The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, a Super Bowl, a Lesson for Life – Book Review

It was Dec. 15, 2003, when retired NFL tight end and former LSU Tiger Brian Kinchen— by then known as Mr. Kinchen or “Professor” to his middle school Bible class at Parkview Baptist—got a call to try out as a long snapper for the New England Patriots. At 38, Kinchen had been out of the game for two seasons, but this was 2003. The Patriots had just steamrolled 10 opponents in a row, America’s honeymoon with new league poster boy Tom Brady was at a zenith, and opposing fans would still look down the New England sidelines and cop to respecting—even envying—a pre-Cameragate Bill Belichick. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Kinchen, and when he took a poll among his students, the show of hands was unanimous. Kinchen owed it to himself to give pro football one more shot.

What happened during the following weeks as the Patriots marched to a last-second field goal victory over the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl XXXVIII makes for an uplifting account in the hands of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jeffrey Marx.

Though Marx occasionally pads his narrative with a tad too much play-by-play, he draws an exhilarating meditation on perseverance and faith from Kinchen and more than 100 of the long snapper’s teammates, friends and relatives. Kinchen took a most unlikely path to an NFL title, and reading The Long Snapper is like feeling the jigsaws of a 1,000-piece puzzle neatly fall together.

Like any good true story, the heart-warming and plot-twisting details here are what breathe life into Kinchen’s remarkable arc. Anecdotes show the Baton Rouge native mailing a video greeting with clips of Brady & Co. offering words of wisdom and encouragement to his spring semester Bible class at Parkview, or poring over Patrick Morley’s The Man in the Mirror whenever he doubted his skills, or piling pillows against his hotel room wall to work in extra snaps, or dashing back home to kiss his young son goodnight on his birthday, or accidentally cutting his finger at lunch just hours before the big game.

Throughout, The Long Snapper is an inspirational must-read not only for football fans, but for anyone who has ever doubted themselves or their purpose, or those of us who simply want a second chance.