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OXNARD, Calif. – Cowboys punter Mat McBriar has a special relationship with his right cleat. He knows just when his Nike Vapor K is ready for game action.

"It'll say something to me," McBriar said, "whisper in my ear."

Punters and kickers are picky when it comes to their cleats, especially the ones they use in games. They keep them in special bags away from the riff-raff. Once they fall in love, they care for the cleats unconditionally and try to have a long-lasting relationship.

"It's like a receiver with his gloves," said kicker Nick Folk, who made the Pro Bowl last year as a rookie. "It's got to be a certain glove in a certain game, certain weather. It's got to feel good around your hand. These have to feel good on our feet to wear in a game."

So picky are McBriar and Folk about their cleats that they will shower with them on their feet, and they will also bring them into the steam room. The goal is to make the cleats as soft and flexible as possible, so it molds to their foot.

"It's got to take a liking to your eye, like a golf club," McBriar said. "It's got to look like you want to hit it."

McBriar likes his kicking shoe to have a clean look. It must be black and cannot have any stitching on the toe. But he is running out of them. Nike has discontinued the cleat, so he has asked the company to search factories for more.

A normal game shoe will last three seasons. He is breaking in another shoe during training camp, but it has yet to whisper to him that it's ready.

"Kangaroo leather," McBriar said. "Kangaroo is going to stand up a little longer than others. Cow skin is good, but I always prefer to go with kangaroo, especially over synthetic. I don't like synthetic."

Folk has about seven pairs of his Nike cleats, the ones dyed with a royal-blue swoosh. He hopes his cleats last the season, but the FieldTurf at different stadiums causes the bottom to separate from the shoe when he clips the ground. He has shaved down some of the studs to avoid friction with the ground.

"You've got to get it a little tight, and it'll expand a little bit and fit your foot," Folk said. "If you put my shoe on, it would feel weird because it's just molded to my foot now."

Most kickers and punters will wear preposterously small cleats, although Folk's 10 ½ is just a size down from the 11 ½ he wears with normal shoes. McBriar, however, will cram is size 12 into a 9 ½ .

"I feel like the thinner the leather, the harder hit I get on the ball," said McBriar, who has averaged 44.7 yards per punt in his career. "I try not to have anything that has got any cushion in it at all. The harder my foot is, I feel maybe the more power I can translate into the ball."

And what happens to the poor left-footed cleat? It doesn't even end up in a sort of Island of Misfit Toys. It goes into the trash.

"There's probably a Web site with a lot of left footers looking for shoes tossed by right footers," McBriar said. "I better look into that."