For these select few, NFL life is a snap

James Dearth cleared a path to the NFL the day he bent over, stuck his head between his legs and launched a football behind him.

Just like that, his life changed in a snap.

"I was going to an all-star game out of college and Chuck Noll was the coach," recalled the New York Jets long snapper. "My agent called me and said, 'Hey, can you snap?' I said, 'Well, I don't know, but I'll give it a shot.' Then he said, 'Just tell Chuck Noll you want to snap.' "

Eight years later, the former college quarterback and tight end is one of 32 mostly anonymous NFL players who hold one of the most overlooked and underrated jobs in sports. It's also one of the most tenuous, where one bad snap could cost them everything.

"When you mess it up in the middle, there's no hiding from it," said Washington's Ethan Albright, nicknamed "Red Snapper" because of his bright hair. "If you do it right, you get to come back next week and the kickers get all the credit. If you mess it up, you don't get invited back."

Or you become ingrained in fans' memories for all the wrong reasons, as Trey Junkin did in the 2002 playoffs. The New York Giants coaxed him out of retirement after 19 uneventful seasons to replace an injured Dan O'Leary in a wild-card playoff game against San Francisco.

Junkin botched two fourth-quarter snaps, one on a field-goal attempt that could've won it for the Giants. He went from obscurity to infamy.

"I'm not looking for glory," Carolina's Jason Kyle said. "My motto is stay under the radar, you know? If I'm not noticed, then I'm doing a good job."

A high snap on a failed field-goal attempt earlier this season cost Boone Stutz his spot on Atlanta's roster when he was replaced by veteran Mike Schneck. Stutz landed in Seattle and took over for the released Derek Rackley, whom he also replaced in Atlanta last season.

"If you get to the point where you're on a professional football team and you're a long snapper -- and it's not necessarily fair because we praise kickers who make 80 percent of their kicks -- but you better make 100 percent of your snaps," said former Pro Bowl lineman Randy Cross, who also served as San Francisco's snapper during his 13-year career.

The job requirements of a long snapper are specific: You must fire a perfect spiral to the punter 15 yards away in 0.8 seconds on a punt, or 1.3 seconds over 7 or 8 yards to reach the holder on a field goal. Most important, each snap must be on-target.

"What helped me out was that I could throw a football," Dearth said. "If you can throw a football, you can throw it between your legs."

Almost every NFL snapper started his football career wanting to do anything but what has become perhaps the most specialized task in the sport.

"When I was coming along, I didn't know you could be just a long snapper," said Albright, in his 13th season. "I always thought you had to do something else."

The job isn't just taking a ball and snapping it, though. You also have to block bulldozing defensive players.

"They're going to smack you around, and you've got to be able to throw a good snap while they're hitting you," Dearth said. "That's one of the hardest parts."

Cross helped San Francisco win three Super Bowls and pulled double duty when he played from 1976-88, an era when teams used anyone they could find to snap the ball.

"It used to be the job nobody wanted," said Cross, who hosts a morning show on Sirius NFL Radio and serves as a television analyst for NFL games. "When I was in college, my coach took me aside and said, 'You never know, it might make you more money.' It never made me any more money. It just gave me an extra job."

Teams now dedicate roster spots to players who are exclusively long snappers, an idea Cross finds absurd.

"If I'm a coach or a general manager, to me it's a wasted roster spot," Cross said. "You can't convince me that that guy is so much better than a lineman or a linebacker that could do it and still relatively proficiently cover the kick. Maybe this is just part of the old school coming out in me."

Meanwhile, other players have caught on to the benefits of being a long snapper.

"It's kind of like everyone wants my job," Kyle said. "Everyone likes my practice week and stuff like that, until it comes time to actually get out there and do it. That's when they don't want it."

Nine of the 32 active NFL snappers were drafted, and all but two of those -- Dearth and Kyle -- still are with their original teams.

"It used to be that you'd have a big offensive lineman do it and then he didn't have to block," said the Jets' Mike Westhoff, an NFL special-teams coordinator for 25 years. "Now they have to block and run, so it requires a more complete package in a way. Some very, very good and talented athletes are snappers."

Even if it's not noticed by the general public. Albright held a dubious distinction as the lowest-ranked player in a football video game last year because he was categorized as a lineman.

"The long snap, a lot of guys kind of look down on it. 'Nah, I don't want to do it,' " Albright said. "For me, it's a no-brainer: 'Hey, jump in there and do it.' "