Bucs’ barefoot bunch: Why 3 Tampa Bay players take the field without shoes before games

National Football League

Updated Sep. 15, 2023 2:20 p.m. ET

An NFL playing field 90 minutes or so before kickoff can be a busy place, with players from both teams going through warmups, national anthems being rehearsed, enormous flags being unfurled on the field and rolled back up in preparation for all that’s ahead.

Sometime late Sunday morning, still a while before the Bucs kick off their home opener against the Bears, Tampa Bay tight end Ko Kieft, outside linebacker Anthony Nelson and defensive lineman Pat O’Connor — perhaps with another teammate — will venture forth through the field barefoot, taking in a few laps in a zen moment before the violent chaos of an NFL game.

“It just gets your feet feeling right, before you have to slam them into some cleats for three hours,” said Kieft, who grew up around the cornfields and farms of Sioux Center, Iowa. “You get some grounding. You can go out there, envision what you’re about to do during the game. I did it all last year and now we’re just keeping it going.”

The barefoot walk started with Kieft, who had done it in college. As a rookie last year he convinced Nelson — who played at Iowa — to join him, and O’Connor soon followed

“Now we’ve just got to do it. It feels right,” said O’Connor, who grew up in Chicago and played at Eastern Michigan. “It’s a routine thing. We get to a stadium, the first thing we do is walk on the field together, get a feel for everything. It’s always good to have that barefoot feeling.”

Sometimes they talk as they walk, sometimes they have earbuds in, listening to music, but it’s a part of their buildup to kickoff.

“It’s just something to center us before the game,” Nelson said. “You walk around, take in the stadium, get the blood flowing without wearing yourself out. I don’t know all the benefits of it, but for me, it’s me, Ko and Pat, we do it every game. You relax, joke around, get out of the locker room a little bit. I feel like a little kid again, and it brings that feeling back.”

Kieft sees a value in lowering his heart rate and relaxing his body before a game, knowing the energy and intensity he’ll play with once the whistle is blown. There are scientific claims of medical benefits to walking barefoot, from increasing circulation to decreasing inflammation, though for some, the mental aspects of a peaceful walk are more easily recognized.

“Ko’s kind of a nerd, and he always spoke of the benefits of utilizing the electromagnetic field of the earth, the frequencies of the earth for healing,” said former Bucs tight end Cam Brate, who joined the three on some pregame walks last year. “I listened to Ko, gave it a shot, and I felt absolutely no difference. For me, it was all about the brotherhood, being out there with the guys. I’m a huge football fan, never took it for granted playing in the NFL, so for me, it was about walking around the stadium, appreciating the fact I was able to play a football game on such a stage, just soaking it all in with my buddies.”

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Just as players appreciate the differences of playing on grass as opposed to turf, Kieft would much rather walk a field barefoot on grass than turf — “you get black stuff on your feet, all the pellets and stuff,” he said.

Brate gives thanks to longtime Bucs head groundskeeper Rob Julian, saying he always considered the fields at at the Bucs’ practice facility “the most perfect football field you could imagine, the best grass in the world,” preferring it to Raymond James Stadium or any other stadium.

“I don’t think any of us qualify as fast enough to have the surface of the field really matter,” Brate said of the barefoot gang and any preference between grass vs. turf. “Maybe would Ko would think he was.”

The pregame barefoot walk is an every-week tradition, regardless of being home or away, grass or turf, hot or cold. A good test of that will come Dec. 17, when the Bucs play at the Packers at Lambeau Field, which might merit just a quick lap or a few steps.

“I did it at Minnesota in like November,” Kieft said. “That was a little bit dumb. So we’ll see.”