By Mark Eckel, Player Engagement Insider
If Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby ever forgets his first NFL game, and it’s doubtful he ever will, he can just check the photos he still has from it.
“It feels like a long time ago, but I remember it vividly,’’ Crosby said.
His first NFL game came in 2007 when as a rookie sixth-round Draft pick out of Colorado, he beat out veteran Dave Rayner for the Packers’ kicking job. Opening day was against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field and it was a memorable one.
All Crosby did that day was kick a 53-yard field goal on his first-ever NFL attempt, hit a 37-yarder to tie the game13-13 at the end of the third quarter, and then a 42-yarder with 0:02 on the clock to win it, 16-13.
“I couldn’t have had a better game to start my career,’’ Crosby said nine years later.
It would have been hard to top, especially with everything else that happened along the way.
“I knew I was coming in trying to unseat an incumbent in Dave Rayner,’’ Crosby said. “And they made us work. We competed. We kicked a lot of balls that summer. I felt I earned that spot. Through that process, that development, I felt confident going into the season.
“So having a game like that Eagles’ game to come out the gate. I knew I needed to perform, do my job, and just do what they brought me in to do.’’
And that’s what he did, through some tough circumstances that first game.
“That day was interesting,’’ Crosby said “We had every type of weather event. It was rainy and windy, then the sun came out, then it got cloudy, all this different stuff happening.
“But I remember that 53-yarder for a lot of reasons. I go out there and I got set for it, and our snapper, Rob Davis (now the Packers director of Player Engagement), he gets the ball, puts his hand on it, and some paint from a previous kick must had gotten on the ball. His hand slipped. He stands up and requests a new ball. I’m set for this 53-yarder and he stands up and pretty much calls time and ices me.
“We get a new ball. I go through the process again, perfect snap, perfect hold, and I nailed it through.’’
The 53-yard kick, at the time, was the longest ever by a kicker attempting his first NFL field goal.
But that wasn’t his most important kick of the day. That came after the Packers recovered a muffed punt by the Eagles late in the fourth quarter.
“We have a chance to win it at the end,’’ Crosby said. “When you’re a rookie kicker and (quarterback) Brett Favre takes a knee and says, ‘you’re going to win this for us.’ And now he runs past you as you run on the field, a Hall of Famer, he kind of gives you a high five and looks at you, it kind of heightens the situation.’’
Crosby didn’t let his quarterback or the rest of his teammates down. He nailed his third kick of the day and the Packers were 1-0 on the season.
“There are a bunch of cool pictures from that kick; I have some of them,’’ Crosby said “(The Eagles) rushed hard. They actually had two guys off the edge, most teams don’t do that, but they were coming hard to block it. We managed to get it through.’’
When your career gets off to that kind of start, what do you do for an encore? For Crosby, who begins his 10th season with the Packers in 2016, there have been plenty of great moments, but that first game is still unforgettable.
“There’s that moment right after the game,’’ he said “The first feeling is, I want to do that again every week. Then as you flow through the course of the season and you realize this is a grind. It’s not all exciting moments all the time. I learned a lot that first year, I really did. But that was a great way to start, to kick-start my career.’’