctor over the years to his teammates this week.
“He’s had a tremendous year,” Dales said of Shaw, who had made 19 of 23 field goals before the Labour Day game. “He’s had a great season, so far, and all I said was, ‘You’ve got to forget the last kick and worry about the next one.’ ”
And McKnight?
“It’s one game,” he said. “And adversity, that cliché of adversity making you stronger and just keep your head up.
“You know you’re eventually going to get your kicks. It’s one of those things where you have to stay confident. You always forget your last kick, whether it was a good one or a bad one. The only thing important is the next one.”
Dales can relate to McKnight’s rough career start. His first punt, against the Toronto Argonauts on Canada Day in 2005, is one he’d like to forget. “I shanked one 17 yards off the side of my foot. That wasn’t a great one,” he said. “But again, it’s one kick, it’s one game, and I’ve always been a strong believer in one kick, one game, one season doesn’t define you as an athlete or define your career.
“It’s about how you bounce back and hit the next one.”
coleary@edmontonjournal.com
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