How Spencer Shrader came back from major knee…

Spencer Shrader doesn’t want you to frame the word “challenge” as a bad thing.

Bouncing between three teams without knowing when his next opportunity would be as a rookie? That’s a challenge. Tearing up his knee less than a week after being named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month? That’s a challenge. Having to earn his job back with the Colts? That’s a challenge. Navigating a long-distance marriage with his wife, Korbin, who plays midfield for OL Lyonnes in France? That’s a challenge.

Lining up for a game-winning field goal mere hours after feeling a tweak in your groin? That’s a challenge.

Instead, the way Shrader approaches all those challenges just might be why that 53-yard field goal cruised through the uprights at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, delivering the Colts a much-needed 19-17 win over the Houston Texans.

“I still get nervous before every single game,” Shrader said. “That’s life, though. That’s the cool part is that we get all of these different experiences and these different emotions that we have to battle with. We have successes, we have failures and we feel all of that, and we should feel all of that.

“The biggest thing is just learning how to navigate that maturely and wisely.”

The 27-year-old Shrader, then, comes across mature and wise beyond his years. He’s committed to his craft but doesn’t let the highs or lows of kicking in the NFL define him. He considers himself a faithful steward of his God-given athletic talent – which, in this case, is being able to kick the absolute snot out of a ball.

For years, that ball wasn’t a football. If you would’ve told Shrader a decade ago he’d get to kick a ball in a Premier League stadium this weekend, his mind wouldn’t have gone to the oblong one he’ll boot around at Tottenham in the north of London.

“I kind of envisioned that one day I’d play in those stadiums and be kicking a circular ball around,” Shrader said. “And now I’m playing in those stadiums not kicking a circular ball.”

Shrader played soccer throughout high school, then went to Brazil for a few months after graduating with the intent of trying out for – and making – a professional squad in the fútbol-crazed country. He kicked a bit in high school, then walked on at South Florida after returning stateside.

Because he started playing football at a later age, Shrader said, “I always felt like I was sort of chasing someone that was better.”

But from South Florida to Notre Dame to the Colts, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs and back to the Colts again, Shrader learned how to reframe his approach to football.

It’s an approach that benefited him this summer, when he competed with his friend, Blake Grupe, to be the Colts’ starting kicker.

“One critical mindset shift very early on (was) self competition,” Shrader said. “Because if you’re constantly comparing or evaluating yourself to someone else, well those are ever-changing circumstances.

“So if I was just comparing or competing with those other people, like you’re just constantly comparing yourself to something that’s ever changing. There’s one consistent that I have in my life and that’s me, my mindset every single day when I go to work. So I stop trying to compare myself to external circumstances and focus more on competing with myself every single day.”

Shrader didn’t begin training camp kicking the way he wanted. He was pulling kicks to the left with frustrating consistency. Naturally, doubt crept in – will I still be here in September? – but he focused on the mentality that got him through a grueling rehab process: Just get a little better each day.

There were hard moments during camp coming back from injury and dealing with that and not kicking how I wanted to kick. And you just have to persevere and you have to keep pushing and you have to do it without knowing what the result’s gonna be.

“A week after getting your ACL worked on and you’re sitting there and you can’t even bend your knee and you’re like, how am I gonna get back on the field?” Shrader said. “… I think that mindset of kind of narrowing in and focusing on what you can do to compete against yourself every single day to get better is the best thing that an athlete can do to get rid of some of that pressure and stress and anxiety that comes with a competition.”

Shrader turned things around, blasting home a pair of 60-plus-yard field goals in preseason games while making kicks with improved consistency as August pushed on. When he made the Colts’ 53-man roster, though, he didn’t view it as anything more than a promise for Week 1.

“I have to earn the right to get to Week 3, to get to Week 4, to get to Week 5,” Shrader said. “So I view myself as week to week, but I keep it in perspective. I don’t put undue pressure on myself.

“… I think being a kicker sometimes, you’re just fighting against yourself in your own mentality leading up to the game on game day. And it’s something that I’m getting more comfortable with working against every single game.

“I think sometimes I’m like, when are these emotions gonna disappear or dissipate? And recently, I’ve been like, never. Just part of the job. So instead of trying to escape those emotions, looking forward to that challenge and figuring out how to navigate it is something I’ve been working on.”

There’s that word again: Challenge. Shrader’s been challenged more than a lot of early-career kickers. The next challenge for him is not about handling adversity, though: It’s about sustaining success after making those four field goals against the Texans last week.

But if we’ve learned anything about Shrader, it’s that no matter how hard the challenge, he’s not the kind of person to be overwhelmed by it. Again: Challenges are not a bad thing.

“I feel like you expect, oh, every season’s gonna get a little bit easier, right?” Shrader said. “Because you get more accustomed to it, you’re in the environment more. I don’t really feel that.

“I feel like every year like is just new challenges over and over again.”