Although many football fans are now aware that Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel won the 2012 Heisman Trophy, another big award was given last night at the high school level.
Cole Mazza, a senior long snapper from California, was awarded the 2012 Herbalife 24 Chris Rubio Award as the top snapper at the high school level. Mazza was announced as the winner at a ceremony in Los Angeles last night and will be attending Alabama on a full scholarship next season.
Week Thirteen is complete and was marred by the tragice events Saturday morning involving the Kansas City Chiefs and the murder-suicide involving linebacker Jevon Belcher. On the field, Mike Leach (Cardinals), Brian Jennings (49ers) and Andrew Economos (Bucs) each recorded solo tackles in punt coverage.
The only transaction of note is the Bengals have added snapper/tight end Bryce Davis to the practice squad. Davis was with the Bengals in training camp and had a number of tryouts with teams as a snapper during the season.
The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Thirteen is below.
Each of the 32 snappers in the NFL has a very unique talent. One of them, Jon Dorenbos of the Eagles, is also a professional in another interesting career. Dorenbos is a professional magician and ESPN recently did a feature story on his talents.
Below is a video of one of his card tricks, known as “Sam the Bellhop”.
Fifty college football players were recently nominated for The Burlsworth Trophy, including two snappers. The Trophy is given to the most outstanding college football player who began his career as a walk-on, without any financial aid of any kind.
Senior snapper Carson Tinker from Alabama, a top prospect for the 2013 NFL Draft, and junior snapper Ryan Iverson of Colorado, were each nominated. The winner will be announced on December 3 at a banquet in Springdale, Arkansas.
Week Twelve of the NFL season is complete and included the regular season debut of snapper Kyle Nelson with the Chargers. Nelson, who entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Saints last year, has bounced around a number of teams the past two seasons in addition to various NFL tryouts this season. Nelson replaces Mike Windt, who is on injured reserve with a wrist injury. Nelson had a solid debut in a loss to the Ravens.
On the tackle front, Clark Harris (Bengals), Jeremy Cain (Jaguars), Jake McQuaide (Rams), and Zak DeOssie (Giants) each had solo tackles, while Tanner Purdum (Jets) and Matt Overton (Colts) were credited with assists.
The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Twelve is below.
On Thanksgiving night, three finalists were announced for the second annual Herbalife 24 Chris Rubio Award. The Award is given to the best high school long snapper and I was recently honored to be on the selection committee this year.
The winner will be announced on December 8th in Los Angeles and the three that will compete for the award are Cole Mazza, Gabe Miller and Scott Sypniewski. All three are seniors and each have already committed to colleges. Mazza will attend Alabama, Miller is headed to Nebraska, while Sypniewski will play for Michigan.
The injury bug finally hit the snapping position this week, as the Chargers were forced to place snapper Mike Windt on injured reserve after he fractured his wrist on Sunday against the Broncos. Windt will be replaced by Kyle Nelson, who was in camp with the Niners and spent some time on the Eagles practice squad earlier this season. He also was on the Chiefs practice squad last year.
Week Eleven of the NFL season is complete and one of the biggest stories of the week happened off the field. Although not directly related to snapping, the exclusion of specialists from the Pro Football Hall of Fame has been a controversial issue. The story surfaced again this past week after Les Carpenter of Yahoo Sports wrote a detailed feature on former Raiders punter Ray Guy.
Guy, who had an incredible career, remains on the outside looking in when it comes to admission to the Hall of Fame. To date, one specialist, kicker Jan Stenerud, has been elected. Since the Carpenter story, others have weighed in on Guy’s credentials, including Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick and Vikings punter Chris Kluwe. If Guy does not gain admission, the next likely specialist for inclusion will be current Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri.
In game action, the Chargers had their second punt blocked in as many weeks. To date, there have been 16 blocked punts this season, with the Chargers, Jets and Redskins having two each. Another special teams related play that is drawing significant media attention is the injury that tight end Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots suffered while blocking for an extra point late in the game against the Colts. Due to roster limits, most teams do not have a backup PAT unit and, therefore, it is expected that the starting unit will remain in the game, even in a blowout. Although the chance of injury is usually small on a PAT attempt, Gronkowski did break his forearm and will be sidelined for multiple weeks.
Three snappers, Josh Harris (Falcons), Jon Dorenbos (Eagles) and Jeremy Cain (Jaguars) each recorded solo tackles this week. The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Eleven is below.
Week Ten featured some critical plays from the special teams units across the NFL. Heading into this week’s action, there had been 14 punt blocks, after only nine all of last season. The Bucs added another to that growing total this week, with a key punt block against the Chargers that helped turn the game in the Bucs favor. The Jets and Redskins have each had two punts blocked already this year. The NFL record for blocks in a season is 31 in 1977.
Other key special teams plays this week included two punt fakes executed for first downs by the Rams against the Niners and a fake field goal for a touchdown by Ravens punter/holder Sam Koch against the Raiders.
Poor special teams play by the Panthers this season resulted in a rare, in-season coaching move as the team fired special teams coach Brian Murphy. Assistant special teams coach Richard Rogers takes over for Murphy.
In other game action, the Redskins have brought Nick Sundberg back from injured reserve and released client Justin Snow, who filled in for eight games. Snappers Clark Harris (Bengals), Jon Condo (Raiders), Andrew Economos (Bucs) and Thomas Gafford (Chiefs) each recorded solo tackles in punt coverage.
Finally, behind each snapper is a unique story of how they got to the NFL. The Arizona Cardinals web site recently featured veteran snapper Mike Leach in an online story. Leach’s path to snapping is much different than most, as he was a tight end/punter who tried to make the Titans as a rookie in 2000. During his first season, Alan Lowry, the Titans special teams coach, saw him snap a ball to a punter and that led to Leach’s new career as a snapper.
Leach is now in his 13th NFL season and even played some tight end in 2010. In the article, Cardinals special teams coach Kevin Spencer recalls his time with the Oakland Raiders and late owner Al Davis. Davis used to tell Spencer that, as long as the team had a good snapper, he could sleep at night.
Below is the NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Ten.
Last year marked the debut of the Herbalife 24 Chris Rubio Award given to the best high school long snapper in the country. Scott Daly of Downers Grove South High School in Illinois, who is now at Notre Dame, won the inaugural award, presented at an event in Los Angeles.
Recently, I was honored to be asked to serve on the selection committee for the award and agreed to help select this year’s winner to be announced in December. Broncos snapper Aaron Brewer will also serve as a committee member.
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