Chiefs’ Harrison Butker overcomes miss to seal Super Bowl 2023 win
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Harrison Butker grew up an Adam Vinatieri fan, and anyone with a firm grasp of the early Patriots dynasty understood that Vinatieri, the kicker, was always one of the toughest players on Bill Belichick’s team.
So there Butker was in the final seconds of Super Bowl 2023, the score tied and the world waiting to see if he could boot the Kansas City Chiefs to a championship. One of the NFL’s most reliable kickers, Butker had injured his ankle in the season opener in this very building, State Farm Stadium, causing him to miss some games and to tweak his technique.
“The only reason he had problems [this year] was the high ankle sprain, and that’s rough on a kicker, especially on that front leg,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “And so it was a matter of just getting through that, and the tweaks that that thing presents to you really for the rest of the season from when he was hurt.”
Overcoming all of that was one thing. Overcoming an early field-goal miss in the Super Bowl is quite another.
But sure enough, on his first field-goal attempt against the Eagles, Butker pulled his 42-yarder and bounced if off the left upright, leaving him to confront an unforgiving truth on the sideline.
“You’ve got to focus on the next kick, and that’s what I was doing,” Butker said. “You do look at the scoreboard and think, ‘Wow, if I did make that field goal, we’d have three more points.’ But is that going to help me make the next kick? Probably not. You’ve got to get that out of your mind and just focus on the process and the next opportunity you get.”
And that opportunity came when the Chiefs executed their decisive drive in the final minutes, refusing to take the touchdown that was there and choosing to bleed the clock and try the field goal instead. It was only a 27-yarder, a gimme. But with the Super Bowl on the line, try telling a kicker who had missed an earlier attempt that anything is a gimme with 100 million or so people watching.
Butker handled the pressure like the pro’s pro he is. He nailed the kick, and soon enough the Chiefs were celebrating and the confetti was flying.
“I didn’t grow up a kicker, but it’s hard not to notice a kicker like Adam Vinatieri,” Butker said. “And as a kicker, that’s how you get noticed — those big kicks and those big moments. It’s just very surreal to be sitting here right now to have won a second Super Bowl in six seasons and to have it come down to a field goal.”
Why did Butker have the poise to win a Super Bowl in Vinatieri form?
“Normally the kickers aren’t the toughest guys,” Reid said. “But this one here, he’s a tough nut, man.”
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