Called On in a Snap

The following year, Albright returned for more, and actually played 10 games as a long snapper for Miami before suffering a season-ending knee injury in November. Jimmy Johnson took over as coach in 1996, Albright's tenure with the Dolphins ended and he wondered if his NFL career was doomed as well. Things only got worse, when, two weeks after heading to training camp with Buffalo, Albright hurt his shoulder.

As Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy approached him during stretching shortly thereafter, Albright feared the worst. Instead, the coach, who had taken the Bills to four straight Super Bowls, informed Albright that he had no chance of being one of the eight best offensive linemen in camp, and the team could no longer risk exposing him to injury. He had made the roster with weeks to spare, but a part of his life was over.

"They pulled me out of line drills at that point," Albright said. "I still did some scout-team work, and I guess if everybody else was dead they would have put me in a game [as a lineman] or something, but that was the end.

"I went back to finish stretching and I didn't know whether to be happy or sad, because my goal was always to be a lineman -- that's what my ultimate goal was -- and I never quite got there. But that's the year that I pretty much started appreciating long snapping."

That also was the start of Albright's streak of 144 straight regular season games -- nine full seasons -- that stretches to this day.

'It's a Specific Skill'

It is no coincidence that Albright has lasted this long. There is a unique dexterity involved in being a long snapper. It may look silly, standing bent at the waist, leaning forward, head between the ankles and eyes focused 10 yards back, but championships have been won and lost by long snappers, and a good one is a salve for overstressed coaches.

Joe Gibbs came to this revelation long before he won thee Super Bowls coaching the Redskins. Gibbs was an assistant at Arkansas more than 30 years ago and no one on the roster could long snap, so they offered a full scholarship to a local high school product, "a little red-headed kid, only about 185 pounds," who had a knack for it. By the third game of the season, against Texas, opponents found a hitch in his delivery, and when a huge nose guard reached to swat the ball away before the release, humiliation ensued.

"We were down on their 40," Gibbs said. "I mean, we were pooch punting and this thing goes 60 yards all the way to the end zone when they finally rounded that thing up back there. So I learned a lot of lessons on deep snapping, and I prefer to have Ethan there so at least we know we're going to get that thing back there to the guy."

Albright is reluctant to recall his last bad snap -- "The damn jinx of all jinxes," he said -- and while admitting he has not always been perfect, he says he has never blown a snap completely in the NFL. His location has waned on occasion, but the punter or holder has always been able to get at least two hands on the ball.

There is no secret to doing it well, and Albright has found that most of his NFL long snappers were similarly coerced into the task at an early age. "You kind of have to develop it yourself," Albright said, "like shooting a free throw or swinging a golf club. There's probably a thousand different ways to do it, but you have to have done it enough to know which way works for you."

"It's a specific skill, and only certain people are gifted enough to do it," special teams coach Danny Smith said. "When it's Monday night and the game is on the line, I don't know anybody who would want to be in his shoes when you need that kick or punt to win the game. He works very hard at it."

Generally, a snapper needs excellent balance, and a large enough frame to impede the onrushing lineman to some degree. The laces of the ball are down, the punter's shoes should be visible and the ball should caress the top blades of grass and reach its destination in a tight spiral. Perhaps of greatest importance is the ability to pull all of this off under extreme pressure, with gargantuan teammates -- who have withstood significantly more punishment and personal risk in any given game -- ready to pounce should you err.