Before his biggest field-goal attempt of the young NFL season, Seattle Seahawks kicker Jason Myers gave his body a kick.
The Seahawks drove into field-goal range in the closing seconds of Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, leaving Myers with a 52-yard attempt to break the 20-20 tie. The Amazon broadcast caught Myers with an unusual tactic to get himself focused and ready for the attempt.
Jason Myers Gets Pumped Before Kick
As Myers was preparing to make the attempt, cameras caught him taking several big sniffs of a tube of smelling salts. Video of the Seahawks kicker’s preparation quickly went viral, with many sharing it on social media.
“Consider this game won. Jason Meyers, dawg,” one person shared in a post on X.
Jason Meyers, dawg.
Smelling salts are ammonia inhalants, used medically to treat fainting but often utilized by athletes to boost awareness in big moments. There had been some confusion before the start of this NFL season, with reports indicating that the league was banning smelling salts.
As Ayrton Ostly of USA Today noted, the NFL actually banned teams from supplying them to players but did not stop players from using their own smelling salts. The NFLPA also sent a letter to players stressing that they could still use smelling salts as long as they brought them on their own.
“We were not notified of this club policy change before the memo was sent out,” the NFLPA wrote, via ESPN. “To clarify, this policy does not prohibit player use of these substances, but rather it restricts clubs from providing or supplying them in any form. The NFL has confirmed this to us.
As Ostly cited, many players have advocated for smelling salts, saying they give an important but temporary advantage.
The ammonia wakes you up, opens your eyes,” DeMarcus Lawrence explained told ESPN in 2017. “You’ll be on the bench, you start to get a little tired and you got to wake your body up, and that’s what that little ammonia does for you.”
Other sports organizations, including boxing organizations, have banned the use of smelling salts entirely because of concerns that they can mask injuries, Ostly noted.
Critical Win for the Seahawks
Myers’ kick saved the Seahawks from a late collapse against the Cardinals. Seattle blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, allowing their division rival to tie the game at 20-20 on a touchdown catch from Marvin Harrison Jr.
The Seahawks had just 28 seconds remaining after Harrison’s touchdown, but they caught a big break when Arizona’s kickoff fell short of the landing zone, allowing the Seahawks to start on the 40-yard line. Sam Darnold found Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 22-yard completion on second down and the team got a four-yard run from Zach Charbonnet to set up Myers’ final kick.
Darnold finished the game going 18-for-26 for 242 yards with one touchdown. Seattle’s defense intercepted Murray twice and held Arizona to 253 total yards.
The win allowed the Seahawks to keep pace with the undefeated San Francisco 49ers, who face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Seahawks Kicker Jason Myers’ Behavior Before Final Kick Turns Heads