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| | | | | | | |  Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Getting Crazy with ... Minnesota P Mitch Berger
By Marc Connolly
MondayNightFootball.com
Every week throughout the 2000 NFL season, ABC Sports Online senior writer Marc Connolly interviews one player from that week's upcoming Monday Night Football game on a variety of topics. In Week 6, Connolly caught up with Minnesota's Pro Bowl punter Mitch Berger. Here's what transpired:
Connolly: Hitting the links -- must be nice. Is the whole team off today or just the specialists?
Berger: The whole team happens to be off today, but we're (the specialists) off everyday except for gameday (laughs).
Connolly: Yeah, what's the life of a punter like compared to a linebacker?
|  | | Mitch Berger is averaging 42.5 yards-per-punt in 2000. |
Berger: The rest of the team comes in on Mondays and lifts in the morning until practice starts at 2:00. I'll basically roll out of bed at 1:30. While they're looking at game films, I'll maybe go lift some weights. Then I'll chill and read the paper. On Wednesdays and Thursdays they have meetings from eight in the morning until 1:30, which lasts until 4:30. As for me, I'll have a little breakfast, watch about 20 minutes of film with the special teams and then go home and check out my soap operas.
Connolly: I want to be you.
Berger: You know the ESPN commercial that shows Peyton Manning watching the 11 p.m. SportsCenter? Well, I'm still waiting to do the one where Mitch Berger watches the 11 a.m. SportsCenter.
Connolly: And all the repeats, of course.
Berger: Yeah, the ad can also say that I can watch the eight to noon SportsCenter, whichever one I want.
Connolly: Do you ever feel like volunteering for tackling drills?
Berger: When I first started, I always wanted to. Actually, I had like 12 tackles that year. It might have been a record or something.
Connolly: Well, compared to most punters you're a pretty big guy.
Berger: True. I'm 6-foot-4, 220, so I'm up there. Plus, I played safety and quarterback for 12 years. I'm not just some soccer player guy who came here from Europe.
Connolly: Is there ever a time when you secretly want the return man to get through the coverage so you can stick him?
Berger: Never. Once and a while he comes through the wedge and runs slowly and thinks you're not gonna do anything, you want to dagger the guy. Outside of that, if you have to make a tackle it means he ran your kick back way too far, and you're gonna have to struggle all day to have some decent numbers. If you're making tackles, you'll have a crummy net punting average or kickoff average. As far as wanting to hit someone, it happens. Like when we play Detroit, because for some reason I get hit every time. They send an extra guy and come after me. That changes your mindset and makes you want to jack someone.
Connolly: Has there been a return man you hit that seemed surprised it was from a punter?
Berger: I jacked the guy from New England pretty good a few weeks ago.
Connolly: That'd be Troy Brown, right?
Berger: Yeah, he came through the middle. Usually when you're back there acting as the safety 10 yards behind everyone and the returner gets through, someone hits him from the side before you can make the tackle. But no one got there this time, so I drove my whole body into him and got him head first. He popped off to one side and I popped off to the other side. It feels good to shake up your marbles once in awhile.
Connolly: Getting back to your schedule, you'd better be a pretty good golfer with all that time off.
Berger: Yep, I'm about a 3 (handicap). I was about a 5. I'm probably the only person in NFL history whose average dropped during the season.
Connolly: Who do you play with on the Vikes?
Berger: My special teams coach (Gary Zauner) a lot. Chris Walsh, too. I bought a house about a mile from him (Walsh) in Scottsdale (Arizona) last year so we play a lot in the offseason. He doesn't like to play in the season, though. Something about a sore body. I also play with Todd Bouman. Actually, I'm driving right now to play in a celebrity tournament with Greg Coleman, the punter that played here for 12 years. Gary Anderson, too.
Connolly: How about your dream foursome?
Berger: Probably John Daly, Mike Weir, and Tiger. Mike Weir because he's Canadian, too. I met him last year at the Phoenix Open. I plan on playing him in the future. Us Canadian athletes have to stick together.
Connolly: That leads to my next question: Who's on your All-Canadian football team?
Berger: The kicker would have to be Eddie Murray. He grew up in the same area (Vancouver) as me. We actually played on the same team when we had the All-Vancouver kicking squad in Philly before I got axed. There's not many in the NFL, and I think there's only been two Pro Bowlers -- Eddie and I. There's a few other good ones in the league. I know Mike Vanderjagt (Indianapolis), a really good kicker, is Canadian. Same with Jerome Pathon, who's a good receiver also with the Colts. I was wondering if we would come in second to the Americans if football was in the Olympics. Maybe I could get a medal. We'd have to have a lot of CFL guys on that team.
Connolly: Is it a rule that punters and kickers have to hang out on the sideline.
Berger: Well, there are spots for each position on the benches. I sit on one that the D-lineman sit on and a few running backs. Wherever your leader sits, everyone goes to. Wherever Cris Carter goes, people follow. Same on defense with Johnny Randle. I sit at the end of the bench since I have my shoe and my candy bars. I usually talk with Robert Smith all game. He's probably the guy I hang out the most on the team.
Connolly: What candy bars?
Berger: The "Mitch Berger Bar", of course.
Connolly: What?
Berger: It's starting this Monday night, actually. I swear. Last year, I put one in my shoe and it used to get some publicity. A certain company didn't want to do anything with me, so I won't mention who they are. I get hungry during the game and need a little boost. I thought I'd do something for charity, so my bar will be like those little chocolate almond bars that the March of Dimes gives out. The money will go to them.
Connolly: Babe Ruth. Reggie Jackson. Mitch Berger.
