When he was at Michigan State, his old coach Muddy Watters used to tell him, \"Way to boot that one. His NFL field goals have traveled more than 10 miles. It's one kick at a time. One minute, he's a kid from Denmark trying to figure out what's going on in this big, new country. "\"I hope you like country music and Budweiser.\"He has made 481 field goals, one less than Gary Anderson for the most ever.But now, it's different.
He has kicked game-winning field goals in 13 different cities. He loves being a part of a team.
Nielsen helped recruit him to East Lansing, a couple of “Vikings” among the Spartans.Not bad, he says now, for a guy who was supposed to be on the decline in 1994.“There were fewer boundaries in New Orleans than other places I’d lived,” he said. Then Saints coach Jim Mora said it was one of the great regrets of his tenure in New Orleans.Though Andersen still makes his home on Lake Lanier, northeast of Atlanta, part of him never left New Orleans.Andersen earned All-American honors his senior season. Then, his first kickoff was a touchback, but a St. Louis Cardinals player named Randy Love - \"His name was Love,\" Andersen says shaking his head - charged him, Andersen tried to get away, twisted his ankle, was out for two months.And Morten had absolutely no idea what was going on.\"Another Morten,\" his mother, Jennifer, says shaking her head.That's when he came to Kansas City. But I really liked the joie de vivre. I want him to a part of that. "And we did some crazy stuff. His name is Sebastian. Why not?He knows exactly what that means. Before he's done, he'll have every one of them.But you know there's something more to it. It all comes down to a good snap (\"Kendall Gammon is automatic,\" he says), a good hold (punter Dan Stryzinski was Andersen's holder in Atlanta, too), good protection (\"Those guys on the other side want to turn me into a Danish Pastry\") and a good kick. "I'll just beat him out.
Following a strike-shortened rookie season, Andersen kicked into high gear in his second season as he netted 91 points for New Orleans in 1983.
samme Aar. He's made so many before.\"I want to kick until I'm 50,\" he says, as he has said before. "Why not? The shape of the ball was so different. Founder And President Morten Andersen Family Foundation. Visualization. The next thing anyone knew, Andersen was booming field goals.When Bum Phillips called to tell Andersen that New Orleans was drafting him, the colorful, cowboy hat-wearing Saints coach presented him with a non-sequitur.“I hope you like Budweiser and country music,” Phillips asked.Hans Nielsen, also a transplant from Denmark, preceded Andersen to Michigan State, kicking there in 1976-77. Maybe Denmark. I know myself. His motto: \"When the kick leaves the foot, it leaves the mind.\""That was hard," he says. "\"Don't think about too much,\" Andersen says. \"But in kicking, there's no substitute for experience.\""I can understand that," he says. And that day is legendary in Indianapolis.Here's the piece I wrote about him in The Kansas City Star 15 years ago. After that, people tried to get him to discuss the kick: \"Did you catch it solid?\" \"Were you surprised it didn't go in?\" \"Did the injury affect you?\"Ask him about all that, he shrugs. His motto: "When the kick leaves the foot, it leaves the mind. "This is a great team to be a part of," he says.