LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Tina Nguyen: We're here with Las Vegas Raiders punter AJ Cole. A lot of new faces surrounding this team. How are you feeling?
AJ Cole: Yeah, feeling really good. It's been great to go through OTAs training camp with the new coaching staff a lot of new players. The biggest thing I've been saying is I just feel like we brought in really high character people.
Nguyen: An exciting offseason for you as you are officially engaged man. Congratulations! Be honest... How were you actually feeling in that moment before you got down on one knee?
Cole: Yeah, I didn't really think I was gonna be nervous. Because you know, you do this for a living and you think you kind of got like your emotions like under wrap. But no, I was super nervous. I definitely completely blacked out. I have no idea what I said or wish she said yes. I'm assuming she said yes because she still has the ring.
Nguyen: AJ, it's only taken you three seasons to become one of the top punters in the NFL. But just a couple years ago, you were actually trying out for the team at minicamp. How do you put into words your NFL journey?
Cole: It's crazy. I mean, sometimes I still catch myself walking these halls and out here at the practice facility looking around, and I just can't believe where I'm at. I usually come out here and take a minute just to look around at the field and just try and keep that appreciation that I had when I was a rookie because I came into rookie minicamp and I was like, you know, I might only get three days of practice in NFL, so I'm gonna just soak up as much as I can.
Nguyen: You had a job at IBM lined up if this didn't work out. Would you still have the same hairstyle if you were working at IBM?
Cole: Yeah, so my dad actually paid me to cut my hair when I was trying to get a job. So I had long hair in college. My dad was like, I'll give you like 100 bucks to cut your hair. So I was like going through the interview search, I went to this college job fair, brought my resume, have my long hair, got zero callbacks. I cut my hair go back to the same job fair, like six months later, a bunch of callbacks.
Nguyen: So AJ, last question for you. The unique thing about punting is that you never know when you'll be out there again. It could be 45 minutes could be an hour, so how do you stay so locked in on the sidelines?
Cole: Yeah, that's a great question. It's one of the more typical parts of my job because, you know, if you're a defensive back or an offensive lineman and get a bad play, you get to go in pretty soon and get to redeem yourself and get that bad taste out of your mouth. Sometimes if I have bad punts, I gotta sit with it for 45 minutes. So that's kind of the challenge of my job. It's surviving the highest, surviving the lows and living somewhere in the middle.
