Wil Lutz: The NFL Underdog Gets a Kick Out of His English Cream Golden Retrievers

The New Orleans Saints’ Placekicker and Fan Favorite Makes His Triumphant Return to Football After Overcoming Injury with Golden Retrievers Nash and Benny by His Side

Since his debut as placekicker for the New Orleans Saints in 2016, Wil Lutz has been beloved by Who Dat fans for the superlative feats and game-winning kicks he’s accomplished with the team. After Saints Coach Sean Payton plucked him off the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad, where Lutz had waited in the wings for a chance at making the NFL, Lutz went on to become the all-time leading Saints playoff kicker, make the Pro Bowl team in 2019 and kick the third-longest field goal in Saints history—to name a few career highlights. But injuries, setbacks, surgery and rehab kept Lutz out of the game for the entire 2021 season. Now Number 3 of the Black and Gold has made a remarkable recovery and has come back strong in the 2022 season, and his powerful leg is back to business splitting the uprights. In April, he and wife Megan welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Owen who’s brought immense joy to their lives, and has turned their precious pet dogs Nash and Benny into “big brothers.”

“Nash and Benny are English cream retrievers,” says Lutz of his friendly, fluffy, gorgeous pups. These particular types of golden retrievers go by multiple monikers: English cream retrievers, English cream golden retrievers, English golden retrievers, English white goldens and so on, and their light color is one of the various shades in the spectrum of gold found in golden retrievers’ coats. The Lutzes became interested in these wonderful dogs because many of their friends have them as pets. “Believe it or not my wife had never had a dog in her life. For a while I’d been trying to convince her to get one. We went out for drinks with friends who had an English cream retriever and she laid next to us all night, didn’t bark, didn’t go crazy. I looked at my wife and said, ‘Let’s get one of these!’ We got Nash in June of 2020 and he was such a good dog that my wife was like, ‘I want a second one!’ so we got Benny in June of 2021. Being lonely during COVID lockdowns motivated us to get them. Nash got his name because he was our first dog when we lived on Nashville Street, then for Benny—we just Googled it and thought it was a cool name!” (Laughs.) “They’re just great dogs and we’ve been super happy with them.”

The pups are actual blood brothers who share the same parents and are one litter apart, and their undeniable bond developed shortly after they met. “When Benny arrived, Nash would sniff him, knock him over then run away!” says Lutz. “I think Nash was jealous and didn’t know what was going on with this other dog. Now they’re glued at the hip. I won’t walk one without the other. I feel bad leaving one alone; it’s almost uncomfortable. As bad as it sounds, we joke that whenever one dies the other will die. They can’t live without one another. I’ve wondered if they knew they were brothers and I like to think they do know they’re siblings. Somehow their breeder, Starr Goldens in Ohio, has several dogs in the New Orleans area that are related to them. They’ve met them all and I don’t know if they know they’re related, but they’ve growled at some of them.”

Nash was successful for making Megan a “crazy dog mom” according to Lutz. “Like I said, my wife never had a dog before and I had to convince her to get one,” says Lutz. “I called her once and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a dog,’ and she was like, ‘Oh my God’—it turned into a fiasco. I said, ‘Fine, I didn’t really get a dog but I wanted to hear your reaction.’ After that conversation she said, ‘OK, if a dog is gonna make you happy, let’s get a dog.’ And I said, ‘OK, I’m going to let you pick whatever dog you agree to allow me to get.’ That’s how we fell upon Nash. She didn’t know how to handle dogs but I kid you not, on the first day when Nash was delivered to our house, he was her baby. She fell in love with him completely, and she loves Nash and Benny.” Nash and Megan made a splash together when they both dressed up and walked the runway in November of 2021 at the Mutts to Models Charity Gala in Covington, Louisiana, hosted by actor and Covington native Ian Somerhalder, which benefitted the St. Tammany Parish Department of Animal Services amongst other beneficiaries. “We took Nash because he’s more obedient. Benny would have jumped off the runway and started loving on people!”

Nash and Benny flipped the script regarding the older-brother/younger-brother dynamic. “It’s so funny—Benny came in and took over,” says Lutz. “He’s younger but he runs the house. Benny’s the alpha; he’s gotta be first in everything he does. He’s the first one out the door. Nash is a softy for sure and very well behaved. If I call Nash’s name, Benny comes running right up to us and he’s content with it. Nash is super easy and the chill brother. Benny’s the life of the party. He’s super persistent. We don’t allow dogs on the furniture but he’ll try until we say yes. I need to do some type of deal with Dyson Vacuums because they have completely saved our house, it’s pretty wild. The dogs are shedding machines. Luckily they’re white and so is our furniture so it blends right in!”

Benny will take any and all chances to bust loose from home. “If there’s a crack in the door, Benny is out!” says Lutz. “He’ll run. Neighbors we’ve never met come down and say, ‘Hey, we just happen to know that you guys have English cream retrievers and one’s on our front porch right now.’ We’ve made friends through Benny getting out of the house. Fortunately he doesn’t run into the street. We have a funny video of my wife cleaning the windows and Benny sneaking out a window, and you can see my wife kind of poke her head out and wonder where the dog is, and we found him six houses down. It fits his personality. He’s the trouble child!”

