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<\/p>\nOn the night before a Lions game, kicker Jake Bates is feeling twitchy.<\/p>\n
Of course he is.<\/p>\n
The first field goal he ever made at any level was last year. In 37 college games at Texas State and Arkansas, he made more tackles \u2014 two \u2014 than field goals \u2014 zero. In his high school career, Bates attempted two field goals and missed both.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s thinking about kicking in a stadium in front of 70,000 fans, maybe with the game on the line.<\/p>\n
He knows what will make him calm.<\/p>\n
At the Lions hotel, he meets with the team clinician, who instructs him to close his eyes and walk through the hours leading up to the game so that when the time comes, it will be as if he has been there before.<\/p>\n
After dinner, he hits the ice cream bar, preparing a bowl so enormous that it\u2019s a topic of conversation among teammates. He loads up the bowl with brownies, broken-up Oreos, waffle cone pieces, caramel and whipped cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, it\u2019s the biggest bowl of ice cream I think I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d says Lions punter Jack Fox, who is also Bates\u2019 holder. \u201cIt\u2019s like a five-scoop bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thing is, Bates usually eats cleanly and abstains from sweets \u2014 except on the night before a game. To him, that bowl of ice cream is like a deep breath.<\/p>\n
In the morning, there are rituals.<\/p>\n
He arrives at the stadium and walks onto the field in street clothes.<\/p>\n
In the locker room, it must be sock on the right foot, shoe on the right foot, sock on the left foot, shoe on the left foot.<\/p>\n
Before he warms up, he sits on the field with his eyes closed. \u201cIt\u2019s feeling the ground and almost trying to connect my mind to the turf,\u201d he says. As he does it, he envisions what the game will be like.<\/p>\n
He loosens up, listening to music, soothing music, slower songs from Lauren Daigle, Larry Fleet and Needtobreathe.<\/p>\n
Back in the locker room, he avoids conversation. Everyone knows to leave him alone, like a baseball pitcher working on a no-no.<\/p>\n
The last thing Bates does before heading out to the field is read a Bible verse in which the apostle Paul exhorts the Hebrews to \u201cthrow off everything that hinders.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Bates prepares for the opening kickoff, he\u2019s not twitchy anymore.<\/p>\n
People everywhere are wondering what he\u2019s doing here.<\/p>\n
Jake Bates, though, has no doubt he\u2019s where he\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n
Bates family lore tells a story about 18-month-old Jake. His brother, Cole, who was 18 months older, signed up to play on a YMCA soccer team. Jake had to have a uniform like Cole, and managed to take the field while the family was watching one of Cole\u2019s games. From then on, he was the team\u2019s goalie, making both saves and fans.<\/p>\n
At 10, he began playing club soccer in Tomball, Texas. By then, he had the leg strength of someone who had been born on the planet Krypton.<\/p>\n
At a soccer camp at Texas A&M, the speed of the participants\u2019 kicks was measured with a radar gun. Bates, who was matched with older kids, had the fastest kick.<\/p>\n
As an 11-year-old, he became a starter on Cole\u2019s team of 13-year-olds. He began playing academy soccer at 14. He once hit a free kick from about 40 yards that defied physics\u2019 laws \u2014 rising over the wall, bending hard and going in upper 90. A video of it went viral.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like then-teammate Chris Richards, left, Jake Bates was on the fast track in soccer, but he eventually got burned out on the sport and wanted to try football. (Courtesy of Mariana Bates)<\/p>\n
Eventually, he became the right center back for Texans SC. The left center back was Chris Richards, who now plays for Crystal Palace of the Premier League as well as the United States national team.<\/p>\n
Richards was taller, faster and more athletic, but Bates made plays, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would put him up against anybody as a center back, but that\u2019s from mother eyes,\u201d his mom, Mariana, says. \u201cWe\u2019ve said all along he could be playing at that (Premier League) level with Chris. What he lacked in speed, he made up for in knowing angles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair led their team to the national championship in 2017.<\/p>\n
On his soccer team at Tomball High, Bates earned all-district first-team honors and was voted offensive MVP of his team.<\/p>\n
He started as a freshman and sophomore at the University of Central Arkansas. He scored a goal on the road in the 82nd minute to beat Missouri State for the ASUN conference championship in 2018.<\/p>\n
Bates loved playing soccer.<\/p>\n
Until he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kind of burned out on it,\u201d his mom says.<\/p>\n
It can happen when you\u2019ve been consumed by something for 18 of your 20 years. Bates told himself playing somewhere else would relight the fire. Rutgers offered a spot; he said no. His dream was to play for SMU, and then they finally wanted him. But soccer just didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n
He walked away.<\/p>\n
Bates played football his senior year of high school and was the second-string kicker to a sophomore. The two kickers kept in touch, and after Bates was done with soccer, he practiced his field goal kicking with his friend for fun.<\/p>\n
