Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson honored by alma mater TCA with jersey retirement

Feb. 16—Daniel Carlson's run with the Raiders ranks among the most successful for a kicker in NFL history.

But talking to students at his former high school in Colorado Springs on Thursday as The Classical Academy retired his jersey, the message from the first-team All-Pro focused on the woefully unsuccessful day that proceeded this run.

"Everybody has down days," Carlson said to students of the school from which he graduated in 2013. "I think it's how you choose to respond to your adversity that really shapes your future in a lot of ways."

Carlson's down day came in his second game in the NFL. Kicking for the Minnesota Vikings, who had drafted him in the fifth round out of Auburn earlier that year, he misfired on all three field goal attempts in a game at Lambeau Field that resulted in a tie between the Vikings and Green Bay Packers.

The Vikings cut him the next day.

Carlson spoke how he leaned on his Christian faith and his support system of family, friends and former teachers and coaches. He also dug deep into the mental aspect of the game and made some technical adjustments. And when the Raiders gave him a chance a few months later he made 16-of-17 field goal attempts to close the season and has maintained an historic clip ever since.

He owns the Raiders' all-time record with 89.9% accuracy on field goal attempts — including 24-of-29 from beyond 50 yards. He has twice led the NFL in scoring, set a league record in 2021 by making all nine lead-changing field goals he attempted and established another this past season by making 11 kicks from 50 yards or longer.

But as TCA football coach Justin Rich unveiled Carlson's now-retired No. 35 that he wore with the Titans — Rich has held onto the actual game-worn jersey through several football office moves at the school — he said the decision to honor Carlson went beyond his playing ability.

"It's great because everything we talk about as a program and as a school, he's the living embodiment of it," said Rich, whose program had never previously retired a player's number. "He's been through the highest highs and the lowest lows, and he's been the same person every day."

Carlson found football at TCA by happenstance. He was a soccer player, but the team needed a kicker. Chris Coughlin was coaching the special teams and attended North Springs Alliance Church with the Carlson family. He asked Daniel if he wanted to try kicking, and because the 14-year-old had friends on the team and thought he'd be seen as "cool" if he played football, he watched some YouTube videos on kicking and gave it a try. It was a part-time arrangement for the first two years, as he showed up for games but didn't practice as he instead remained part of the soccer team during the fall season. By his final two years he focused on football, became one of the top recruits in the state, and went on to set the all-time SEC scoring record while at Auburn.

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"It's just crazy," Carlson said, recalling his unlikely path to NFL stardom. "God has a funny sense of humor sometimes."

After speaking to the full high school student body at the end of the school day, Carlson spent time talking with students, friends and former coaches. He later returned for an evening assembly for parents in honor of TCA's 25th anniversary.

Among the students catching a word with Carlson was senior kicker Evan LaPoure, who broke one of Carlson's few remaining records at the school with four field goals in the season-opener this past year.

LaPoure is considering multiple scholarship offers as he intends to kick in college, following the path of Carlson and Carlson's brother, Anders (it was Anders who erased most of Daniel's records at the school and will look to follow him into the NFL this fall).

"When you see someone coming from a school like this and being that successful, it's an easy path to look at and see that you can achieve your dreams if you work hard enough," LaPoure said. "Because he's done so well, that's provided a good path and motivation.

"It was nice getting to know him a little bit as a person. I know the football side of things, but it's awesome seeing how he is as a person off the field."

Carlson noted that most of his public speaking engagements have been at churches or for elementary school students — "that's more my speed" he said of younger audiences. He credits his parents' "forcing" him to take speech and debate at TCA with allowing him to break out of his shell and talk before crowds.

In addressing TCA, he told students how fortunate they were to attend the charter school that helped shape his life.

And now, as Carlson and wife Katherine have two children of their own, a 2 1/2 -year-old daughter and a son who just hit nine months, he has found himself thinking of his former school when planning for his children's future.

"I'm like, where do I find a TCA? What's the closest thing to TCA, because this really was a special place," Carlson said.

"As I matured I realized what a special environment this was, the teachers, the coaches, the staff; they just all really care about the kids here and they want what's best for them academically, in sports, but more important for their character for their future. I hope and pray my kids will get to be at a school like this one day. Maybe we'll have to move back here, but hopefully I'll be playing football for a long time."

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