GREEN BAY, Wis. -- With plates clanking and little old ladies chit-chatting and enjoying coffee at several nearby tables, the strains of Mat Kearney's "Nothing Left to Lose" were barely audible inside The Creamery coffee shop Wednesday morning. But as Tim Masthay tried to explain the approach he'd taken during his six years as the Green Bay Packers' punter, the reality of his uncertain future intersected with one particular lyric.
I don't know how hard this wind will blow ...
Or where we'll go ...
Unexpectedly cut Monday -- the timing took him by surprise despite getting a disconcerting vibe around Lambeau Field ever since his poor performance in the team's season-ending playoff loss at Arizona in January -- Masthay was feeling like any suddenly unemployed NFL player: Disappointed, confused, angry, anxious. He'd fallen several years short of the 10-year, only-in-Green Bay career he’d envisioned. While he was eager to get home to his wife Amanda and the couple's three children in Lexington, Kentucky, the rest of his future was a series of question marks.
Would he punt in the NFL again? Would his status as a vested NFL veteran -- meaning his entire season's salary would be guaranteed if he is on a team’s roster in Week 1 -- prevent him from being signed? Would the Packers, if newly added punter Jacob Schum struggles, consider bringing him back?
"It's a tough thing to digest," Masthay admitted.
There was one thing that Masthay was sure of, though. He was certain that he had no regrets about the approach he'd taken, the professionalism he'd shown, the teammates he'd helped, the friends he'd made. It might've even sounded a bit hokey had Masthay not been so earnest as he said it.
"What is really motivational to me and the stuff I think about frequently is, I'm trying to write a good story with my life. I care a lot about legacy and being a part of something," Masthay said. "I don't know how good of a job I've done up to this point, but that is what in a big-picture sense, that's what I'm thinking about.
"What sort of legacy am I leaving? What sort of story I'm writing?"
Criticize Masthay's on-field performance if you'd like. While he leaves as the franchise’s all-time leader in net punting average and wearing a Super Bowl ring he helped earn with a fantastic performance in the 2010 NFC Championship Game, certainly his struggles during the second half of the 2014 season and his poor performance against the Cardinals in the playoffs last January merited scrutiny. (His late-season performance before that playoff game was actually quite good, though.)
But to understand the kind of story Masthay is writing of his football life and the legacy he leaves -- again, the NFL is a bottom-line business, and performance is what matters above all else -- there are two stories that must be told.
The first is from the winter of 2013, when the Packers had signed street free agent Giorgio Tavecchio to compete with Masthay's best friend, kicker Mason Crosby. Crosby was coming off the worst season of his career, and while Masthay wanted nothing more than to keep holding for his BFF, he also knew he owed it to the challenger to give him a fair shake.
So that offseason, Masthay bought a JUGS ball machine, set it up in his yard and had Amanda -- with young daughter Emory in a playpen nearby -- feed ball after ball after ball into the machine so he could practice holding for a left-footed kicker, something he'd never done before. It was the right thing to do, even though no one from the Packers had told Masthay to do it, and even if it gave Tavecchio a better chance of beating out Crosby for the job.
"Mason's practically blood to me. Even in the offseason, while I'm working on left-handed holding, I am obviously wanting Mason to be the kicker. As much as I loved Giorgio, too, there was no ounce of me that was wanting Giorgio to take Mason's job," Masthay said. "But at the end of the day, I thought it would be unprofessional for me to show up in the spring totally unprepared to hold for a left-footed kicker when I knew we have a left-footed kicker on the roster."
The other is from this summer, after the Packers brought in Green Bay native Peter Mortell to compete with Masthay. While the likable Mortell became one of the most compelling narratives of camp -- going from heartwarming local-boy-makes-good story to legitimate challenger -- Masthay went out of his way to not only give his inexperienced competition punting pointers but frequently encouraged the undrafted rookie free agent, including after the Packers cut Mortell on Monday.
While it's not uncommon in NFL locker rooms for players at the same position to forge friendships despite competing with one another, Mortell said Masthay went above and beyond. From allowing Mortell to run out of the Lambeau Field tunnel first before the team's Aug. 12 preseason game vs. Cleveland to sharing the challenges he faced on his own path to the NFL, Masthay never once made Mortell feel like an outsider.
"The first day I stepped foot in that facility, he had every right to give me the cold shoulder, but that's just not the type of guy Tim is," Mortell said Wednesday night. "He welcomed me with open arms and answered every question I raised with respect and honesty. I feel fortunate to have spent the time I did with him because he made me not only a better punter but showed me what it meant to be a professional in this league. And for that, I'll be forever grateful."
For Masthay, helping Mortell was part of the job.
"When I know I have something I know I can share that is beneficial, I don't like to hold that in," Masthay said with a shrug. "If I was helpful to him, I'm glad I was."
