Sports
'It's gonna be awesome': Packers/Raiders' kicking Carlson brothers ready for first battle
In a family first, Anders and Daniel Carlson will face each other in the same game on Monday night.
LAS VEGAS -- Hans Carlson had a choice to make. It was the afternoon of Sept. 18, 2018, and he was at Chicago O’Hare International Airport waiting to see if the Minnesota Vikings-Green Bay Packers game would end before his flight home to Colorado Springs took off.
The game, of course, went to overtime.
“I decided to miss my flight,†he said.
Mixed in with a gaggle of Packers fans in front of a television in Terminal 1, Carlson watched in silence. Each time the Vikings kicker lined up for a field goal -- a 49-yard attempt on the first possession of overtime and then an attempt to win the game with a 35-yarder on the final play -- the same thing happened.
“The Packers fans started screaming, ‘He’s going to miss it,’†Carlson recalled. “And of course, he did. The Packers fans kept saying, 'We love Daniel Carlson.'"
Hans, Daniel’s father, didn’t say a word.
It wasn’t a great weekend for the Carlsons from the start. Hans had a layover in Chicago because he was on his way back from watching his youngest son, Anders Carlson. Then a redshirt freshman at Auburn, where he followed in Daniel’s footsteps, Anders missed a 52-yard field goal in the fourth quarter of a 22-21 loss to LSU.
Fast-forward more than five years, and the Carlsons won’t be forced to pick watching one son over the other. On the stage of "Monday Night Football" at Allegiant Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), Daniel, the Las Vegas Raiders' All-Pro kicker, and Anders, the Packers rookie who has yet to miss a kick this season, will finally play in the same game.
“What will that be like?†Jodie Carlson, their mother, said to ESPN during a joint interview with her husband, Hans, just days before kickoff. “No idea because it’s never happened before.â€
In fact, it will be the first time the entire Carlson crew -- including oldest son, Nils, who is flying in from Sweden -- will be in the same place at the same time since Anders’ wedding in June 2022.
For years, Hans and Jodie tried to maximize their opportunities to see their two kicking sons perform. The boys were never in high school at the same time, so when Daniel kicked at Auburn, Anders was back in Colorado Springs. By the time Anders became Auburn’s kicker in 2018, Daniel was already in the NFL, having been drafted in the fifth round by the Vikings that year.
The only time they were on the same team was at Auburn in 2017, Daniel’s final season, but Anders redshirted.
Anders admitted recently he had no idea how his parents managed to see as many of their games as they did, although Jodie’s job as a flight attendant for United helped, and it’s still a wonder how they’ll keep this up with two kids in different NFL cities.
“Well, Week 5’s easy,†Anders joked, referring to Monday night’s game. “There’s only one spot to go to.â€
The Carlson kids were typical hypercompetitive brothers -- or at least typical for having a father who came to the United States from Sweden on a tennis scholarship to the University of Alabama. That’s where Hans met Jodie, whose father played baseball for the Crimson Tide.
Nils, the oldest of the three, could be credited with turning his younger brothers into kickers.
“Nils was the one who made them good because he was a soccer goalie,†Hans said. “They used to take shots at him every summer, thousands of shots.â€
Hans coached them in tennis and encouraged them to try everything from golf to basketball. According to Anders, the games of driveway basketball with Daniel were more than just friendly pickup games, and the tennis matches still go on to this day.
“I was the better basketball player,†Anders insists. “He was the more physical guy, though. He had the height, so those were even matches. My dad’s a tennis coach, so a lot of tennis matches. Playing soccer, whatever it was, we were always competing.â€
Daniel's version is slightly different.
“I’m like 1 million-and-0 in brotherly competition," Daniel said. "But we’re 0-0 overall in football competition. So this is really special. … This will be a first and hopefully not a last.â€
Of all the commonalities between Anders and Daniel, current Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia might be the most important one. Most bios of Bisaccia don’t even include his stop at Auburn. But he spent a month there early in 2013 between NFL jobs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys. In that brief time, he recruited Daniel. The two would be reunited in 2018 with the Raiders, where Bisaccia ran the special teams.
The Raiders signed Daniel a few weeks after the Vikings cut him the day after the debacle in Lambeau, just two games into his NFL career. Bisaccia helped turn Daniel into one of the NFL’s most consistent kickers. In six seasons with the Raiders, he has made 90.1% of his field goals.
This offseason, Bisaccia went to bat for Anders, and the Packers took him in the sixth round as they were looking to replace longtime kicker Mason Crosby. After a rocky training camp and preseason, Anders to date has avoided the kind of struggle Daniel had early in his career with the Vikings. He has made everything so far: 5-for-5 on field goals, including a 52-yarder against the Chicago Bears in Week 1, and 9-for-9 on extra points.
“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,†Bisaccia said. “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 ultracompetitive tennis guy, and I think he's really been a force for both of those guys.â€
Last month, when the NFL season began, the Raiders opened at the Broncos. It meant Daniel would be playing close to the family's Colorado Springs home. But the Carlsons chose to fly to Chicago, where Anders was making his pro debut against the Bears.
“I apologized to Daniel for not being at the Raiders-Broncos game, because we usually make that,†Jodie said. “But we were going to Chicago and we couldn’t make them both.
"Daniel said, ‘Mom, don’t apologize. It’s just like when we were kids and had Saturday morning soccer games and you couldn’t make them all with three sons. So just relax and enjoy and appreciate the opportunity that we're still able to play sports.’â€
No such predicament this week.
“To compete all our lives and finally play in a game where we’re actually wearing jerseys and competing against each other, it’s going to be awesome,†Anders said.
In all, the Carlson contingent will be 27 strong on Monday night. Anders said he left the ticket requests up to Daniel because he'd get better seats as a player on the home team.
"We sit in the first row behind the goalposts," Hans said. "That’s a good spot for the kickers’ parents.â€
For Daniel's sake, at least the game isn't in Green Bay. He has helped Anders plenty along the way, but when his younger brother got drafted by the Packers, Daniel offered no advice when the subject turned to kicking at Lambeau Field.
"The first time, I couldn’t figure it out," Daniel said. "Obviously."
ESPN Raiders reporter Paul Gutierrez contributed to this story.