Then he started thinking about ways he could kick in college. He sent highlight videos to every college coach he could. One responded, and he was given an opportunity at Texas State.<\/p>\n
His only job was kickoffs. Before his first game, he listened to agitating music that he thought would pump him up. One of the assistant coaches pounded his forehead into Bates\u2019 for motivation. Then Bates kicked his first kickoff as hard as he could \u2014 and \u201cduck hooked\u201d it out of bounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I learned,\u201d he says, \u201cis I have to do what I can to stay as calm as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembered that lesson when he transferred to Arkansas, where his 64 touchbacks were third most in the country in 2022.<\/p>\n
The Razorbacks\u2019 field goal kicker was future Jacksonville Jaguar Cam Little, and he knew better than almost anyone about Bates\u2019 potential. Little convinced independent kicking coach Adam Tanalski to give Bates a spot at Hammer Kicking Academy, where Little and others trained in preparation for the draft.<\/p>\n
The first couple of days at the camp, Bates felt pressure to prove he belonged.<\/p>\n
He kicked like he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking I can\u2019t make a kick,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was shockingly bad. I walked away from some practices thinking I must be the worst kicker in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
After one awful practice, he called his father, Jonathan, and told him he was out of his league. Then he got on LinkedIn to look for a real-world job.<\/p>\n
Tanalski eventually helped settle and refine him, and Bates made it through nine weeks in the program.<\/p>\n
Bates wasn\u2019t drafted, but a few months later in training camp, Texans kicker Ka\u2019imi Fairbairn strained his quadriceps. The Texans needed a kicker to fill in for a preseason game, so they signed Bates, whom they knew was living close by and had been to the team\u2019s local pro day.<\/p>\n
Against the Patriots, Bates attempted three extra points, missing one. He was released two days later when Fairbairn was ready to return.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he finally gave up on football.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Jake Bates, flanked by his father, Jonathan, and mother, Mariana, joined the football team as a senior in high school. He could not have predicted then where the sport would take him. (Courtesy of Mariana Bates)<\/p>\n
Bates points to the wall next to him and identifies a brick. He believes it\u2019s a \u201cutility\u201d brick. It\u2019s red \u2014 one of about 50 shades of red brick, he says. He knows because he took a job selling bricks for Acme Brick in the fall of 2023. When he joined the company, he told his boss he was done kicking, and he meant it. This, he thought, would be his \u201cgrown-up job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three weeks later, that changed.<\/p>\n
As the general manager of the UFL\u2019s Michigan Panthers, Steve Kazor doesn\u2019t have a budget to scout the country. But he looks for reasons to drive to nearby schools from his home in Texas. One weekend in the fall of 2022, he dropped off his wife, Colleen, at her sister\u2019s house in Arkansas. Then he drove to Arkansas to take in a practice.<\/p>\n
His eyes opened wide when a kicker hit the upright from his own 30-yard line on a kickoff. The school\u2019s pro liaison showed Kazor tape of the kicker hitting the upright three times on kickoffs.<\/p>\n
As Kazor prepared for the 2024 season, he and Panthers head coach Mike Nolan wanted to add a kickoff specialist. Kazor, who coached special teams in the NFL for 14 years, thought about the kicker he saw at Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Bates\u2019 agent, Marty Magid, showed Kazor more tape of Bates, and Kazor signed him, thinking he would be a kickoff specialist only, with another kicker handling field goals and extra points. In training camp, Bates\u2019 kickoffs were spectacular. And he also nailed field goal after field goal.<\/p>\n
The Panthers wouldn\u2019t need two kickers after all.<\/p>\n
Late in the season opener, Michigan trailed St. Louis 16-15. With three seconds to play, Bates attempted \u2014 and hit \u2014 a 64-yard field goal. But the opponent had called a timeout.<\/p>\n
Then he hit it again.<\/p>\n
That 64-yard game-winner was the first field goal he made in his life. If it had happened in the NFL, at the time, it would have tied for the second-longest ever behind Justin Tucker\u2019s 66-yarder.<\/p>\n
Later that season, he also hit a 62-yard field goal and a 60-yarder in games. In practice, with the help of a friendly breeze, he made one from 75 yards.<\/p>\n
When the UFL season ended, teams contacted Magid to request tryouts. Magid refused. Bates didn\u2019t need to try out. The Chiefs, Colts, Ravens and Cardinals were interested. Then the Commanders, Lions and Packers made offers. Bates visited all three.<\/p>\n
The Lions offered one of the best contracts ever for a street free agent \u2014 two years, $1.98 million, with $150,000 guaranteed. And they offered more, including a championship-caliber roster, a culture that made him feel he belonged and a schedule that featured 15 of 17 games indoors.<\/p>\n
They seemed perfect for him \u2014 except for the presence of Michael Badgley, who had gone three-for-three on field goals in the previous postseason for Detroit, including nailing a 54-yard game-winner against the Rams.<\/p>\n
Then Badgley tore his hamstring early in camp.<\/p>\n
