Elliot Fry has been part of the Chicago Bears kicking competition since it began back in early May. He, like the other eight who started it, thought he knew what he was getting into when things began at rookie minicamps. Just practice well, hit as many kicks as possible and then hope you get picked right? It didn’t take long to realize he may have bitten off more than he could chew.
Fry was the most experienced of any kicker involved but not even that could prepare him for what the Bears coaching staff had in store. It started with 43-yard kicks at the end of practice with the entire team watching. Then it was a game of whoever misses first with the loser forcing his side of the team to do extra work. Then it was trying to kick through narrowed uprights rather than NFL standard.
With OTAs about over, things took on a new twist. The Bears switched from heckling by teammates to utter and total quiet during kicks. “Augusta Silence” as special teams coordinator Chris Tabor calls it. It sounds nerve-racking to even think about. So one can imagine what Fry, Eddy Pineiro, and Chris Blewitt are going through.
The young kicker didn’t need a ton of words to sum up his state of mind.
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Elliot Fry perfectly encapsulates the mental status of these kickers
One of the things that are often viewed as a misguided endeavor is trying to make players feel comfortable. The less they have to think about, the better they’ll play. Except this isn’t the case. There is plenty of proof out there that it is the battle-tested men who excel the most in professional sports. Players who had to go through a lot to get where they are.
This means they’ll fight even harder to keep what they’ve won.
This is what the mentality the Bears are instilling into these young men. They don’t want them feeling comfortable. Quite the opposite. They want pressure. They want stress. This way the kicker who delivers the most consistently will have proven they can handle tough atmosphere, which they’ll inevitably see when they’re called upon in close games.
Fry sounds like a man who is in survival mode. He’s just trying to take things day by day and roll with the punches. One false step and he gets knocked out. This is where that experience and the long road traveled to the NFL may end up serving him well.