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Q&A with kicker Dave Rayner
By Dylan Tomlinson
GreenBayPackers.com
October 7, 2006

This week's question and answer feature is with Green Bay Packers kicker Dave Rayner.
Question: You're an avid golfer. Is that something that's required of all kickers?
Answer: I do play a lot. I would say I'm avid.
Question: Which guys on this team have you played with?
Answer: I've played with Aaron Rodgers four or five times. I've played with (Mark) Tauscher. When Tom Arth was here, I played with him a bunch.
Question: Is Rodgers the best of the bunch?
Answer: Yeah. A-Rodg is good. He definitely hits the ball well.
Question: Your predecessor, Ryan Longwell, was the best golfer on the team. Is there some connection between kickers and golf?
Answer: I've heard he was an all-everything golfer. I would definitely say I'm not as good as he is.
Question: Any correlation between kicking and golfing?
Answer: I think there is. You want to keep your head down and follow through. I'm definitely a better kicker than I am a golfer.
Question: What's your handicap?
Answer: I probably average the mid-to-high 80s. I'm probably a 12-handicap.
Question: You played soccer and football in high school. How is one able to play two fall sports at the same time?
Answer: Our football coach was awesome. I would go to football practice for about an hour and a half, where I'd do all the special teams stuff, and then I'd leave and go to soccer practice. I did that for the first three years of high school and then my senior year, I quit soccer and just played football.
Question: What prompted you to quit soccer?
Answer: I had a scholarship offer to kick at Michigan State. I think I committed in August, and I didn't want to get hurt playing soccer. Then I played wide receiver during my senior year.
Question: Was that the first time you had done anything other than kick?
Answer: Right. I had fun with it.
Question: Do you miss soccer?
Answer: I do. I watched the World Cup. It's a good sport that was really good to me, and I played it for almost 15 years. I miss it sometimes.
Question: How much did playing soccer help you as a kicker?
Answer: A ton. My style is soccer style. When I was young, I started kicking that way and I still kick the same way today as I did 10 years ago.
Question: Who was your favorite NFL team growing up?
Answer: Probably the Lions, because I was in Detroit. I was a big Barry Sanders fan.
Question: So, Sanders was your favorite player?
Answer: Yeah, him and Steve Young.
Question: In your opinion, who is the best kicker in the NFL?
Answer: I would say it's a tie between Adam Vinatieri and David Akers. Vinatieri has more clutch kicks, but Akers is great every year.
Question: What's the best movie you've seen recently?
Answer: I haven't seen a movie in a while. I'm going to see "Fearless," that Jet Li movie, later tonight.
Question: Who is your favorite actor?
Answer: I'm a big Jim Carrey fan.
Question: What's your favorite TV show?
Answer: "Grey's Anatomy."
Question: What's your favorite singer or band?
Answer: Tim McGraw and Rascall Flatts.
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