Seattle's Seasoned Snapper
SEPTEMBER 8, 2007 Listen to this Story
- Long Snapper
- Enlarge This Image
Web Resources
Football season starts this weekend, and while many people are keeping tabs on the quarterback and running back, the long snapper may get overlooked. Weekend America reporter John Moe has the story of an athlete who is often overlooked and really doesn't have to do much on the team.
Notes from Senior Reporter John Moe
When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more in life than to be a third-string quarterback for my hometown Seattle Seahawks. Not the starter, mind you. Way too much pressure. Not even the back-up who knows that he is one torn ligament away from taking center stage. No, I liked the idea of the third-stringer who was going to spend the game on the sidelines with a clipboard and a baseball cap, comically still in pads. That guy was never going to blow a game, never going to get a concussion, never going to even get dirty, but he still got to be on the team. Sweet gig.
I never got close. I never even played organized football, choosing to be in the school play instead (gateway to public radio). But I remain enchanted by the football players who never get talked about but who still get to be on the team. That's why I kept coming back to the idea of profiling the long snapper, the guy who hikes the ball in punting and kicking situations. He's out there a few times a game and then trots back to the sidelines. I always wanted to meet a long snapper because I suspected that with all his down time, he had plenty of opportunities to become kind of philosophical about this eclectic career choice. Seahawks long snapper Derek Rackley did not disappoint.
I've been bugging Weekend America to greenlight a story on this topic for, I think, over two years now. Before Rackley joined the team, the long snapper was J.P. Darche. The "J.P." stands for Jean-Philipe, a name not often heard in the NFL. Darche is French-Canadian, gradutated from McGill University, and, like Rackley, kind of stumbled into long snapping accidentally. He's currently the long snapper for Kansas City. Darche had intended to go to medical school but has been on a deferment for years now. Bright guy. Derek Rackley is a former honors student. I asked Seahawks special teams coach Bruce DeHaven if long snapping required a high level of intelligence. He said, "There might be something about these guys being smart enough to realize they just can go play ten or fifteen plays a game and make a pretty good living and kind of stay out of practice other than that. So that might be the reason most of them are pretty smart."
The long snapper job is filled, but the Seahawks recently cut their third string quarterback and are starting the season with only two guys at that position. If I'm not on the air next weekend, you'll know what's happened.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Weekend America reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.