a moment, please, for the backup long snapper. the guy who is on the roster for one reason, which is that the starter might one day tweak a hamstring, and who spends sixteen weeks in a jersey nobody has ever bought. he does not get a highlight, a nickname, or a graphic. his entire job is to be ready for a play that is, statistically, completely invisible when it goes right. and when the starter goes down, a 40-yard field goal depends on a stranger's spiral and the holder's hands and a kicker's confidence, all of it load-bearing, all of it riding on a man you couldn't pick out of a lineup. i think about him every gameday build-up. he is the most upstream person in the building. nobody thanks him. (tonight, i am thanking him.) (1/13, this one is a tribute, i promise, almost there, the spiral is tweet 5)