Before he hiked the football that would sail through the uprights to win the 2023 Super Bowl, James Winchester was an oil and gas landman.
A long snapper cut in training camp by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, Winchester spent the next two years in his home state of Oklahoma at multiple brokerages doing anything from leasing to mineral buying and seismograph permitting. During his lunch break, he'd train at a local high school in hopes of one day getting another call from an NFL team.
He'd put the ball between his legs and hike it back to the location of a place-kicker or a punter. Winchester admits he had doubts about ever playing professionally again because of the exclusive nature of his position.
"There's 32 of us in the world. There's a lot of guys out there," he told NBC News of long snappers. "There's thousands of colleges at different levels, and there's 32 NFL teams. That's a difficult thing to crack into."
Once a player gets ahold of a job as a long snapper, they don't let it go easily.
While the average NFL career lasts under four seasons, long snappers tend to go 7 1/2. They are also the oldest position group, with an average age of 31, nearly three years older than the next closest.
"From a physical standpoint, what we do obviously gives us longevity. From a performance standpoint, unlike kickers and punters, we don't really have stats," said Winchester, who eventually signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2015. "So I think the general thought for a lot of these coaches and GMs is, once you have a guy that's doing a great job and you like him, why would you change? If you're still physically snapping and playing at a high level, there's no reason to change."
Adds 32-year-old Baltimore Ravens long snapper Nick Moore : "We like to kind of joke that it's like wine — the older you get, the better you get."
A few familiar names stand out on the list of the longest-tenured players in the NFL: quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers , Joe Flacco and Matthew Stafford . Others, however, are a bit less known. Ask your friends if they've heard of Morgan Cox , JJ Jansen or Jon Weeks . Chances are the answer is no.
Long snappers are so overlooked that the video game franchise Madden, which has been around since 1988, didn't even recognize the position until this season.
Cox, the Tennessee Titans ' long snapper, in his 16th year, was considered a tight end for the last 15.
"If I went on a school visit or I talked to kids that play, they'd be like, 'I was playing with you the other day, and you're terrible. You're the worst-rated player in the game,'" Cox, 39, joked. "And it's true, I was. I was like a 28 overall [rating] whereas most tight ends were in the 70s or 80s or something like that. My comeback was always, 'Well, at least I'm in a video game.' No matter what rating I get, at least I'm in the game."
"It's really cool that they are kind of giving the recognition to the position now," he added. "I'm really happy about that."
But going unnoticed isn't exactly a bad thing, they say.
A perfect snap? Players won't get a mention on the broadcast. A botched snap? They immediately become the team's villain.
"It is 100% the most thankless position in the NFL," Commanders punter Tress Way said. "People only notice it if something goes wrong."
Just like a poor throw, dropped catch or fumbled handoff, bad snaps happen in the NFL. Doing so on occasion won't derail your career, but multiple times in a single season could. Camaron Cheeseman was cut by Washington last year after multiple errant snaps resulted in missed or near-missed field goals and bad punts.
Winchester said there's no point in dwelling on a bad snap. You have to erase it from your memory and move forward.
"There's a level of pressure that comes along with the job of long snapping in the NFL," the Chiefs veteran said. "You soon find out you have to accept that challenge and mentally find a way to push through that and just let the noise go in one ear and out the other."
Kansas City Chiefs long snapper James Winchester warms up before a game against the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021. (Peter Aiken / AP file)
Josh Harris, a 36-year-old snapper for the Los Angeles Chargers , in his 14th season, said his former special teams coach with the Atlanta Falcons , Keith Armstrong, taught him a valuable lesson early in his career.
"[He] used to say, 'Good, bad or indifferent, get to the next play.' And that's so true," Harris said. "You can go out there and throw the perfect snap, make the perfect block and go downfield and make a tackle and it's like, 'Yeah, but you got to do it again.' Don't ride the wave. Yes, it stings when you mess up. But you just have to flush it and get to the next play as fast as you can."
While the core responsibility of a long snapper may look simple — hike a ball backward and let a punter or kicker do the rest — job security comes from mastering the many intricacies of the position.
