The Long Snapper

July 6, 2009
Second chances rarely come in professional sports, especially for athletes out of the game for some time. But former NFL player Brian Kinchen defied those odds, as Marx shows. Having played pro football for 12 years (including with the Dolphins and Panthers), Kinchen hung up his cleats and turned to teaching. Yet more than two years after his final play in football, Kinchen received a call from the New England Patriots to become the team's long-snapper—a player who excels at snapping the ball for field goals and punts. What followed was a seven-week journey that would challenge him both physically and spiritually. From a miscue at his first tryout to his subsequent flubs at Patriots practice, Kinchen became increasingly uneasy about playing on football's biggest stage. And as New England's hopes of winning the sport's greatest prize became more realistic, “the mere thought of messing up in the Super Bowl, of maybe even becoming the unforgettable goat of the game, simply horrified him.” But just as the pressure of failure becomes too crushing, Kinchen uses his Christian faith and the confidence others had in him to capture a missing piece from his football career. Marx is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, and it shows in his vivid recreation of events long after the fact. That, in tandem with his ability to connect with Kinchen on a very human level, allows him to show a side of professional athletes rarely seen on Sunday broadcasts. It's an inspiring read for anyone who has ever wanted one last shot at their utmost dreams.

September 1, 2009
Brian Kinchen had a long but relatively undistinguished career in pro football, mainly as a long snapper (the guy who hikes the ball on punts and field goals). His career, he felt, was missing an exclamation point, that tell-your-grandkids moment. After the 2000 season, with his playing days apparently over, Kinchen settled into teaching Bible studies to elementary-school kids. In December 2003, he received a call from the New England Patriots, whose long snapper had been injured. Did Kinchen want to try out? After a nerve-racking audition, he got the job. A few weeks later, he snapped the ball for the last-second field goal that gave the Pats a Super Bowl win. Marx, the youngest journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize, has chronicled a real-life inspirational story of a young man who let the thought that his moment had passed negatively impact the other elements of his life. Kinchens unexpected opportunity was wonderful on its own but more so because it clarified what was truly valuable in his life: marriage, family, and teaching. Nicely done, with plenty of insider football action.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)