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Daniel Carlson is 3 1/2 years older than his younger brother, but to their mom, he seems in one way almost like a father these days.
Daniel is a reigning first-team All-Pro kicker for the Las Vegas Raiders in his sixth NFL season. Nobody has to be nervous when he lines up for a kick. Anders Carlson, however, is a rookie kicker for the Green Bay Packers.
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“I think Daniel’s now changed into the role of the nervous Nellie, feels more like a father role,” their mother Jodie Carlson told The Athletic this week. “He told me he gets very nervous watching Anders’ kicks.”
It’s one thing to be nervous watching little brother kick on TV, but what about when you’re watching him in person? And not just watching him in person, but standing on the opposite sideline as a member of the team your little brother is trying to beat? That’s what will happen on “Monday Night Football” when the Packers and Raiders face off in Las Vegas.
“That’s a good question,” Daniel said Friday. “It might be a little different being in person and yeah, I always want him to succeed. I want him to succeed, but I want our team to succeed. I would love a blocked kick or something instead of a missed kick. I’m gonna be a little less nervous, I would imagine, but we’ll see.”
The Carlson family hasn’t been together since June 2022 at Anders’ wedding, he said. On Monday night, they’ll have 27 people in attendance as part of Team Carlson, including both parents and all three brothers, two of which will be on the field. The oldest brother, Nils, 3 1/2 years older than Daniel, got five days off from work to fly in from Sweden with one of his two sons.
Daniel’s wife and two kids will be there and so will Anders’ wife. At least the wives and kids will be wearing one team’s colors, but the parents certainly won’t choose sides. Hans Carlson, their dad, will be wearing a white hat with a Packers logo and Raiders logo on it, along with an Auburn shirt because both brothers went to college there. A family friend had a shirt made that says “Carlson Brothers” and “Daniel and Anders” in Auburn colors, so Mom will be wearing that.
“We always hope the kickers make their kicks,” Jodie said. “I usually am cheering for the kickers, regardless. Poor things.”
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“The dream for me,” Hans said, “if they kick five field goals each and then hopefully somebody else can score also.”
So not a 15-15 tie with each of your sons going 5-for-5 on field goals?
“Nah, that’d be kind of boring,” Dad said. “Hopefully there will be some touchdowns, too.”
There were fireworks at the Carlson house when Daniel and Anders were kids, too. They competed in sprints, swimming, cards, board games, basketball, tennis, you name it. They had a basketball court outside their house and Dad was and still is a tennis coach after playing collegiately and professionally. Older brother Nils gets the credit for making them good kickers, though, because he was a soccer goalkeeper and his two younger brothers would pepper him with shots every summer for 10 years.
The Carlson brothers on a ski trip as kids. (Courtesy of the Jodie Carlson)Daniel said he’d “wallop” Anders in whatever they competed in when they were really young. Anders said Daniel would beat him up, as older brothers do, but that he was a better athlete and had better speed and awareness. Daniel, to no surprise, seems to disagree.
“I’m like 1 million-and-0 in brotherly competition,” Daniel said.
So how’d the brothers come to specialize in kicking footballs? The Classical Academy, a high school in the Carlsons’ hometown of Colorado Springs, Colo., needed a kicker for the football team. They wanted Nils, but he stayed in high school in Sweden as a soccer goalie, a position at which he went on to play collegiately there.
“And they’re like, ‘How about Daniel?’” Anders recalled. “Daniel tried out, probably hit a 50-yarder that day or something and the rest is history … same thing for me. I didn’t join the team until sophomore year. I was a soccer guy. By sophomore year, I was ready to make that transition.”
The decision paid off for both, as Daniel and Anders went on to fruitful careers at Auburn before getting drafted into the NFL.
Daniel Carlson on Lambeau (Vikings cut him after his bad day there in 2018) and his brother kicking for Bisaccia and Co.:
“The first time, I couldn’t figure it out, obviously … it’s kind of football paradise, football heaven up there.”
“I know he’s in good hands up there.” pic.twitter.com/bSD1VkDpCw
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) October 6, 2023
The Minnesota Vikings drafted Daniel in the fifth round in 2018. After making his lone field goal attempt and all three PATs in a season-opening win over the San Francisco 49ers, Daniel missed three field goals in a 29-29 Week 2 tie against the Packers at Lambeau Field. The Vikings cut him the next day. He’s gone on to become arguably the NFL’s best kicker, making 107-of-115 field goals over the last three seasons (93 percent).
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Anders, a 2023 sixth-round pick of the Packers, has made all five field goal attempts and all nine extra point tries through his first four games after a rocky training camp. Together, the Carlson brothers are 9-for-9 on field goals and 15-for-15 on PATs this season.
Big brother has helped little brother become the kicker he is today, whether it be through FaceTime coaching sessions about technique when Daniel was at Auburn and Anders in high school or mental training these days now that each of their techniques is refined.
What’s also helped Anders acclimate to the NFL is who he’s coached by. Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia was the Raiders special teams coordinator (and for a time the interim head coach) during Daniel’s first four years with the team, including when the Raiders signed Carlson early in the 2018 season after the Vikings let him go.
“He believed in Daniel when no one believed in him and he believed in Anders when a lot of people maybe didn’t believe in Anders,” Hans said. “We’re very thankful for Rich as a coach and as a person.”
“We know he stuck his neck out to take Anders,” Jodie added.
“They’re very similar with the ability to have a big leg and a big kick and I think confidence-wise, probably where Daniel is now and where Anders is, that might be the same,” Bisaccia said. “I think the thing that’s been good for Anders is some of the difficulties that Daniel has had, Anders has had the opportunity to learn from, so I think that’s the one thing probably that he’s taken from his brother, but I still think the guiding force to those two is the dad. Dad’s an ultra-competitive tennis guy and I think he’s really been a force for both of those guys.”
Daniel may want his little brother’s kicks to be blocked instead of shanked on Monday night, but Anders wants his older brother to make every kick.
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“I just hope we win by a lot of touchdowns,” Anders said, hoping that his brother doesn’t line up behind the football in a potential game-winning scenario.
Even when they’re not preparing to face each other, the brothers talk weekly, checking in on how the other is kicking and Anders making sure Daniel, his wife and his kids are doing well.
Now, they’ll talk in person before the game when they cross paths in warmups. The only time Daniel and Anders have shared a team is when Daniel was a redshirt senior at Auburn in 2017 and Anders was redshirting as a freshman, but Monday night will bring them together on a national stage, the same field, both playing for the first time.
Anders, left, and Daniel Carlson were teammates for one season at Auburn was Daniel was a senior and Anders was redshirting as a freshman. (Courtesy of Jodie Carlson)And nobody in the family is downplaying how unique it’ll all be.
“There’s gonna be a balance of, ‘Hey, I got a game to get ready for,’ but I wanna be conscious of taking some moments out and appreciating, hey, we’ve both worked really hard,” Daniel said. “This has been our dream for a while. To see it come to fruition and get to play against each other is really special.”
(Top photos: Daniel Carlson by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press and Anders Carlson by Tork Mason / USA Today)
“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, goes on sale this fall. Pre-order it here.
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