The NFL's most thankless role has a perk — the best job security

NFL long snappers are the oldest and longest-tenured position group in the league — and few know their name.

Before he hiked the football that would sail through the uprights to win the 2023 Super Bowl, James Winchester was an oil and gas landman.

A long snapper cut in training camp by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, Winchester spent the next two years in his home state of Oklahoma at multiple brokerages doing anything from leasing to mineral buying and seismograph permitting. During his lunch break, he’d train at a local high school in hopes of one day getting another call from an NFL team.

He’d put the ball between his legs and hike it back to the location of a place-kicker or a punter. Winchester admits he had doubts about ever playing professionally again because of the exclusive nature of his position.

“There’s 32 of us in the world. There’s a lot of guys out there,” he told NBC News of long snappers. “There’s thousands of colleges at different levels, and there’s 32 NFL teams. That’s a difficult thing to crack into.”

Once a player gets ahold of a job as a long snapper, they don’t let it go easily.