Berger: I know, who would have thought. It's got my ugly mug on there. It's fun for me and it'll go to charity. They're gonna sell them outside of the stadium and local stores. We'll see how it goes.
Connolly: At the end of the games, we always see the QBs greet each other and they all are friends. Does that same sort of fraternity exist between punters?
Berger: Yeah, you always go over there and see them. You say hello and shoot the breeze a bit before the game too. Depending on what game the kicker's had depends on how long we talk. Some guys take themselves very seriously. I certainly don't. Like last game, I played horribly and sat and rapped until I was the last one on the field. I don't find this job to be life or death. It is like a little fraternity, though. I also like to see a bunch of the other guys after the game. I play in a lot of celebrity golf tournaments and try to get to know as many guys that I can. I still like to think of myself as a bit of a football player. I go to the kickers first, then I go rap with guys I played college ball (Colorado) with or guys I've met in the offseason.
Connolly: Do you daydream about the perfect punt? And what is the definition of that.
Berger: Punting is all situational. If you're standing in the back of your end zone, the perfect punt would be to hit it over his head and have it roll for an 80-yarder. If you're on the 30, the perfect punt is to put it on the 1. Me, personally, I don't daydream about those things. I'm thinking about girls and getting married or the movies or music. Or candy canes (laughing). I don't dwell on football.
Connolly: Hey, you got your priorities straight if you ask me. Can you answer this: Why do teams punt right at a guy like Deion Sanders -- like last week -- or Desmond Howard late in the game? I know I scream at my TV every time I see that.
Berger: I don't know about Washington's blocking, but if you have a good return man back there with no blockers, it doesn't matter how good he is. As far as last week, Deion hadn't done anything this year until that return. Every return man in the league will break one once in awhile, plus Deion hadn't proved to anyone that he was returning it well. Last week, our game plan was to punt away from Desmond all game. I did a pretty good job of it, but you can only do so much. I mean, you can't hit a ball 50 yards out of bounds every time. And if you hit it out for 30 or 40 yards, they (fans) go, "Arrrggghhh, what a crummy punt." If the situation calls for the punt to be hit out of bounds on the right, the defense rushes everyone from the right side and doesn't let you step that way. They limit what you can do and sometimes dictate what I do. Plus, if you get a bad snap, you're not worrying about Deion anymore. You're worrying about getting the ball off and not getting blocked. It's not as easy as everyone thinks just to put it where you want. There's wind factors and all sorts of things.
One time last year, Gary (Anderson) and I heard that an announcer said, "Why don't they just kick it 50 yards out of bounds every time. That's the easiest thing to do." Yeah right, show me the guy who can do that every time he feels like it. Plus, some kickers just aren't good at it. Some are best at kicking it high and short. It's all about end result. If you shank it and it rolls 50 yards and is very effective against Deion, it was a great punt. If he picks it up and goes the distance, it's an ugly, bad kick. It's hilarious what people think is good and what is bad. All that matters is the end result.
Connolly: Speaking of announcing, I know you host a show called "Vikings Live" in Minneapolis. Are you interested in getting into broadcasting someday?
Berger: I would love to. I want to take an acting class, a broadcasting class, all that. I'd love to be in the entertainment or TV business. I know football pretty well and I'm a huge fan -- I watch every game that's on.
Connolly: What do you think of the new MNF crew?
Berger: I think Dennis Miller says a few things over people's heads, but overall he does make a lot of funny comments. My favorite one was in the first week when he talked about St. Louis and how it was like watching a track meet and they should be passing the baton around instead of a ball.
Connolly: That's when Az Hakim and Torry Holt sprinted down the sideline together on a TD run.
Berger: Yeah, I thought that was a good observation and pretty funny. I could relate to that because that's the way St. Louis is against us. Especially on special teams, they can really burn you with all that speed.
Connolly: If you're at home watching and not playing this week, which one of the guys on your team would you want to watch first? Is it Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Daunte Culpepper or John Randle?
Berger: Don't forget Robert Smith. I'll tell you, though, my favorite guy to watch is Robert Tate. He's a DB who used to be a receiver. When he makes a play, he's so innocent and gets so fired up. He gets so excited and purely loves football more than anyone. (Cris) Dishman thinks he'll be in Hawaii before he's done. So watching him play gets me fired-up. The ones to watch because you don't know what they'll do next is Randy and Daunte. I can't wait to watch Daunte run. He's the quickest guy at that size I've ever seen. With Randy, it's watching his athletic ability and seeing how high he'll jump or who he'll outrun. His new move this year is hurdling people. It's almost like people who played in Detroit and how they used to love watching Barry. Down the road, I'll be able to look back and think how fortunate I was to see all these guys do their thing in the peaks of their careers.
Connolly: I have to ask you about nicknames with your last name? Some geek must have called you "cheese" growing up.
Berger: (laughing) I get all kinds. I get "Burgermeister" and "Meisterburger." I get "Burgertime." "Bergs." I also get "Hamburglar." I get "Hollywood" the most. That's what everyone calls me. In my first year, we were all at a Timberwolves game and were making fun of this guy named "Hollywood." He wasn't that good and we were poking at him. The next day, the guys kept calling me it since I was on him the most.
Connolly: And finally, we got two guys in this game on Monday night that have odd-titled books out. Denny Green with "No Room for Crybabies" and, of course, Keyshawn's book ("Just Throw Me the Damn Ball"). What's the name of Mitch Berger's book?
Berger: Let's see. Hmmm? I got one. "How to be Successful in the NFL While Doing as Little as Possible." It would be sarcastic so my teammates would read it. Honestly, though, I work very hard -- I just enjoy my time off and like to brag to the guys about all the time I have compared to them.
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Randy Moss says Daunte Culpepper should just let him make plays.