The Shape of the NFL: Jamie Gillan

On Seeing, A Journal. #484

The SHAPE of the NFL: Jamie Gillan

Punter, New York Giants

June 28, 2022

Photographed and interviewed, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New York City.

Jamie Gillan came to the studio recently. He is 24 years of age, 6’ 1″ tall and weighs 207 lbs.

Interview:

Jamie Gillan: I am from Scotland. My father, was in the Royal Air Force. He transferred to a desk job because the UK Government basically got rid of the nimrods, which is what he was flying. Then a job opened up in America in Maryland. He said, “We’re going to America.” They pulled me out of boarding school, which at the time, I was pretty upset about, because I was on an athletic scholarship to play rugby. We had the best rugby team in Scotland.

When I came to the States, I went from the best rugby to some really poor rugby, and then that’s when the idea of American football presented.

I’m not the brightest pigeon ever. Punting was my avenue to get a college education. I got a full scholarship, and a four-year degree with my leg.

I miss rugby, but I had this goal:  I’m gonna sacrifice four years of rugby and gonna get paid to kick a football. I worked really hard for four years at college.

With my NY Giants contract I can not play rugby or really do anything. The money I make playing American football can set my future family up for a lifetime. I have an opportunity to do something that I’m good at, be around fantastic people and make a really good living and save.  Money, in my mind, buys you freedom, which allows time with family, and family’s really important to me.

If I have kids, I can be with them. I can help them. I can go into coaching and help other people with, the ebbs and flows of sports. Back home playing rugby, I wouldn’t have been paid a quarter of what American football players get paid. It is an opportunity thrown my way and I’ve taken it and run with it.

HS: Is there’s certain psyche or personality common to punters?

JG:​ You’ll have one kicker who is extremely superstitious, and another kicker who might have a mindset similar to a neurosurgeon; he wants everyone to bow down to him because he thinks he’s in the NFL and hot crap. There are other punters who are happy go-lucky and work hard.  I’ve met punters that seriously don’t give a hoot about it, and met some punters that are so mechanical and focused on their job you, you almost can’t talk to them.

HS:  How do you get better? How do you increase the hang time and distance of your kicks?

JG​:  You can always get better.  In the NFL, it, almost becomes your job to nitpick yourself and to figure out how to get to the next 1%. The key is figuring out how to consistently stay on top of your game and improve the little things. For example, I tend to punt balls to the right, jam myself, and over-stride that second step, so I concentrate on catching the ball out in front of me. Punters that play for 12 years don’t necessarily have the longest punts or the highest hang time.  Essentially they are consistently above average every time.

Practice for me means working on punting the ball well, staying always focused on one or two things at practice. When it’s my time to kick, I don’t think about anything. I clear my head, I put a smile on my face, and I just kick the ball. When I’m not punting, I work on fundamentals. I’ll ask my long snapper, Casey, to underhand throw me 100 balls and I’ll work on catching it out in front of me, then dropping it to punt. I have a special teams coordinator, and he has been awesome. He stands back and observes. He tells me what he sees.

HS​: Do you practice missing, such as what to do if a ball’s dropped?

JG​: That’s actually interesting. I have never practiced failing. I’ve always practiced doing. Sure enough, first game last year, I dropped my first punt snap and instead of picking it up and punting it…because I had time, I ran, and ran to the wrong side, and got tackled. I was a big reason why we lost our home opener.I was talking to my coach at the time, Doug Colman. We never practiced the scenario of dropping the ball ever.  It’s just not something that goes through my mind, and the one time that I didn’t think about catching the ball, I was thinking about step two, and sure enough, I dropped it. All I can do from that situation is learn and grow and not be afraid of failing, which I’ve never been afraid of. I think that’s a big thing for my mindset as well.

HS​: What is the weight training for punters? JG: Weight training for me is an awesome release for myself. The endorphins that I get from working out just tops everything. It’s just a feeling I can’t explain. I love it. I’ve got strength training, explosive training, flexibility and being supple and mobility training.

HS​: What’s the hardest thing about being an NFL player?

JG​: For me personally, dealing with people who aren’t good people, to be absolutely honest with you. Dealing with some not very good human beings. Coaches, players, administrators, executives. And then when you get lucky, like me with the Giants right now; everybody in that building is brilliant. Very family orientated. Treat everybody how you wanna be treated, and it’s been awesome.

I train hard so I don’t let my team down. I try as much as possible to stay in the moment, not dwell on the past or think too far in the future. I just try to enjoy what I’m doing at this moment in the time.

I asked my assistant Russ Heller to make a few videos demonstrating Jamie’s punting and my method for keeping equipment and studio protected. I enlisted Jamie’s NFL agent, Bardia Ghahremani, the fellow in the blue shirt, to assist us by holding the “C” stand with the net. Click the image below to watch a short clip of the punt.

Great work, Jamie. I wish you good luck.

These are a few short vignettes from the extensive interview I did with Bardia who was generous, informative and fascinating:

“The three qualities I look for in a player are that they have to be humble, hungry, and smart. If they don’t have one of those three, I will walk away from them.”