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00:00Super Bowl 59 live from New Orleans right here at Media and Radio Row down
00:05here right side along with Blake Rupey, Saints member right here. Blake how we
00:08feeling today man? Hey I'm loving it this is a this is a wild day and I'm sure
00:12it's gonna heat up later on in the week. Absolutely now I'm a northern guy I've
00:16never been to New Orleans this is my first time you are here this is your
00:20city what should we be doing with ourselves? I'll tell you what there's
00:23about anything you could want to eat, do, find in this city. I personally am I'm a
00:29small-town guy I like doing outdoors so you know maybe a swamp tour or something
00:33you can go you can go check out I might be able to have a number for you there
00:36yep but yeah I've done and I've been here for two years now and got my
00:42girlfriend down here so I don't know if I'm a local yet but we're starting to
00:45figure it out. Hey look I'm sure they treat you like a local down here no
00:48doubt about it now if I had one place to eat or one type of food to eat in New
00:51Orleans like what are we eating? There is everything like I said I'm a big
00:55steak guy and two steakhouses I'd probably point you towards Desi Vega
01:00yeah right there okay you know it's right off of Poitras close and then
01:05Braza there's a Braza on Canal Street. That's where we're at. Yep I would I would go
01:10check that out it's kind of like a South American type steakhouse yep they got
01:13some good stuff I would point you there. A little interesting twist now let's get
01:16into it too for anybody that doesn't know Blake NFL kicker which I got to start here with
01:20this we're gonna get to the background I can't imagine what goes through your
01:24mind I'm not even talking about a game-winning field goal but I'm just
01:26talking about lining up a 37 yarder where it's just you out there how do you
01:31get that mindset? Usually what goes through your mind is not a whole lot
01:34yeah you know to be real honest that's why you develop your routines yeah and
01:39you know that's kind of what helps bridge that gap between just kicking on
01:43your own in practice yep and then you know when the whole world's watching on
01:46Sunday so you master that routine and you just
01:50engulf yourself in that routine that's all you're worried about and you know it
01:53helps tune out I guess everything else that's around it now let's take it
01:56through the mind of an athlete as well when you were a kid always wanted to be
02:00a kicker did you play football did you play soccer like how did you make this
02:03your expertise yeah I played peewee football yeah I was a heck of a running
02:06back running back there you go little Christian McCaffrey yeah I was on the Rams
02:10back then but no my parents are both college athletes my dad actually went to
02:15school same school my dad went to go play soccer yeah title nine came in
02:19shut down the soccer program yes in his fraternity he had a bunch of football
02:23guys yeah and they didn't like their kicker yeah so so he went and walked on
02:27mm-hmm never actually played it down but that's how kind of I got my start my mom
02:31was a gymnast down there yeah so you know my dad likes to say and everybody
02:35tell my dad that I get my athleticism for my mom ability yeah but no they went
02:39to Southeast Missouri State so I got that's kind of where we got the kicking
02:41background I always thought I was gonna play college soccer yeah and went
02:46through the whole route of traveling around I played some pretty you know not
02:48the highest level but I mean I pretty played some pretty high level stuff and
02:52club soccer and then you pretty soon pretty basically just show up on Fridays
02:56in high school and kick yep I had one walk-on offer to Arkansas State and I
03:00was like you know not many people care about college soccer a lot of people
03:03care about college football you know so I went down that road took my one walk
03:07on offer with really no idea what I was getting myself into made a lot of
03:12mistakes along the way have a competition for that walk-on spot as a
03:15kicker another guy you were going well I mean hey I I've registered I didn't
03:19my first year and then actually got the job three or four games into my freshman
03:25year yeah I went like 60-something percent yeah like I said I messed up a
03:28lot before I really figured it out yeah brought in a guy on scholarship to take
03:32my place and somehow beat him out somehow it got good and just kind of
03:35been climbing the ladder since a way to do it now you did go to Notre Dame your
03:38seniors that I did tell me about going from Arkansas State which again
03:42division one program to the most recognizable college football program in
03:45the country yeah I mean I was obviously the portal has become what it is now and
03:49I feel like I was like in stage one of the portal you know yeah but I transferred
03:53there I got to see college football at a major stage which I didn't you know
03:57Arkansas State obviously like you said division one but two different sides of
04:00the ball here you know completely different so you know went through some
04:03things I had to figure out there and and you know you self-actualization and
04:07really you know believing that I could be I could be a part of there and and
04:10you know had had a good year nothing crazy led me to being undrafted and and
04:15next thing you know I'm in New Orleans and you know we're finished with two
04:17years of my NFL career so it's been a wild ride I love it now when you get to
04:21the NFL and I'm just talking about the journey to the NFL from your last
04:24college game to how you prepared and how you made the team because being a kicker
04:28most people can see that you're expendable here how did you hang on with
04:31New Orleans like how did they make you the kicker there you know you have to
04:34believe you are the guy give them no choice you know obviously you make kicks
04:38and it's simple make your kicks and you'll stick around so you know you just
04:42you can't you got to do everything you possibly can in your ability to show
04:45what you can do and and show that you're the guy and then that you're the
04:48guy that they can trust toughest place to kick in the NFL you've had so far
04:51where is it I would say Lambeau and MetLife are up there Lambeau got me my
04:56my rookie year yeah and then MetLife got me this last year you know we have four
05:00misses this year out of 31 and two of them were at MetLife with a 53 and a 60
05:05so tough day there but you know that's why you learn and get better and and so
05:09definitely those outdoor colder weather make everybody kick in a dome yeah I
05:14think you would agree I would be a big fan of the New Orleans Saints right here
05:17great kicker in the NFL thanks for joining us today on Radio Row awesome
05:20thank you for having me thank you