AT HOME WITH MIKE VANDERJAGT

Kicking back with the NFL's best kicker in Kilbride, ON.

Mike Vanderjagt outside his home in Kilbride, ON. Photo by Yuri Dojc

By JON COOK -- SportsXtra

 You only have to look at his 13.4-acre home to understand the man.

 Nestled in the rural Southern Ontario community of Kilbride, the lot stands in stark contrast to its agrarian surroundings. There aren't many farmers with goalposts in their front yards. They don't tool around town in $100,000 Hummers or shoot hoops in their own private gymnasium. They don't have a cheerleader wife, two Grey Cup rings and a right foot that's worth millions. They don't plan 6,000 square-foot extensions, because that's like buying two more houses. This is Mike Vanderjagt's life and he's not a fan of half measures.

 Why should he be? At 33, the Indianapolis Colts' kicker is living the life every kid dreams of when they stay out well past their bedtime, skating on a pond, shooting tennis balls against a wall, or, in Vanderjagt's case, kicking footballs through uprights behind his Oakville high school. Forget homework, this is how careers are really born, stardom smelted from the smithy of desire and the burning need to be better than everyone else. This is what has driven a small-town Canadian kid to become the best kicker in the world.

 Never mentioned in the same sentence as Wayne Gretzky, Larry Walker, Steve Nash or Mike Weir, Vanderjagt is doing for football what those sporting icons have done for hockey, baseball, basketball and golf. He's making everyone - north and south of the border - take notice.

 In fact, everything about the Indianapolis Colts kicker screams recognition. His off-season country estate is no different.

Vanderjagt poses with wife Janalyn and four-year-old son Jay Michael. Photo by Yuri Dojc

 How do you make your house stand out in the wilderness? Erecting 40-foot high, fluorescent yellow uprights is a good start. The goalposts have become a local landmark, Kilbride's version of the CN Tower. They are also an irresistible temptation to Sunday drivers.

 "An elderly couple came to the door a couple years ago and asked 'Does Osbaldiston live here?" laughs Vanderjagt, who regrettably informed them it was not the home of Paul Osbaldiston, the popular football player for the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. "Who else would be living here except him?"

 While locally he lives in Osbaldiston's shadow, Vanderjagt is The Man in the NFL. He's become famous for his ability to kick a foot-long leather ball through an 18-and-a-half-foot opening. In five NFL seasons he has converted 85 per cent of his kicks, making him the most accurate kicker in history. Only in the best years of their careers could Hall of Famers Jan Stenerud, George Blanda and Lou Groza come close to that kind of success rate.

 It's what netted the Oakville, ON native a $7.75 million US contract extension in November 2000. Now he's building a house to match his status. Vanderjagt and wife Janalyn are in the middle of giving an already impressive dwelling a major facelift that will feature three new bedrooms, a home theatre, an arcade, a cigar lounge and a photo studio.

 "It's just going to be unbelievable," boasts Vanderjagt, who bought the house with the $500,000 bonus he received from his first NFL contract in 1998. "Next year it will be a completely different house. It's going to be more of a compound than a house."

 In addition to the uprights and gymnasium that bookend the lot, Vanderjagt will put in a horseshoe-shaped pool - inspired by the Colts' logo on his jersey - and a par-3 golf hole.

 "It's going to be a 5,000 square-foot, two-tiered green with two bunkers in front," says the self-described golf fanatic. "I wanted to put in a pond to make it an island green, but the Niagara Escarpment shot that down. They said it was a flood point."

Vanderjagt sports a tattoo that reads "Mike." Photo by Yuri Dojc

 It's hard for Vanderjagt to take rejection on any level. His is a world where if you want something bad enough, you just do it. It's the same slogan extolled by corporate giant Nike, whose shoes protect Vanderjagt's priceless feet. He even has the same swoosh logo tattooed on his left ankle, with one letter changed to read: "Mike."

 He's intensely proud of his success and everywhere there are reminders of the man and his football career. The first thing you notice is the giant silver 'V' that adorns his front door. The handles are shaped like uprights. In the front hallway, guests are greeted by one of the large silver Colts logos that have become an architectural theme.

 "It's all Colts' kicker, football related," explains Vanderjagt of the not-so-subtle acknowledgement. "I pinch myself every day that I'm even in the NFL. From where I came from in '94 and '95 - not even being able to get into the CFL - to being the most accurate kicker in NFL history is quite a road. If I never play another game in the NFL I've accomplished everything I could from an individual standpoint."

