‘Our kicker’s got some swag.’ On Harrison Butker’s career day in the Chiefs’ win
In the defensive corner of the Chiefs’ locker room Sunday, safeties Daniel Sorensen and Tyrann Mathieu struck up a conversation about the final moments of Sunday’s win. About the conclusion of a three-game home losing streak.
About the kicker.
The keyed first on Harrison Butker’s celebration. Then his four made field goals, specifically the two he kicked in the final two and a half minutes of the game. And then some of the emotions Butker exhibited after the football knuckled through the uprights as time expired, sealing Kansas City’s 26-23 win at Arrowhead Stadium.
“You see the way he ran off?” Sorensen said with a grin.
“Yeah, man,” Mathieu replied. “Our kicker’s got some swag.”
“He’s clutch,” Sorensen said.
“Two kicks like that in a row?” Mathieu said. “That’s big-time.”
On a day in which Tyreek Hill out-paced every human being in an NFL uniform this season, in which backup quarterback Matt Moore won his first football game in two seasons just months after coaching a high school football team, in which the Chiefs held the league’s leading rusher to 71 yards, the story was the kicker.
Each of Butker’s four made field goals was delivered under more pressure than the last. His third — with 2:30 on the clock — sat 54 yards from the goal posts and tied the game. His last — from 44 yards away — had enough power to drive through the fingertip of a defensive lineman.
And it won the game.
As a pair of referees’ arms lifted into the air, Butker took off running in the opposite direction. That’s something he learned from his days a soccer player, he quipped: score and then run away. He celebrated with quarterback injured star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who had sprinted off the sideline.
And then with the rest of his teammates.
“Just enjoying this moment,” Butker said.
At the conclusion of their post-game conversation recapping Butker’s sequence — and the kicker’s swag — Mathieu halfheartedly said he planned to buy Butker a gold chain with his No. 7 on it.
Mathieu owns the same one from his college days at LSU.
And to think — it all came this close to never happening. Because of the lack of spin on the football, Butker assumed the kick got tipped, and Vikings defensive lineman Danielle Hunter confirmed as much after the game. He busted through the line and got an ever-so-slight touch on the ball.
And Butker’s cleat connected with the ground directly before kicking the football, typically a good sign that the ball will travel end over end. But then he looked up and saw otherwise.
“It was kinda going crazy,” he said. “But it was going straight. So it’s just, is it going to have the distance or not. Luckily, it did.
“Like I said, I’m going with (that) it got blocked. I’ve never hit a kick that looked that weird and was that low.”
Butker’s game-winner will make the final highlight reel. But it was simply the fitting end to his best day of the 2019 season, arriving on the heels of a frustrating miss against Green Bay.
Butker nailed three kicks in the final 16 minutes Sunday, providing all of the Chiefs’ points in that span. Late in the third quarter, he lined one up on the right hash with the wind moving from right to left — conditions nearly identical to the attempt he missed one week earlier against Green Bay.
“Same kick I missed last game,” he said. “So I was really pumped up I made that. We worked that same kick really hard in practice, so that set us up to be in a good position.”
The game-tying kick followed a sack that seemingly pushed the Chiefs to the outer limit of field-goal range. Butker blasted it through with enough leg to feel his range could later reach 60, if needed.
The Chiefs needed only 44 on this one.
“Big ups to Butker, man,” Mathieu said. “Two big-time kicks. I’ve seen him make kicks all year, going back to the spring. He’s so committed to his craft. For him to have that opportunity, it’s big-time.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2019 at 5:55 PM with the headline "‘Our kicker’s got some swag.’ On Harrison Butker’s career day in the Chiefs’ win."