Solitary and unnoticed: The life of football specialists with the Seahawks

Solitary. Hidden and unnoticed, and lurking in near obscurity until it’s time to strike. Sounds like the life of an apex predator. It’s also the life of football specialists.

The specialists are the place kickers, punters and long snappers of the football family. They only get noticed when making an exceptional play or for screwing-up big time. That’s why the  specialists hang together, away from everyone else at practice, doing their own thing, and to the untrained eye, it looks like they’re just standing around. Current Seahawks long snapper Tyler Ott said despite what you might think, they are always doing something.

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“Someone’s always getting warm,” Ott said. “You’re never just sitting around. Someone’s trying to get loose and get ready for the next period. We’re constantly moving regardless of what other people think that we’re just hanging-out for the rest of practice.”

So I asked him why I saw him and the other specialists standing alone on a far field for while.

“It doesn’t get lonely,” Ott joked. “We have a good time over there, and we have trivia or whatever we have to talk about to pass some time between periods. It’s a great lifestyle. It’s probably second to being the backup quarterback.”

Rookie punter Michael Dickson, who is looking to unseat long-time Hawks punter Jon Ryan, said they do disappear for extended periods.

“We do as much as we can, and then we have a lot of spare time so we’ll get a lot of ping-pong games in,” Dickson laughed. “It’s like game day. You’re waiting around to get your punt or you’re waiting until you get your chance to get a field goal.”

And Dickson said you can’t just kick or snap for two hours straight. You do your work and wait to be called on.

Football specialists relish the anonymity

Placekicker Jason Myers, who is in a battle with Sebastian Janikowski, said the rest of the team, and the football world, likes to give the specialists a hard time, playing up their lack of activity at practice. But he said no one wants to switch places for that game-winning kick.

“We always have the saying that everyone wants our job during the week, but no one wants it on Sunday,” he said. “That’s just the way it is.”

Most specialists hide from the light. They relish the anonymity. Ott said never wants to be noticed.

“The goal as a snapper is to never be seen,” Ott said. “I never want to hear my name on TV or on the announcement because something really went wrong.”

In a “look at me” league of unbridled physical specimens and emotional firebrands, you will find the NFL specialists hanging together in obscurity at the edge of that world waiting for their time to be hero or goat.

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