Seattle Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka made the right call Sunday.
With the wind working against him, Hauschka thought it was a bad idea to try what would have been a 53-yard field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The kick would have narrowed down the 49ers' lead, but Newsday reported that Hauschka spoke to coach Pete Carroll and talked his way out of the kick.
"I didn't really want to kick it, to tell you the truth," Hauschka said after the game. "It was into the wind ... I didn't think it was the right decision and I let coach Carroll know that."
There was obvious confusion at that point, as Hauschka and the field-goal unit were already on the field. Hauschka appeared to just stand out on the field, and eventually Carroll took a timeout.
"You have to be honest with yourself," he said. "It was the wind at that moment. Sometimes you can make that, but I felt the wind at that moment was into the face enough to not want to try that kick. I grabbed him on the sideline as I ran out because I could see the flags (on top of the uprights) and I told him: 'We shouldn't kick this.'"
Quarterback Russell Wilson and the offense came back onto the field, so give Haushka credit for a decision that shifted the momentum of the game. Wilson threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse, giving the Seahawks a three-point lead on the way to a 23-17 win.
"We had some options there," Carroll said. "We wanted to get points ... We weren't going to punt."
