Ike Boettger took a different path to leave practice Friday. Instead of the gradual sloped ramp out of Highmark Stadium, the left guard took the higher-effort route up the stadium stairs.
“We had to mix it up after the loss. Gotta change the juju,” he said.
It’s not a strict superstition, though.
“Oh, I guess? Just want to try something new,” he said.
The fourth-year guard saw his most action this season against the Houston Texans, starting in place of Jon Feliciano. Boettger entered the league with the Bills as a rookie undrafted free agent in 2018, and spent a brief amount of time in Kansas City before coming back to Buffalo. He played 12 games last season and started seven, both career highs. He started all three playoff games for the Bills as well.Â
Outside of gamedays, he shares anything he can with the rookie offensive linemen. There's a geographic connection with some, and the Iowa native never forgets his roots.
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Buffalo News: Your first job was working on a farm. What was that like?
IB: I just grew up on acreage, and both my grandfathers are farmers. My neighbor was a big farmer, so just helping him in the summer and when I wasn’t in sports always. I’d just stay in shape, and it was always fun work.
BN: That’s a lot of physical work, too. What were your favorite and least favorite parts?
IB: I’d say my least favorite was baling hay. Hot, middle of summer, itchy. But my favorite? Just anything with animals was fun. Cows, sheep, pigs – we had a bunch of pigs growing up, so just working with them. And I had a lot of good memories with my dad, just doing stuff on our acreage. … One of my grandfathers lives four hours away, and the other, two hours, so both pretty close.
BN: You were on the Leadership Group for Iowa football. (Boettger was part of the group in 2016 as a junior and in 2017 as a senior.) Are there takeaways from that you can apply here?
IB: Just trying to help younger guys is something that I think is very important, and was instilled in me at the University of Iowa. And I think it’s huge in the NFL. A guy like Spencer Brown, Tommy Doyle – great young guys, both Midwest guys. And Spencer, I knew before he even got drafted here. So it’s been fun, just trying to help them with anything they need, and I think that makes huge difference when you’re a young guy in the NFL.
BN: You’re in that in between, though, of not too old in the NFL, but still old enough to mentor others. How’s that going?
IB: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s a fun opportunity to help those guys and try to get them whatever they need, and then just try to focus on getting better myself every day, and being the best player I can be.
BN: What’s it like to have so many Iowa connections on the team?
IB: I think Buffalo is very similar to a Midwest town, and the feel that I get in Buffalo is very much the same as Iowa, and I think it’s hard not to like the corn-fed connection, I guess.
