Back in early April, Green Bay Packets tight end Tucker Kraft fielded a couple of questions about pickleball from local reporters before embarking on the team’s 2025 Tailgate Tour around Wisconsin.

One of his responses went viral on social media because it was simply outstanding.

“How serious are you about this pickleball?” asked a journalist in the crowd. “I’m hearing quite a buzz about your game.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a teenager or an elderly person, you can get this smoke,” replied the 24-year-old South Dakota State University product with a smile. “I’ll take a drop shot on a 90-year-old. I’m not afraid.”

That’s as good as it gets from a professional athlete who isn’t earning a paycheck by playing America’s fastest-growing sport for a living.

Kraft is still a newcomer to pickleball after picking up a paddle for the first time “in February or early March” of this year, but he definitely knows the lingo.

“Some of my wife’s friends got together at Pickleball Kingdom in Appleton, and I went along. I would say it was pretty rough. I was trying to relate it as closely as I could to ping pong, and then I realized that you have to hit the ball a lot harder,” recalled Kraft, who’s entering his third campaign with the Packers. “By the end of the night, though, I figured out how to hit a decent forehand. Once you really learn how to serve properly and more consistently with speed and spin, your game just kind of takes off after that because then you can play the game within the game and focus on ball position. If you find yourself at the front of the net more often, a lot of the kitchen play is just a great time.”

Sounds like he caught the pickleball bug from the jump, right?

You better believe it.

“By the second time my wife and I played together, I was in,” confirmed Kraft, before eventually incorporating pickleball into his workout program. “At first I was just playing it because I thought it was fun and I was learning how to play it, and then it evolved into being a part of my offseason training. I’d train four days a week, and on Wednesday and Saturday, I’d play pickleball. We’d run singles for like two straight hours, just for cardio, instead of getting on a bike, using some kind of other cardio machine, or just running. For four or five weeks straight, I was playing three to six hours a week.”

Pickleball was also a welcome addition to his fitness regimen since it puts some key football-related skills to the test, too.

It’s easy to see why more and more NFLers have jumped on the bandwagon.

“One thing for sure is the amount of change in direction. You have to do everything in a level stance. Especially in singles, you’re hitting and retreating, going to retrieve a ball, or just playing the patient dink game and setting up around the kitchen,” explained Kraft. “It’s just about more strategy and patience.”

One of his favorite opponents is Packers teammate and fellow tight end Luke Musgrave.

Luckily for them, The Picklr is just two miles away from Lambeau Field on Holmgren Way.

“Luke’s a good player. He’s as competitive as anybody you put on the court. When we’re out there, we’re playing a gentleman’s game. We’re not giving the BS out calls. We’re trying to play as fair as we can amongst each other,” praised Kraft, a Pickleballtv fan who enjoys watching women’s and mixed doubles. “When I play with my buddies, we play aggressive. We don’t necessarily care if we’re getting pelted because that’s just the competitive nature of the game. You can’t blame that on somebody. Grow up. We already play a violent enough sport.”

With that in mind, would he actually “take a drop shot on a 90-year-old” like he mentioned last month?

“Yeah, I mean, not necessarily every time, but you’ve got to make sure they’re getting up to the net. They can’t just sit back there and expect me to play nice the whole game,” joked Kraft. “But, pickleball’s a sport. It doesn’t matter really the level of athleticism your opponent has because each of their skills might vary. You might have these bigger, older dudes that are in their 60s and 70s that can sit at the front of the net and they’re just a wall and you can’t get anything by them, or you’ve got some young kids that want to smash and play fast. Every player has their own pace, and it’s fun to play around with different people.”

It certainly is.

And the picklesphere is obviously thrilled to have this rising NFL star on board.

“It’s just an easy sport to play for a long time,” concluded Kraft. “As long as you’re having fun, it doesn’t really matter how competitive the games get or who you’re playing with.”