PHILADELPHIA — Part of Cade York's kicking motion, like so many kickers, includes extending his left arm out as he swings his leg through the football. Look very closely, and one can see a tattoo on the inner biceps of that arm.

On the tattoo is a Bible verse: John 16:33. Translated in the New International Version, it says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Those words resonate as loudly for York now, prepping for his second season with the Browns, as they did when he first heard them as a freshman at LSU.

"If I miss in a game or some big kick's coming up, I'll just start punching my arm to remind myself," York said last Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the Beacon Journal. "When I kick that, my left arm sticks out, so that's why I chose to put it [there]. … It's a reminder for me, and I like to use it as a way to show my faith."

When York first got the tattoo, he was battling an up-and-down freshman season in college. As he recalled that moment while sitting on a couch at the Browns training facility last Wednesday, he was trying to put aside the memories of an up-and-down rookie season in the NFL last year in which he made 24 of 32 field goals and 35 of 37 point-after kicks.

That season included highs like hitting a game-winning 58-yard field goal in York's very first game, earning him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. However, there were the lows of missed or blocked field goals that could've won or tied eventual losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens in a three-week span.

Those memories, though, have not been easy to erase this preseason. Instead, they've crawled back to the surface with not one but two missed field goals in the Browns' first two exhibition games.

There was a 49-yard miss in the Hall of Fame Game against the New York Jets in Canton. Then, in his only preseason game at his home stadium, York missed a 46-yarder against the Washington Commanders that started right, and never really changed its trajectory.

"In the Jets game, the first kick of the season, thought I hit it really good, looked up and it moved right on me," York said before last Friday's kick. "In that moment, I think before, I've always been someone that would get mad first and then I feel like that would motivate me to be better. I feel like that, even though it might've helped me in certain times be a better kicker, I don't think that's healthy for me."

York hasn't spoken since the second miss. He was one of the first players to leave the locker room after Friday's game.

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has said multiple times since that game he remains confident in his 22-year-old kicker.

"It’s a small sample size," Stefanski said Saturday. "(He's) going to continue to work. Cade’s working very hard, just like the rest of our team is. I think it’s preseason football for all of us. None of us are ready to play or coach in that first game just yet. So, we’re working through it.”

The verse on York's inner biceps, in the King James Version, "trouble" is translated to "tribulation." That word is defined as a state of great trouble or suffering.

Two missed kicks in the preseason may not seem like "great trouble or suffering" in the grand scheme of things. That is, unless you're a kicker who was a fourth-round draft pick and is still trying to find steady footing even after a year in the league, then finding that "peace" can be difficult.

"It's kind of a hard one to put into practice," York said. "It's one you can, in the back of your mind, you can think about it, but in those moments when you have a chance to put it in practice is the hardest time to do it. It's when you're down from having a bad game or even if you have a great game and you're on top of the world, you can't ride that high. You have to be grounded in the fact that, OK, cool, you just did a good job at a game, but you still have your life outside football."

The angry Browns fan on the sports-talk radio station or social media would insert a mean-spirited joke about "life outside football" for York right here. They'd talk about him in the same way they've talked about every other kicker who's passed through Cleveland since Phil Dawson moved on in free agency in 2013.

That talk is something York's heard before, going back to those freshman-year struggles at LSU. It was while dealing with those issues on a Tigers team that still went on to win the national championship that he was drawn to the message represented by the tattoo on his inner left biceps.

To York, "life outside of football" is what he's tried to lean on to keep him grounded during life inside of the game. That's not just his faith, but also his family in parents John and Keisha, as well as sister Peyton and brother Carson.

All of it, however, is a support system York is trying to lean upon as he tries to navigate the unforgiving world of the NFL.

"So many people just put all their identity in football," York said. "While that can be great when things are going great, if anything goes wrong, it's like it really kills you because you put everything into the game and you're like, if you mess it up or lose it, you just gave everything to something you lost.

"So I think that's a big thing for me, my identity outside of football. Yes, when I come to work, I take it very seriously and I want to be the best at it, but it's knowing that your worth isn't based off of anything you do on the field."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cade York finds 'peace' in face of 'tribulation' in kicking struggles