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

Brian Kinchen was a thirty-eight-year-old husband, father of four, and seventh-grade Bible teacher whose professional football career had been over for three years when the New England Patriots called on December 15, 2003. With the Patriots riding a ten-game winning streak and the playoffs only a few weeks away, they needed a fill-in for the obscure but vital job of snapping the ball for their punter and kicker-a long snapper. Brian had received similar invitations to tryouts that yielded only disappointment-the teams always went with a younger guy. But could he really turn away from the chance of a lifetime?