 Indianapolis is also the city that gave him his wife - a svelte, curvy, bronzed, flaxen-haired former Colts' cheerleader. In true football fashion they met at a nightclub on St. Patrick's Day, a couple months after Vanderjagt had completed his first season.

 "He asked me to come over to him," recalls Janalyn, who was taken aback by the boldness of her future husband's request. "It was just instant attraction."

 Two dates later, Janalyn hung up her pom-poms and the couple became an item. Nine months later they were hitched. "We got married when I was No. 12 for the Colts, before I changed to No. 13, on 12/12/98," says Vanderjagt, who had to forego his wedding night because the Colts were playing the next day. "We didn't even spend the night together. I just went to the hotel with the team and she went home."

 Four years later, with son Jay Michael in tow, they sound like any married couple as they discuss home decorating. Janalyn is the creative force, Mike the bean counter. It's a house divided: Janalyn has territorial rights to everything above ground, while Mike rules the basement.

 "It's kind of a you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours situation," says Vanderjagt, who admits he would never have chosen white carpet for the upstairs. "You take care of the basement if that's what you want, but then don't touch the rest of the house. As married couples you would just complain and argue if you don't set the guidelines before you start."

The Vanderjagts are in the process of building a 6,000-square-foot extension. Photo by Yuri Dojc

 The pending renovations have thrown the house into limbo. Besides the football paraphernalia, the only consistent element is a healthy dose of metal.

 "We're stainless steel fanatics," confides Janalyn, sporting a platinum wedding band and surrounded by silver ceiling fans, light fixtures, picture frames, clocks, stools, fridges, countertops, end tables and even metallic walls. "I like funky kind of modern."

 Her showpiece is a silver grandfather clock, unearthed on one of her many forays to De Boer's, a high-end store that furnished most of the house.

 "They're quite aware of when the Vanderjagts show up," says Mike, who admits to fretting over some of his wife's purchases. "I'm cheap. I lose sleep over how much everything costs and I try to save as much as I can, whether it's a dime or a dollar."

 Except when it comes to his toys. The Porsche Carrera was a gift to himself when he signed his initial $1.5 million US deal with the Colts. The BMW X5, Toyota Sequoia and Hummer H2 sport utility vehicles have been added to the stable. In addition to his car fetish, Vanderjagt has a healthy love affair with technology. As he loads plates into the dishwasher, Sting croons from his $1,000 Bang & Olufsen wall-mounted CD-player. Seven TVs - nearly one for every room - keep him up to date on his favourite sports teams: the Raptors, Leafs, Blue Jays, Argos and of course the Colts.

 "This is my baby," says Vanderjagt, who reckons the house will be worth in the neighbourhood of $2 million when it's all said and done. "This house is going to be continually added on and all my money goes into this house."

 For Vanderjagt it's an investment in the future. He wants his son to share in his success, to know how lucky he is to have what he has. As his son extends a tentative finger to hold the ball in place for his father's 30-yard field goal attempt, Vanderjagt gets philosophical.

 "All this is just normal to him," he says, reassuring Jay Michael that daddy won't accidentally kick his finger. "He doesn't know it yet, he just wants to play with building blocks and be on the computer, but soon he will learn that he doesn't have it like every child."

 At that point there may be some hard lessons, as Jay Michael will either create friendships or cause jealousies. It's something Vanderjagt experienced in high school.

 "My persona is that I carry myself very well and people might perceive that as cocky, but in my opinion it's just self confidence," says Vanderjagt, whose ability intimidated other athletes. "I have a lot of self-confidence and I think everybody should."

Vanderjagt poses with a couple of his cars: a Porsche Carrera and a Hummer H2. Photo by Yuri Dojc

 That confidence was severely tested after he left college for the pros in 1992. Drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the 6-foot-5, 210-pounder appeared in just three games before being released towards the end of the 1993 season. Vanderjagt was cut three more times over the next year and a half, including twice by the Toronto Argonauts.

 "I blame him for the whole episode," gripes Vanderjagt, who still has not forgiven former Argos head coach Bob O'Billovich. "He had his guy in Wayne Lammle and he just didn't want to make a change. The funny thing is he's a scout now, so he comes to camp in Indy every year and I just tell him: 'Bob how can you scout when you couldn't see that I had enough talent to make your team.'"

