New 49ers kicker Jake Moody grew up a Lions fan, but it seems like some Detroit players took precedence over others for the young football player growing up.
San Francisco’s third-round pick, selected No. 99 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, spoke with KNBR on Thursday, reflecting on his high school years and one of his fondest memories: Meeting former Lions kicker Matt Prater in a neighborhood pizza parlor.
Oh, and Detroit legend Calvin Johnson was there, too. But Moody, a kicking prospect in the middle of deciding what college he wanted to play for, didn't give the wide receiver the time of day with Prater nearby.
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"One of my buddies texted me that Matt Prater and Calvin Johnson were at the local pizza place, which I lived pretty close to," Moody explained. "I quickly threw on a jacket and sprinted to the car, and drove over there as fast as I could. They were there, and I went straight up to Matt Prater and started picking his brain.
"He was my favorite kicker at the time, so that was pretty cool. I guess I got so lost in talking with Matt Prater that I just didn’t even realize that Calvin Johnson was also standing right next to me."
Prater kicked for the Lions from 2014 to 2020, so Moody, part of the Class of 2018, saw the kicker send plenty of game-winning field goals through the uprights for Detroit while he worked toward his high school diploma.
Unsurprisingly, the aspiring NFL kicker wanted to learn anything from Prater, and Moody took so long at the pizza parlor that Johnson eventually interrupted.
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"He actually introduced himself to me, because I was talking to Prater for so long that he said, ‘Hey, I’m Calvin. Nice to meet you,’ " Moody recalled. "That’s probably a first for him, where somebody doesn’t really want to talk to him and they talk to somebody else."
Moody didn't divulge what the two-time Pro Bowl selection Prater told him, but the future 49er certainly went on to make waves of his own in college. Moody kicked for many school records at Michigan before San Francisco drafted him, making the 23-year-old just the second kicker to be selected within the top 100 picks in the last 15 drafts.
Time will tell what Moody goes on to do with the 49ers, with big shoes to fill in replacing veteran kicker Robbie Gould. But maybe one day he'll be the one giving advice over a large pepperoni.