Unsurprisingly, Benny made quite a grand arrival into the Lutz family. “It wasn’t planned, but the only day Benny could be delivered to us was the day of my wife’s New Orleans bridal shower,” says Lutz. “My wife had her girlfriends at the house and all the guys got away, and I got the call that Benny was almost there so I had to interrupt the bridal shower to meet Benny at the house. So there’s all the girls having a good time and in comes this 6-week-old puppy, and it turned into a whole other party! We got a picture of me and all of the girls and this little puppy, so Benny was a little cherry on top of that event.”

The dogs are becoming more aware of Owen, and vice versa. “Nash and Benny just lick his toes and walk away,” says Lutz. “They don’t give him the time of day yet, but pretty soon they’ll have to deal with him!” (Laughs.) “He’ll be pulling their hair, mounting them and riding them like horses! I don’t think they’ll have an issue with it, they’ll be good. One reason we chose the breed is because they’re so family-oriented. The other day for the first time, Nash walked by and Owen’s eyes followed him. He must have realized, OK, that wasn’t a human—what was that?

Now that we have a newborn and I’m playing this season we’re recruiting any dog walkers out there!”

It’s an understatement to say Lutz is elated and back in action, and he’s appreciated all the concern and well wishes from his fans. “I feel great!” says Lutz. “When you can make a step forward it’s the greatest feeling in the world. I love the game of football and when it’s taken away from you and you miss out on a year it adds a whole new perspective. I’m excited and motivated and it kind of feels like my rookie year again.” With the NFL season in full swing and Lutz traveling to play in stadiums around the country—and to the UK for the Saints’ Oct. 2 game against the Minnesota Vikings at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium—the dogs, Nash in particular, will fret when they see the suitcases. “They know what’s going on. Nash is my baby, he’s a daddy’s boy. He knows when I’m leaving and he’ll throw up when I’m gone. It’s kind of sad. But my wife’s from Florida and we go there a few months every year, and they get excited when we’re packing the car. They both love car rides. So it’s mixed feelings; when I leave they get upset but when we all leave together they get really happy.”

Like their dad Nash and Benny are athletic, strictly on land for now. “We’ve purposely not introduced them to water,” says Lutz. “We have a pool. Heaven forbid we were dealing with something and next thing we’d be dealing with two big wet dogs! They’ll kind of jump in your lap. Benny puts his head in your lap and looks at you like, ‘C’mon Dad, let’s play!’ They love us throwing the ball a hundred yards and they bring it back. Maybe someday we’ll get them in water because retrievers were made for it but I’m not throwing them in Lake Pontchartrain for a gator to get ’em!” (Laughs.)

And with Gumbo, the Saints’ anthropomorphic Saint Bernard mascot, it’s no wonder many of the players own dogs. “We live in New Orleans during the offseason, so we’ll take the dogs to the practice facility where there’s tons of space for them to run around. We’ve run into teammates and their dogs at NOLA City Bark Dog Park and at the Pontiff Dog Park in Old Metairie. There’s plenty of dogs in the locker room, that’s for sure!”

Lutz grew up in Newnan, Georgia with his parents and his older brother Wesley and has had dogs all his life. “For some reason, my mom had an attraction to Chihuahuas so I probably had four Chihuahuas during my childhood, and a poodle and a Catahoula, which was my first dog,” says Lutz. “I was so young I didn’t understand about the Chihuahuas. They were super snappy; there was a lot of testosterone in the house! That only made me want bigger, softer dogs.” And history indicates that Lutz was often scheming to get dogs into his life. “A while back, a guy I went to high school with found this boxer mix and one morning I showed up on my front porch with her without telling my parents, and they were not happy about it. My love of dogs goes way back!” (Laughs.) “It was a bad move and my parents didn’t allow me to keep her, but fortunately we found her a good home. I went to all ends to find ways to get a dog!” (Laughs.)

In his senior year of college at Georgia State—where he played football and is undoubtedly the most successful NFL player from that program—Lutz surprised his parents with Cooper, a striking blue-eyed Catahoula puppy. “My parents weren’t happy about that; I adopted him because I grew up with one and didn’t think I’d make the NFL,” says Lutz. “They said, ‘We’re not taking him. This is your dog; raise him, take care of him.’ I was like, ‘Oh of course, I’ll do everything.’ Then the Saints call me and want me on the team so I told my parents, ‘Well, he’s your dog now!’” (Laughs.) “They still have Cooper. He’s a great dog and I wanted to take him with me to New Orleans, but he belongs to my parents and they really love him. It’s cool and ironic that Catahoulas are the Louisiana state dog and I end up in Louisiana! They’ve got a lot of energy but they’re great home dogs and I get to see Cooper whenever I visit my parents in Georgia.”

Georgia is also where the Lutz canine clan earned gentlemanly skills. “My brother-in-law Blake and his wife Kelly run The Prodigal Pooch in Atlanta, an amazing dog training company and they did a great job training Nash, Benny and Cooper,” says Lutz. “It’s not just puppies they work with. Cooper is seven years old and was stubborn and couldn’t do anything; he walks on a leash now, which was important for my parents. It’s a myth that you can’t train older dogs and The Prodigal Pooch has no problems teaching them new tricks.”

Lutz says that although it may sound cliché, he loves the companionship of dogs. “Whether you’re in the best or the worst of moods, it doesn’t matter,” says Lutz. “A dog is even-keeled and always right there next to you whether you need them or you don’t. Throughout my rehab my dogs always kept me company, which was mental rehab in itself! That relationship with your dog—they cuddle up with you, they don’t talk back—that’s unconditional love there. I think that’s so cool.”

For more information please see @wil_lutz5, neworleanssaints.com, @saints, starrgoldens.com and theprodigalpooch.com