 Vanderjagt got his revenge the following year by leading the Argos to the first of back-to-back championships under O'Billovich replacement Don Mathews. He went a combined 14-for-14 in the playoffs, including a sensational 5-for-5 performance in a blinding snowstorm in '96 in Hamilton. That earned him Most Outstanding Canadian Player honours and newfound respect among his peers.

 "Some of his swagger he learned under Don Mathews, who teaches his players to have a certain swagger about them," confesses long-time agent and friend Gil Scott, who also represents former Buffalo Bills' kicker Steve Christie. "No kicker has ever had the success he's enjoyed without being the way he is. His talent is unsurpassed."

 Vanderjagt considers his Grey Cup rings his most-prized possessions and has them prominently displayed in a glass case in his living room. He says they will stay that way, "until the Super Bowl trophy passes through here."

 That title is proving especially elusive. In his five years in Indianapolis, he and all-star teammates Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James have failed to win a single playoff game. After a franchise-best 13-3 season in 1999, they lost 19-16 in the divisional final to Tennessee. In 2000, Vanderjagt missed a 49-yarder in overtime and they fell 23-17 to Miami in the AFC Wild Card game. He refers to it as the lowest point of his career.

 But last year may be the worst of the lot, as the Colts imploded in a 41-0 loss to the New York Jets. The losing got the better of Vanderjagt. In an interview on Toronto sports network The Score, he called out his teammates for the uninspired effort, singling out Manning and head coach Tony Dungy. It was an emotional response by an athlete smarting from an ass-kicking. It was also the biggest mistake of his career.
 The response was swift and damning. The normally soft-spoken Manning retaliated by referring to Vanderjagt as an "idiot kicker," who in all likelihood was "liquored up" when he went in front of the cameras. Dungy wondered aloud if his kicker should be replaced. The press and his rivals had a field day.

 Huddling in Canada, Vanderjagt and Scott were doing damage control. Less than a week after the interview, Scott released a statement in which Vanderjagt apologized to "Peyton, Tony, the Colts organization and the people of Indianapolis." If there was any lingering fallout over the proceeding months, it was not evident by the time Vanderjagt and the rest of the Colts showed up for mini-camp in May.

 "Mike is a very honest person about how he feels, sometimes to a fault," explains Colts' punter Hunter Smith, Vanderjagt's closest friend on the team. "For Mike it was a heart matter. Mike's heart is to win football games. His intention was not to tear down his teammates."

 While the smoke has cleared, Vanderjagt remains gun shy with the media. It's unfortunate the press may be deprived in the future of one of sports' most refreshing personalities.

 "They hate when you just say 'Well we're just taking it one game at a time,' but when you say something that's from the heart or how you feel they just blast you for it," says Vanderjagt, insisting the interview wasn't as bad as it appeared in the final edit. "All I said was that we needed more emotion and that two of our leaders need to get it for us. That was it. Even our president (Bill Polian), who ripped my head off after it happened, said he read the transcript two weeks later and said it really wasn't that bad."

 It's hard to see how anything short of a muzzle could keep the kicker from speaking his mind. Occasionally the fire that fuels Vanderjagt singes those standing next to him. It ignites 54-yard bombs on the field and kegs of dynamite off it. It's what has carried him to the top of the mountain, paid for his dreams and imbibed him with a sense of superiority.

 "Everybody has it, but for some reason I just have it more than a lot of people," says Vanderjagt about his boundless competitive streak. "It's just that desire to beat them and then you can walk with your head held higher than theirs. It just comes down to wanting to be better than the next guy I guess."

 Cutting an imposing figure as he stands under his goalposts next to his dream home, an arm around his beautiful wife and handsome son, Vanderjagt appears on top of the world.

 "Somebody on TV said to me 'You're one of the best kickers in the league' and in the past that would have been great, but I said to the guy: 'I'm not one of the best, I'm the best.' I don't want to be one of the best kickers in the league, I don't want to have one of the nicest houses, I want to have the nicest. It gets to be a little bit anal at times. It's always just wanting to have nice things. To be at the top of everything beats being at the bottom."

 VANDERJAGT QUOTES

 On a snowy November 24, 2002 in Denver, Vanderjagt had his best game as a Colt, booting a career-long 54-yard field goal to tie the game with no time left and then a 51-yarder with 9:22 left in overtime to win 23-20. It was the first time in NFL history a kicker had made two 50-yard field goals to tie and win a game.