Many assumed another kicker would be signed, but Lions special teams coach Dave Fipp believed fiercely in Bates and told anyone who would listen they needed to buy in on him. Head coach Dan Campbell trusted Fipp. That meant no training camp competition.<\/p>\n
There were skeptics, but being underestimated probably was beneficial for Bates. \u201cHe\u2019s so determined to prove people wrong who didn\u2019t think he was good enough,\u201d Fipp says.<\/p>\n
In training camp, however, Bates wasn\u2019t good enough. In one practice, he missed six of 14 attempts, including his last one, a 40-yarder that was supposed to lead to an overtime segment. After that practice, he called his then-fiancee, Presley Folkert, who became his wife in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting cut tomorrow,\u201d he told her. \u201cThere\u2019s no way they can keep me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of cutting Bates, Campbell told him he didn\u2019t need to be perfect. Fipp told him to focus on one kick and only one \u2014 the next. Teammates never sniped at him.<\/p>\n
That wouldn\u2019t have happened on some teams. Probably most teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had so many people telling me I would be OK, calm down, I\u2019ll figure it out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In the first preseason game, he kicked a 53-yard field goal in bad weather against the Giants. Bates started to think he could do this. Then a 30-yard field goal attempt went wide right.<\/p>\n
Before the miss, he told himself, \u201cDon\u2019t miss it, don\u2019t miss it, don\u2019t miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fipp encouraged positive thoughts. \u201cYou never want to say, \u2018Don\u2019t miss,\u2019\u201d he told him. \u201cYou want to say, \u2018Put it through the middle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Jake Bates believes his intense preparation helps him make up for his lack of experience. (David Reginek \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
The following week, Campbell held a \u201cfowling\u201d tournament for his team. Fowling is a cross between football and bowling, in which participants try to knock over pins by throwing a football at them.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the Lions saw something in Bates they didn\u2019t realize was there \u2014 a shark. You don\u2019t always find it in players who are supposed to be hunters, but it clearly was there in the kicker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bigger the throw, the more he was on,\u201d Fipp says. \u201cYou could see his focus and lock in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bates\u2019 team \u2014 he was with then-long snapper Scott Daly and assistant special teams coach Jett Modkins \u2014 advanced to the championship game before losing in sudden death.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Fipp pulled aside Campbell. \u201cDude,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is something about this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell and Fipp were feeling good but thinking soberly. Their plan for Bates was to gradually build his confidence early in the season with easy kicks. His first field goal attempt in the season opener was a 25-yarder. Then, with 17 seconds remaining and the Lions trailing the Rams by three, they needed him to hit a 32-yarder. He delivered and the Lions won in overtime.<\/p>\n
In his first four games, Bates wasn\u2019t asked to kick a field goal longer than 35 yards, and he didn\u2019t attempt a kick beyond 48 yards until his seventh game. He made his first 19 attempts, the second-longest streak to begin a career in NFL history.<\/p>\n
You know Campbell was tempted to see Bates boom. During a team practice period, Bates hit a 68-yard field goal. When he was kicking on the side, he nailed a 70-yarder. Then there was a two-minute drill, and Bates kicked a field goal of about 50 yards. Not only did he drill the ball through the uprights, but also he drilled it into the drywall behind the post, leaving a hole in the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was repaired the next day, but there is probably still a mark,\u201d Fox says.<\/p>\n
Fipp, a 17-year NFL veteran, says Bates has the most powerful leg he\u2019s ever seen.<\/p>\n
Fipp often stands behind Bates when he\u2019s kicking in practice. \u201cEvery time I look at him getting ready to approach the ball, I see this huge quad hanging off the side of his leg,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, damn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bates\u2019 leg strength is so explosive that he can dunk a basketball. He says he is 6-feet-1, not 5-10 as he\u2019s listed, however. It\u2019s just another way he\u2019s underestimated.<\/p>\n
Bates says some of his leg strength is \u201cGod\u2019s gift.\u201d But he enhances the gift with an elaborate stretching routine that takes up an hour every night, year-round.<\/p>\n
His stretching also might have brought him more attention than any of his field goals, as cameras caught him looking somewhat sensual while trying to loosen a knot in his hip by rolling on a soft massage ball during a game in San Francisco. His routine became a meme, and a carpet company used a photo of him stretching on a billboard with the promise, \u201cCARPET LAID TOMORROW.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the season went on, Bates also drew more attention for field goals. Against the Texans, he hit a 58-yarder to tie the game with five minutes left, and then a 52-yarder to win as time expired. It was one of three game-winners he kicked.<\/p>\n
JAKE. BATES. CALLED. GAME. #DETvsHOU<\/a> | \ud83d\udcfa NBC pic.twitter.com\/fSa4NBaZsP<\/a><\/p>\n