Long Snap

TW

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I'm going to tell you a story. I think it's interesting. You might too, because it tells you a little bit about the NFL.

I know someone very well who is best friends with the wife of a long snapper in the NFL. In fact, this person and her husband often sit with the wife of the long snapper at football games. The woman, although her husband is a part of this NFL team, feels like an outsider. In fact, her and her husband have never been able to sign a 12 month lease on a home in the town where he plays. The reason? Some NFL teams hold off on signing their intended long snapper until the last minute, holding auditions continuously for the job, up until training camp. They treat these guys like outsiders that they have to let in, but don't want.

When the wives of players get together, to eat out, or do something, the established players wives think nothing of dropping several hundred dollars for a day's activities. The long snapper's wife has a rough time paying out a hundred bucks for the day. In fact, a lot of long snappers in the league will have roommates who are members of the practice squad, sharing an apartment with them. The wives can't even afford to be in the town where the guy plays. They live in quiet areas somewhere else, and their big investment is Sunday Ticket to watch him play. They fear leaving "home," because they may have to pack up, and head home, at any time.

The wives often go together and charter a private plane flight to road games, and stay at luxury hotels, and are chauffeur driven to games. They sit in luxury seats, and enjoy the game. The LS wife sits in decent seating, but usually in another section of the stadium, and is pretty much on their own, if they can even afford to travel to the games by coach class on an airline, and they stay at cheaper hotels, and try to use "courtesy vans" from the hotel to the stadium. It's a no-frills trip for them, to watch their husbands play.

In the end, there are no big endorsements, no notoriety, and often, no shirts hung in rows for sale, with their name and number on them. They are forgotten members of the team.

But, these are important people. Their long snaps often make the difference between good or bad punts, and successful PATs and FGs. They are the forgotten people, that nobody recognizes, and usually, rarely care about. Yet, the ball is in their hands when it comes to scoring roughly 1/3 of all the points scored in games, and often is in their hands, starting what will be a game winning, or losing kick. Lots of pressure, and doing it well is as important as being a punter, or kicker.

Anyhow, that's what I gleaned from a conversation with one of their wives. I came away with a special respect for these guys, and their families. They're a huge part of every team's success.
 
Not everyone in the NFL makes millions per year plus endorsements and commercials.. Many guys, while making more than most of us, are not living la vida loca without having to worry about how much they spend. The point about how they don't enjoy job security is especially tough.

Great story TW CLP)
 
Then again, as with all the guys in pro sports, they both understand the situation going in and have always wanted to be an NFL player. If they want more security and recognition, maybe they ought to learn to play one of the positions that offers them. They are in for a handful of plays each game and perform an almost completely mechanical task. More important, the lowest paid get about half a mil per year, the same as the kickers and punters to whom they snap (top end is somewhat over a mil, about half of the top punters and a third of the top kickers) - I'm sure there are plenty of wives, mine included, who would settle for that. All things are relative, and it's got to be annoying to see the obscene compensation of the 'popular kids', but let's consider who is looking up at these guys and their wives as opposed to whom they're looking up at. Do not feel sorry for them.
 
fun fact: packers linebacker jordan tripp played long snapper in college.
 
It's all relative when it comes to salary. If you work for a company that pays $20 an hour to almost all their workers, and they pay you $8 an hour, you may be one of their employees, but you'll never be part of those sharing in the real profits. That's what I was pointing out in my observation.

Also, their tenure on the job is far less consistent than that of a player who will get a long term contract.
 
It's all relative when it comes to salary. If you work for a company that pays $20 an hour to almost all their workers, and they pay you $8 an hour, you may be one of their employees, but you'll never be part of those sharing in the real profits. That's what I was pointing out in my observation.

Also, their tenure on the job is far less consistent than that of a player who will get a long term contract.


I am sorry but that's a bit over the top, the average first-year player is making $325,000. if they play 3 seasons somewhere that's almost a million bucks. More than 95 % of the population will ever see. Yeah, it's a tough business but they are very well compensated for the task.
 
according to spotrac, the top eleven long snappers make over a million bucks a year. the average salary for a long snapper is $793,252. the lowest-paid long snapper in the nfl is the packers' derek hart ($465,000).

Not trying to be argumentative, since there's no disagreement, but isn't that what I said?
 
It's all relative when it comes to salary. If you work for a company that pays $20 an hour to almost all their workers, and they pay you $8 an hour, you may be one of their employees, but you'll never be part of those sharing in the real profits. That's what I was pointing out in my observation.

Also, their tenure on the job is far less consistent than that of a player who will get a long term contract.

returning to spotrac, we find that the average contract term for a long snapper is 3 years. 17 of them have a contract term of 4 years or more. also, 25 of them are at least 27 years old (15 are over 30) - meaning that they are probably on their second or third contract.
 
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