New Cowboys kicker Brett Maher kept head down until dream was realized
Brett Maher never looked up long enough during training camp to notice whether he was closing the gap between him and the Dallas Cowboys’ field-goal kicker for the previous seven seasons. You may have heard of him: Dan Bailey. Only the NFL’s second-most accurate kicker in history.
Maher, who has never attempted a kick in the league, earned the job and replaced Bailey after, at the very least, matching Bailey kick for kick throughout the duration of camp. But until he got the call from Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Saturday, right around the time he heard the news that Bailey had been released, Maher was as in the dark as anyone outside the Cowboys’ front office.
“My blinders were on the whole time. I just tried to keep my head down, stay in my lane and be prepared,” said Maher, who apologized for the slew of clichés while talking to the media for the first time Wednesday afternoon for the first time since making the 53-man roster. “I know that’s boring for you guys but that’s truly what I tried to do.”
Maher called to share the life-changing news with his wife, Jenna, who is living with their two kids in Lincoln, Nebraska. Maher played for the Cornhuskers in 2012-13 and was in camp with Dallas after his senior season but Bailey, entering his third season in the NFL, kept a lock on the job.
Injuries, including a groin injury a year ago, might have contributed to a down year for Bailey.
The Cowboys made the decision to roll the dice that Maher has what it takes rather than rolling the dice that Bailey would rebound to the kicker he was two seasons ago.
Maher, who spent parts of four seasons in the Canadian Football League, received a bunch of well-wishes from friends up north when the roster was announced.
“I was happy to hear the news but at the same time I’ve been on the other side of it too,” Maher said. “I wish Dan nothing but the best. He’s been great to me since I got here. He’s a true professional and I understand what he’s meant to this organization.”
Did he think he had a real shot at beating out Bailey?
“I knew the only thing I could do was be prepared for every situation and take advantage of that and see where the chips fall at the end of it,” said Maher, who credits work with sports psychologist Andy Gillham in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for more than a year for helping him improve on the field.
“I felt like I’d always been a confident guy and a physically capable guy but I had been on the wrong side of it a few too many times for me to like. And I felt like physically I was capable of being in this league. That was kind of the one thing I hadn’t tapped into besides reading a few books and doing what I knew.”
Having a solid mental approach should serve him well the first time he lines up to kick, perhaps in the Cowboys’ season opener at Carolina on Sunday. And help him deal with any potential added pressure knowing he’s replacing the best kicker in Cowboys history.
“In this profession, every single thing you do is kind of pressure packed,” he said. “You never know when your time is going to come, when you’re going to get an opportunity and when you’re going to be on the wrong side of it. Especially at a position like this, every kick is so important and how this league shakes down every week, you have to maximize every opportunity you get.”
Making the team, Maher said, was as big a victory for his wife as it was for him.
“She’s the one who knows everything about my journey. She’s been through all of it with me,” Maher said of his wife of almost six years.
“We have two little kids as well. What she’s been able to do with our family and the kids to allow me to do this and pursue this has been awesome and she’s made a lot of sacrifices.”