GOAT: Deep Snapper

League minimum for a 10-year vet is something like $1 million a year. Pensions are something like $400 a month times the years they're in the league, so something like $4K a month.

 

It's not just a matter of snapping the ball.
Which on its own takes great hand/wrist strength and precision.
You have to be able to pop up quickly and block.
Not something any bum off the street can do.

 

I was by far the best long snapper on my 7th/8th grade team. Unfortunately I was also the main punter and placekicker. Virtually nobody else on the team could snap it back 10 yards without bouncing it twice. Until the coach hit on the idea of having the quarterback do it.

Unfortunately in those days it was legal for the defense to utterly blast the long snapper in the head as soon as he made the snap.

So the coach was left with the alternatives:

1) Have me long-snap the ball 10-12 yards back to a kid who could punt it about 15 yards

2) Have the QB long-snap it back to me, I get off a nice 35-yard boomer, in the meantime the QB gets his bell rung and is woozy for half a quarter

3) Have the "backup" long snapper snap it to me, standing 5 (not 12) yards back of the line of scrimmage, leading to about half the punts being blocked. If I stood any farther than 5 yards back, the kid would either dribble it at my feet or air-mail it completely over my head.

Probably the greatest play I ever made in junior high football was a Paul Warfield/Willie Mays over-the-head two-hand sprinting grab of a long snap the kid had space-launched about 15 yards over my head.

I hauled it in, got myself turned around, took a couple steps and boomed the greatest punt of my life, probably 65 yards in the air. Unfortunately I was already about 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

 

We had a high school kid in our coverage area who made it his goal to get a college scholarship as a long snapper. He was about 6-4, but a little slow to play receiver and a little undersized to be a tight end or lineman. He also went to a tiny high school. But he figured out pretty early that he could long snap, so he worked at it and went to a bunch of offseason camps to get his name out there. He sent out a bunch of highlight tapes to whoever he could find an address for (I can't imagine how thrilling long snapper highlights are) and set up his own recruiting web site. He, not his high school coach, did the majority of the recruiting legwork.
It worked. He signed with a major D-I program and played two or three seasons before injuries got him. It was a pretty impressive story.

 

I was the long snapper in high school. I wasn't terribly good, but I never missed during the game. There's really no good way to write this, but ... the punter hit me in the ass with the ball one night. Still the worst pain I've ever felt.

 

For some reason back around 1970 there was a brief vogue of long snappers, instead of gripping the ball in one hand and essentially throwing a spiral pass between your legs with a wrist snap, gripping the ball equally in both hands and simply heaving it back as hard as you could with both arms.

Instead of imparting the usual spiral, this resulted in a rapid end-over-end spin/tumble of the ball, so instead of catching it in your hands you had to 'breadbasket it,' trap it against your gut, then shift it around and get a handle on it and punt it (usually by this time the rushers were plowing you into the dirt).

Also if the snapper released the ball about 1/100 of a second too late it took off like a rocket completely over the punter's head (see above).

We've come a long way, baby.

I have seen some HS kids using this technique as recently as a decade or so ago but happily we have moved into the new era of long snapping.

 

Mike Leach (not the coach) is a good story. Started out as a tight end and punter at Boston U., then when they dropped football, went to William and Mary. Gets invite to Titans camp. One day, instead of punting, he starts snapping the ball back. A coach goes up to him and suggests he change from punting to snapping while trying to make the team as a tight end. He does, and after a long stint with the Broncos, went to the Cardinals and just finished his 14th season in the league.

And he's never caught a pass.

 

Between Dale Hellestrae and L.P. Ladouceur, that's more than 20 years of solid long snapping for the Cowboys.

The snaps have been good, but the holds have been dicey at times.

 

Patrick Mannelly AINEC

 

Headline on the Trib website's front page: Bears long snapper Mannelly expected to return

Can't imagine the status of a lot of long snappers generates a headline:


Pat Mannelly will undergo minor hip surgery soon and if all goes expected, he will have a job with the Chicago Bears when he’s healed up.

Multiple sources said Mannelly, 38, will have an opportunity to return as the team’s long snapper if he chooses. The veteran told the Tribune he was going to take some time to map out his future after the season, also revealing he had surgery forthcoming.

Mannelly holds the franchise record for games played with 245 and his 16 seasons of service are two more than the next closest: Hall of Famer Bill George and Doug Buffone. Only two long snappers in the history of the NFL have appeared in more games. Trey Junkin holds the record with 281 and David Binn played in 256.

It makes sense to bring Mannelly back as he’s been a model of consistency throughout his career. The club signed long snapper Brandon Hartson to a reserve/futures contract at the end of the season but provided everything checks out well for Mannelly, he will have a chance to return this spring.