 Vanderjagt: "I watch the highlights of that game all the time, especially Tony Dungy's reaction. Apparently that's one of the most emotional times he's ever had. He got fired up and it's cool to provide that feeling. It's just one of those nights I wish I could relive 100 times over."

 On losing the Grey Cup trophy in 1996 while celebrating in a bar with some teammates: "Everybody likes to drink out of it and get their picture taken with it, so I just kind of left it around somewhere letting everybody play with it and then the next thing you know it's gone. I was responsible for it so I had to call the police and they couldn't find it. It was a very scary 10 hours, but some girl called and said she got home from a bar and it was in her kitchen. She had bet some guys that they couldn't do it, so they had proved her wrong and left it in her kitchen."

 On what his expectations are for the upcoming season: "We realistically need to move into playoffs and start to get it going. Playoff games really determine a guy's career. I had made my first six field goals in the playoffs in Indy and I've missed my last two. I've got to make more field goals and be that go-to guy that I am in the regular season. If it doesn't happen it will be a very big disappointment for us."

 On how he got his nickname 'Hollywood' from former Argos teammates Marcello Simmons, Adrion Smith and Robert Drummond: "I just think a couple of the guys thought I had the "Hollywood" looks: I had the longer, curly blond hair, blue-eyed, tall...just the typical "Brad Pitt" look I guess, for lack of a better guy. I had it in college too. It's kind of funny that a group of people who had no connection whatsoever told me the same thing. So it must have had some truth to it."

 On auditioning for a part as Tony Danza's rival in the movie, The Garbage Pickin Field Goal Kickin Philadelphia Phenomenon. He didn't get it, but ended up doing all the kicks for the film: "I went in and auditioned for it, but I was in over my head. I almost thought it was my part to lose, so I went in with the mentality that if I read it right then it's mine, and I just made an idiot of myself. In hindsight I wished I'd never done it, because when you go see the director two days later just to help out, you just feel like an idiot because you just made a fool out of yourself. I guess I'm not an actor."

 Vanderjagt - a six-handicapper - believes the solitary actions of hitting a golf ball and kicking a football are very similar: "A kicker's swing and a golfer's swing are very similar. Everybody says kickers are so small, how do they kick it so far? Well it's just like Davis Love III, he hits the ball 320 yards and he's 5-9, 180 pounds. It's just all technique. It's very similar; it's a very individualized position. Success and failure is based solely on yourself."

 On how he approaches a big kick: "The crazy thing is I don't hear a thing. I hear it right up until we break the huddle and it's time to go walk. People say 'Oh my God it's so loud.' I don't hear anything. It's only 1.3 seconds so you're just so much in the moment that you almost forget what's going on around you, which is a good attribute to have.

 On why kickers take three steps back and three to the side: "You only have 1.3 seconds so you can't go any further back and you have to generate speed so you can't get any close, so it's just based on soccer style. I actually go three back and one over. Some go two and two; I go three and one. It's just wherever you find that spot on the field to get to be able to take two steps to hit the ball on the right part of your foot."

 On sharing the same turf as Dan Marino: "I was captain of a game one day in Miami and shook hands at midfield with Dan Marino and everybody was like 'Good luck' and I was thinking 'What the hell am I doing out here?'"

 On strange kicking rituals: "I wear No. 13 so I can't be that superstitious. There's some routines that I tend to follow: warm up into the net; only start warming up after your team gets over the 50; hit a good ball into the net so I feel good about it and I just get onto the field and do my thing."

 On shopping with his wife at IKEA and Home Depot: "I'm very impatient, so if we're not going in there with a game plan and a mindset that we need to get this, this and this - if we're just looking around - I lose it. Home Depot I go by myself. You never get out of there without spending two or three hundred bucks."

 Off-season workouts: "I work out just to stay in shape - not really kicker-related. I don't do a lot of legs, because I don't want to get bulky. I'm getting older so it's just to stay in good shape."

 On what he has done with his millions: "First and foremost I put a lot of it away for investment, because in my line of work I could break my leg tomorrow and be out of the league. I just helped my sister purchase a car. I've taken care of my mother a little bit. The next contract I'll do a lot more, just because my stability is there. To spend millions of dollars after three years in the NFL isn't the smartest thing to do, so you just want to make sure that your immediate family is secure for the future."

 On what he does when he's not playing: "Just making sure the yard is nice and clean and hanging out and watching movies. I enjoy watching the major golf tournaments and hockey and basketball playoffs. I love watching the Argos, if not going to the games. I'm a big Raptor fan, I wish they would get better and fast.