What are you looking forward to in London?
We're looking forward to five days with no kids. As much as we love them, it will be nice to not have to be attentive to the kiddos 24/7. It's going to be an awesome experience. We're flying directly to London and on Sunday evening, I will be a guest analyst on Sky Sports, helping out with both divisional games on Sunday. That will be the Chiefs and Steelers, as well as the Packers-Cowboys game. That should be a fun, new experience for me.
How did this trip come about?
Fitz Ollison, who is in our organization, reached out to me. I guess somebody reached out to him about players who might be interested. My family is from England, so there's a lot of cool things about going to London for me personally. Obviously, it will be a cool experience for a lot of different people. Having that family tie. Being a specialist, the kickers get a little more love over there, so it kind of made sense.
We heard you had your first lesson punting with a rugby ball?
Yeah. Many, many years ago, I must have been eight years old, nine years old, 10 years old, 20 years ago at least, my Uncle Charlie, who is in North East Linconshire, which is about four hours north of London, he was coaching his sons about rugby. That was kind of the first time I ever learned to punt something other than a soccer ball, so that's kind of where it all started.
Any stories or advice about playing overseas?
The time change is a big deal, especially during the season. You kind of get into a routine and that routine is usually important for me. You just try not to do much different than you normally do. As exciting as some of the extracurricular activities may be when we go over there, to be honest, I'll probably try to duck out and not do too much out of my normal routine and just make sure it's business-first. You prepare like it's any other game and kind of block out all the other distractions. That's kind of the first key to success to playing well out there.
On sightseeing and visiting London…
This will actually be my 21st trip to England, just with my family and always going back and forth growing up. I've been over there many times and I've seen all the sites. I've actually never been to Scotland, so I'm looking forward to that. This will just be a really neat experience because we'll get to meet a lot of the NFL fans over there that are, because of their lack opportunities to see games personally, their fandom is strong. The game is growing in popularity very rapidly over there, so it will be exciting to meet some big-time fans.
Since you're familiar with England, what advice would you give to teammates and fans who will go there?
London is a booming tourist area. There's loads of things to do there. The area you don't want to go for is the food, compared to New Orleans with probably the best food in the world. There's a lot of things to do, a lot of people compare it to going to New York City. Obviously, everyone has a little different accent over there. There's so much to do, so anytime you get the chance to go somewhere new, and see new things and meet different people, I think it's a great experience. So if you're capable and able to do it, I think it's a great experience. If you're a Saints fan, it's a great excuse to go somewhere new.
