Falcons Kicker Zane Gonzalez’s Mental Health Disorder Comes To Light After Everyone Noticed What He Did Before Dramatic Game-Winning Field-Goal vs. Bucs [VIDEO]

Different season. Different team. Same Zane Gonzales. Same game-winning field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It’s Now or Never For the Buffalo Bills

The Atlanta Falcons kicker stepped up to secure an upset win for the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night, sealing a fourth-quarter shutout with a 43-yard kick that sent Todd Bowles into a meltdown.

Gonzalez’s kick put Atlanta ahead with no time left on the clock. The Bucs had entered the final period leading 28-14 but failed to score a single point.

Touchdowns from Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts pulled them to within two points after they missed a pair of two-point conversions.

The 30-year-old placekicker stepped up to put the winning seal on the game in the dying moments. And cameras caught him fidgeting with his hair while he ran up to take the kick.

Atlanta is already out of the playoffs, but that hardly meant they could do without a morale-boosting win. Their kicker appeared to be nervous – after all, the prospect of a game-winning kick in a packed stadium can’t be easy.

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His actions, though, had nothing to do with nervousness.

As it turns out, Gonzalez has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). He’s been dealing with it since he was a child.

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“It affected me a lot more as a young kid. … It’s just little thoughts, little funny habits that I do,” he told the Charlotte Observer in 2021.

The disorder triggers “intrusive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions) that can cause significant distress and interfere with daily life.”

Zane Gonzalez Admits He Could Be A Pain In The Butt, And The Bucs Know It All Too Well

Dec 11, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Atlanta Falcons placekicker Zane Gonzalez (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)
It was a case of Deja Vu for Zane Gonzalez and the Bucs on Thursday night, albeit the stakes were not as high.

The former seventh-round pick scored a late field goal against Tampa Bay during the playoffs last season, knocking them out and sending the Washington Commanders to the Divisional Round.

He went viral for touching his hair back then, too.

Gonzalez has been open about his struggles with said disorder.

“I’ve done a lot of research on it,” he told the aforementioned outlet. “Specifically, sometimes I rinse my hands before kicks. … And I was kind of curious about that. But that’s one of the most common things that people with OCD do. It instantly makes you just feel relieved. I don’t know why, if it’s just a placebo effect. It’s not something I love having. But it just is what it is, and I’ve learned to deal with it.”

While there were claims that his transparency caused him to slip in the 2017 NFL Draft, Gonzalez believes it actually helped his career.