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Bad investments sour New Orleans Saints' relationship with long snapper Kevin Houser
Posted by Jeff Duncan, The Times-Picayune
July 08, 2009

Only Coach Sean Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis know if Kevin Houser's unceremonious release last week was related to Tax Credit-gate.

But the evidence points overwhelmingly to Houser being kicked out of the house for his unwitting role as point man in Wayne Read's film tax-credit scheme at Louisiana Film Studios.

Why else would the Saints release him?

It couldn't have been for pay. Houser was scheduled to earn $745,000 this season. His replacement, Jason Kyle, will earn at least $845,000, the minimum the Saints can pay him as a 14-year veteran.

It couldn't have been for performance. In nine seasons, Houser never botched a bad snap. Not one.

Oh, sure, he might've zipped one a tad high or a little left from time to time. But he never duck-hooked or dribbled one so poorly it cost the Saints a blocked punt or field goal.

By my unofficial count, that's 1,257 long snaps: 640 for punts, 354 for extra points and 263 for field goals.

Do you know how hard it is to do anything a thousand times without error?

By all accounts, Kyle snaps the ball with similar distinction. He reportedly had only one poor snap in seven seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He was a salary-cap casualty after Julius Peppers' one-year, $16.7 million deal. So the Saints appear to be getting a good hand (or pair of hands) in Kyle.

But to claim Kyle is an "upgrade" over Houser, as the Saints did in the club's official release this week, is difficult to digest. In fact, it comes across as disingenuous in the wake of the tax-credit imbroglio.

Bad investments sour New Orleans Saints' relationship with long snapper Kevin Houser - Jeff Duncan on Saints