One is blocking. In college, rules don't allow defensive players to immediately rush a snapper after the ball is hiked. That changes in the NFL, where giant linemen are coming for their heads.
"You got guys that are defensive ends, defensive tackles, linebackers, all position types that are in the A gaps, rushing," Harris said. "And they're running the same kind of stunts that a D-line would run against the offensive line. You got to throw a strike, get your head up, get your depth and use your hands as best as you can."
Los Angeles Chargers long snapper Josh Harris warms up before a game against the San Francisco 49ers on Aug. 23. (Eakin Howard / AP file)
There's a famous scene in the movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" when Ace confronts the parents of fictional former Miami Dolphins kicker Ray Finkle for missing a potential Super Bowl-winning kick. The couple instead blames it on a legendary quarterback who was holding the ball.
"It was Dan Marino's fault, everyone knows that," Mrs. Finkle says in the film. "If he had held the ball laces out like he was supposed to, Ray wouldn't have missed that kick."
"Laces out" in turn became a long-standing joke that is occasionally referenced on NFL broadcasts before or after a big kick. But to special teams players, it's more accurate than funny.
All described the ideal snap as a perfect spiral that allows the holder to put the laces of the football away from the kicker.
"Everybody knows 'laces out.' It's a very real thing," Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker said. "You ideally always want the laces to be pointing towards the snapper, and the holder catches it, and Josh [Harris] does a great job doing that."
Commanders long snapper Tyler Ott likens a snap to free throws. It's all about repetition.
"I couldn't tell you how many rotations the ball takes for a perfect snap, but you figure it out just by feel, by distance, by if you could add more spin or take spin off the ball," he said. "Every day is a little different, so you're just trying to find the perfect laces those days. Hopefully, you can go out every day and you don't have to think about it."
"In the game, that's when you want to just be free, not thinking about your technique," he added. "You're going out there to throw a snap that you've done 1,000 times."
Tyler Ott of the Washington Commanders runs across the field during a game against the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 11. (Cooper Neill / Getty Images file)
The relationship between kicker, punter and snapper is also crucial. Oftentimes, during practice, the special teams players work together on a separate field away from the rest of the team. Snapping and kicking thousands of times together throughout the season helps build a bond and trust like no other position group.
The 25-year-old Dicker said he considers Harris, 36, "a big brother."
"I think it's super important for specialists to all get along because you spend every day with each other," Dicker said. "It's like you're going to the office, but it's just the three of us most of the time, hanging out."
The 2023 Super Bowl, between the Chiefs and the Eagles, came down to one field goal attempt with 11 seconds left. More than 115 million people around the world watched as Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker lined up for the game winner.
But before he even had a chance to secure a championship, the fate of the team depended on Winchester. His hands were on the ball that would go back to Butker. Too high or too low, the holder wouldn't put the ball down correctly, and the kick could go awry.
Winchester did his best to block all that out.
"Nothing good is ever going to happen if you run out of the field and you tell yourself, 'Hey, this is for the Super Bowl right here, this snap.' Typically, that's going to have a negative impact on what you do and what we do," he said. "[I'm] putting myself in situations over and over and over again, so that when you do go out there for that situation, it's routine."
Moments later, the snap back to Butker was perfect, and the ball was drilled through the uprights. Jubilation was finally allowed to take over.
Winchester said that moment encapsulates why the long snapping position is mostly made up of older, long-tenured players. You need the experience both physically and mentally to do your job perfectly in the big moments.
"Coaches sleep better at night when they have a good long snapper," Cox said. "So that's kind of an attitude that I've always carried with me. If the coach is sleeping well at night because he doesn't have to worry about me, then that's only going to help."
There's long been a debate on the prime age of an NFL running back. Most say mid- to late 20s, and when they hit 30, the decline starts. For long snappers, it's the exact opposite.
Baltimore Ravens long snapper Nick Moore during a game against the Miami Dolphins in 2021. (Sam Navarro / Imagn Images file)
The 32-year-old Moore said he has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
"I feel like I'm not even close to hitting my peak yet. I'm still learning the game," the Ravens snapper said. "I've played almost 60 games. I'm still getting exposed to a lot of different things. As long as my body will let me play, I'm gonna play."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
