How a punt on the NFL made this former Swan the best in the business

Paul Roos was not surprised that Australian Michael Dickson not only found his way on to an NFL roster but has since forged a long and successful career, which on Monday will be capped when the “trick-shot” punter has a crucial role to play for the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX.

But there is one aspect about the Sydney-raised star which has shocked him.

In a recent interview on Nine’s Today show, Dickson, widely regarded as the NFL’s best punter, revealed the AFL team he barracks, or, should we say in American parlance, “roots” for.

“He barracks for the Magpies? I didn’t even know that. I am going to text him about that,” Roos, the AFL playing and coaching great said.

“How does he barrack for the Magpies? That’s bizarre”.

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Dickson, 30, was born and raised in Sydney, and remains in regular contact with Roos. At 14, he was a Swans’ academy inductee alongside Isaac Heeney when the program was overseen by Roos, the premiership mentor who had stepped down as senior coach in 2010.

Roos had also coached Dickson in the juniors at Eastern Suburbs, where the key defender played alongside Roos’ son Tyler. Even then, he had a powerful kick – the master skill which helps NFL punters generate maximum hang-time on the ball so that their team can win yardage downfield.

“We had him kicking out in the under-12 and 13s from full-back. He would kick it to the centre on some of the smaller grounds. He was always a beautiful kick. It didn’t surprise me at all when he went to college, and didn’t surprise me when he got drafted [in the NFL],” Roos said.

Dickson was overlooked in the 2014 AFL national draft, Roos suggesting recruiters were still sceptical about the talent in NSW outside Heeney, who was destined to become a superstar.

“He was talented. Probably the thing that hurt him was we had to play him full-back, centre half-back – [even though] he was a bit undersized. That didn’t help him,” Roos said.

“He was a really talented player, he was in Isaac’s year and Tyler’s year, they were pioneers really. That was really when the academy started. Recruiters were a bit sceptical of the academy and NSW kids, and that sort of stuff. Isaac was the stand-out in that year, Callum Mills the next year.

“But when you said was it a surprise that he wasn’t taken, given the status of the academy and NSW footy, and the penchant for Victorians, and South Australians and West Australians, not really because that was the landscape we were all part of in those formative years of the academy.”

Dickson will have family and friends in California for the game on Monday (AEDT). But his father, Anthony, can’t attend because he remains on parole for his involvement in one of Australia’s biggest tax frauds. The former Ernst & Young executive was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2015 – later increased to 14 on appeal – for two counts relating to a corporate tax fraud of $450 million of income through falsely created losses overseas.

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Regardless, as he prepares to play before a global television audience expected to top 200 million, Dickson said his time at the Swans’ academy was pivotal.

“It [sporting journey] definitely started at the Swans academy. My time in Seattle has definitely flown by, but my time at the Swans’ academy definitely prepared me for a lot of this stuff, moving over here, how to be a pro athlete, how to be a professional,” he said.

Chastened but not defeated, Dickson moved to Melbourne in 2015, and turned to ProKick Australia, a coaching program led by former AFL player Nathan Chapman that is designed to help aspiring kickers and punters play American football.

“I was hoping to go pro in Aussie rules football, I could see that wasn’t [going to] happen, unless I went the mature-age route. I was going to take a year off footy, but in that year, it [became] ‘let me see if I can give this American punting thing a crack’,” Dickson explained.

Having learnt all he knew about the sport from films, including Remember the Titans, The Longest Yard and The Blind Side, Dickson’s impressive kicking soon had him touring the University of Texas and claiming a scholarship with the fabled Longhorns.

At Texas, his booming right leg earned him several awards, including All-American honours, and being named most valuable player of the Texas Bowl.

Dickson said the sweet spot on a Sherrin “was definitely much bigger than an American football”, and, initially, this had taken him time to adjust to.

He was so coveted by the Seahawks in the 2018 NFL draft they traded with Denver to move up the board to claim him. He has been with the franchise ever since, becoming the league’s highest-paid punter after inking a four-year deal worth $US16.2 million ($23.4m) in June last year.

Punting can be a lonely, fickle business, just ask fellow Australian Arryn Siposs, who, when with the Philadelphia Eagles, did not play again after his botched kick late in a loss to Kansas City in the 2023 Super Bowl.

Dickson, however, is an established weapon.

Chapman, the head punting coach at ProKick, said Dickson was one of Australia’s elite sports stars, pointing out how remarkable it was that Dickson was in his eighth season with the Seahawks in a league where there is more churn than a stormy sea.

He said Dickson had been “ahead of the game” in the variety of punts he offered, earning the tag among local media as the “trick-shot punter”, through his punts, drop-kicks, spirals and banana-ball kicks. His high-hanging sky balls – he has regularly averaged an elite 48 yards (44 metres) – have been a stand-out.

In 2021, he famously chased down a blocked snap and punted the ball a second time from behind the line of scrimmage; a rare move that led to a rule change regarding illegal kicks.

“He works on his craft relentlessly. He has been with a team that has really backed him, and he has delivered for it,” Chapman said.

“It’s actually a great story. He can do it all. There was probably a year or two where the league just said, ‘kick it as far as you can’, but I felt Dicko was always next-level on where the competition was at. When the majority were doing one thing, he was doing that, plus other stuff. His ability to be at the top level and do so many different kicks so well, when others kept it simple – spiral, high, to the right – he has been next level, and really looked like he has enjoyed it all the time.”

When asked how important variety was, Dickson said he was, “always trying to experiment with new ways and get creative … to make it harder for the returner to catch”.

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Dickson played his role well in the NFC Championship game win over the LA Rams, with five punts for 226 yards.

The two-time All-Pro selection said he was taking a low-key approach – as much as that is possible – to Monday’s clash against the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in California, a rematch of 2015’s epic championship battle. This includes his typical visualisation processes, down to the most minute detail of what to expect on game day.

“You kind of try to not let it be too big for yourself. You do a lot of mental preparation. You do your routine that you have formulated over all these years. You try not to make it bigger than it is. That’s the approach I am taking,” Dickson said.

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