Nick Folk kicked the game-winning field goal Sunday for the New York Jets against the Detroit Lions even though he didn’t know it was actually going to win the game.
“That,” Folk said with a smile in an interview with the New York Post, “is why that might have been the worst game-winning celebration ever. When I made it, I turned to go get ready to kick off. Then I saw everyone running onto the field and was like, ‘OK, we won. Woo hoo.’
In his defense, he thought that the NFL’s new overtime rule – which gives each team a possession in overtime – was in effect for the regular season when in reality that rule will only be applied during the postseason.
Either way, his thought process is fun.
“I saw that it was second down and I’m doing my pre-kick routine and Mike [special teams coach Mike Westhoff] yells over to me, ‘Come on, we’re kicking,’ ” Folk said. “I was thinking, ‘It’s only third down. Shouldn’t we be trying to score a touchdown?’
“This is what I thought: We needed a touchdown [to win the game]. A field goal was obviously good, but I thought [the Lions] would have one possession to either kick a field goal to tie or score a touchdown to win it.”
This would have been a great episode of Hard Knocks, I think.