Zane Gonzalez Wasn’t Just Messing With His Hair, His OCD Propelled Him At Arizona State, Now The Commanders

There was a moment during the final seconds of the Washington Commanders playoff win over Tampa Bay that had fans at home pondering what Zane Gonzalez was doing with his hair before he drilled the game-winning field goal to send his team to the next round of the NFL Playoffs. 

No, Gonzalez wasn't making sure his hair looked good on television before his big moment, and he wasn’t looking to tie his cleats numerous times on the sidelines just for comfort. The moments that have gone viral all over social media date back to his childhood, and also his time playing football at Arizona State. 

On Sunday night, it was on full-display as football fans looked on. 

Known around campus as ‘Legatron’, Zane Gonzalez made a name for himself playing football for the Sun Devils. During his senior season in 2016, he won the Lou Groza award for best kicker in college football, which was also the same season that he set the NCAA record for most field goals made in college, finishing with 96, later broken by Christopher Dunn. 

But it was during his time in Tempe that folks around campus started to notice certain traits about Zane Gonzalez that made him into who he is today. The former Sun Devils kicker suffers from ‘OCD’, also known as obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

What you saw on the sidelines during the Commanders game on Sunday night was also known as ‘tics’, which is just repetitive movements, like messing with your hair numerous times before one of the biggest kicks of your career. 

Zane Gonzalez First Discussed His OCD At Arizona State

For Gonzalez, he has been dealing with this since he was a child, but learning different ways to slow things down, but can also be a benefit to his profession. 

While at Arizona State, he learned to deal with this mental-health disorder in different ways, which he still carries to this day in the NFL. 

"It's a lot of little things I do," Zane Gonzalez told AZCentral back in 2016 about having OCD. "My family knows little (motor) tics, and they'll catch me doing it. For the most part, I've learned to hide them or make them casual. Nobody really knows. It makes you more of a perfectionist, which you need to be as a kicker. I've just accepted it and learned to make it a better trait."

TEMPE, AZ - OCTOBER 08:  After kicking a 46 yard field goal, place kicker Zane Gonzalez #5 of the Arizona State Sun Devils is congratulated by head coach Todd Graham for breaking the all time NCAA division 1 FBS kicking record during the second half of the college football game against the UCLA Bruins at Sun Devil Stadium on October 8, 2016 in Tempe, Arizona.  (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

As you could tell on Sunday night, the Commanders kicker was dealing with his obsessive-compulsive disorder, right before he would send his team to the next round of the playoffs with a kick that actually doinked the upright. 

For the folks at Arizona State watching their former kicker come through at the biggest moment of his professional career, this was nothing new. But if you see Gonzalez messing with his hair, or readjusting his cleats multiple times next week, just know there's a darn good reason why.