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Houser gets paid big bucks to ... Snap under pressure
'The margin for error in the NFL is so small'
By Billy Watkins
[email protected]
<script language="javascript"> // Begin popup script function NewPhotoWindow(mypage, myname, w, h, scroll) { var winl = (screen.width - w) / 2; var wint = (screen.height - h) / 2; winprops = 'height='+h+',width='+w+',top='+wint+',left='+winl+',scrollbars='+scroll+',resizable' win = window.open(mypage, myname, winprops) if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4) { win.window.focus(); }} // End</script>If you think it's easy to hunker down and snap a football 15 yards in 8/10ths of a second precisely into the hands of a punter, New Orleans Saints special teams coach John Bonamego suggests you go out and try it.
"And right after you snap it, have someone hit you in the head with a shovel," he says. "That's basically what Kevin has to put up with."
Bonamego is referring to Kevin Houser, the New Orleans Saints' long snapper on punts and field goals for the past six seasons.
"(Snapping) is an odd skill that not too many people have," says backup quarterback and holder Jamie Martin.
"It's a job I don't want with 3 seconds left in a game and we need a field goal," says veteran defensive tackle Hollis Thomas.
It's a position of anonymity. "Until the poor guy messes up," says Fred McAfee, the longtime running back and special teams player. "Then everybody knows him."
But the Saints have recognized Houser's unique ability and properly compensated him for it. Houser, 29, earned more money last season than 39 of the 65 Saints players who got a paycheck, according to USA Today's National Football League salary database. Houser made $540,000 in base salary and received a $200,000 signing bonus. He was the 14th highest-paid long snapper in the 32-team league.
"The margin for error in the NFL is so small," Bonamego says. "(Assistant head coach) Joe Vitt was telling me the other day that 80 percent of NFL games are decided in the final four minutes. That's when the little things can make you or break you. And one bad snap can wind up costing you a game, a playoff spot, home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"That's why a guy like Kevin is so valuable - he's consistent and he knows how to handle the pressure of the job."
An NFL career was the last thing on Houser's mind when he accepted a football scholarship to Ohio State University, where his father, Tom, and brother, Bob, played before him.
He already had decided to become a financial adviser. "I credit that to my grandfather (James Crowe)," Houser says. "He lived through the Depression years, learned to be very prudent. And he was always teaching us grandkids how to manage money. He'd take us to the bank. Let us count the money in his wallet.
"It wasn't so much what he said, but how he and my grandmother lived. Their best asset was their family, and material things were never that important. They were comfortable in a house that my grandfather actually built with his brother. They're still living there now (in Canfield, Ohio)."
After a solid career playing tight end for three seasons and long snapping for four with the Buckeyes, Houser began getting enough attention from pro scouts to hire an agent.
"When a pro team would come and work out some of our guys, they'd ask me to come out and snap," he says.
Within a span of 10 days in the spring of 2000, Houser got married, went on a honeymoon cruise and was drafted in the seventh round by the Saints.
"To this day, it's still hard to believe that I belong here," Houser says. "I mean, I've watched NFL games on TV all my life. I realized long ago how unbelievable these players are. Believe me, I'm perfectly willing to throw a ball between my legs, and high-five the other guys when they score touchdowns."
Even though Houser sometimes makes light of his contribution to the team, he understands this: In a game where coaches agonize and strategize, and every-down players beat each other into a bloody pulp for three hours every week, the outcome often rides on the shoulders of three players - the snapper, holder and kicker.
"None of us can do our job if Kevin doesn't do his," says kicker John Carney. "I feel blessed to have him. I don't have to worry about whether the snap is going to be there, and that takes a lot off me."
But Houser refuses to get comfortable in his job. He offers an example why: Trey Junkin.
"Trey was the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of long snappers," he explains.
Over 18 seasons with eight different teams, Junkin was so consistent that NFL teams realized long snapping was an art, a specialty.
Then in 2002, Junkin came out of retirement to join the New York Giants during the playoffs. The final snap of his glorious career, on a potential game-winning field goal, was low and wide. The kicker never had a chance.
In many fans' minds, Junkin's career has been whittled down to that one play.
"I was watching it on TV, and I'd gotten to know Trey a little bit," Houser says. "My heart broke for him, his teammates, his family. There's no guy who took more pride in his position than Trey. But that's why we play the games. Freak things can happen."
In a split second, anonymous people can become synonymous with failure.
That's why Houser can't, or won't, name one pressure-packed snap that stands out above the others in his six years on the job.
"Every snap, there's pressure," he says. "Every single one of 'em."
Houser gets paid big bucks to ... Snap under pressure
'The margin for error in the NFL is so small'
By Billy Watkins
[email protected]
<script language="javascript"> // Begin popup script function NewPhotoWindow(mypage, myname, w, h, scroll) { var winl = (screen.width - w) / 2; var wint = (screen.height - h) / 2; winprops = 'height='+h+',width='+w+',top='+wint+',left='+winl+',scrollbars='+scroll+',resizable' win = window.open(mypage, myname, winprops) if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4) { win.window.focus(); }} // End</script>If you think it's easy to hunker down and snap a football 15 yards in 8/10ths of a second precisely into the hands of a punter, New Orleans Saints special teams coach John Bonamego suggests you go out and try it.
"And right after you snap it, have someone hit you in the head with a shovel," he says. "That's basically what Kevin has to put up with."
Bonamego is referring to Kevin Houser, the New Orleans Saints' long snapper on punts and field goals for the past six seasons.
"(Snapping) is an odd skill that not too many people have," says backup quarterback and holder Jamie Martin.
"It's a job I don't want with 3 seconds left in a game and we need a field goal," says veteran defensive tackle Hollis Thomas.
It's a position of anonymity. "Until the poor guy messes up," says Fred McAfee, the longtime running back and special teams player. "Then everybody knows him."
But the Saints have recognized Houser's unique ability and properly compensated him for it. Houser, 29, earned more money last season than 39 of the 65 Saints players who got a paycheck, according to USA Today's National Football League salary database. Houser made $540,000 in base salary and received a $200,000 signing bonus. He was the 14th highest-paid long snapper in the 32-team league.
"The margin for error in the NFL is so small," Bonamego says. "(Assistant head coach) Joe Vitt was telling me the other day that 80 percent of NFL games are decided in the final four minutes. That's when the little things can make you or break you. And one bad snap can wind up costing you a game, a playoff spot, home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"That's why a guy like Kevin is so valuable - he's consistent and he knows how to handle the pressure of the job."
An NFL career was the last thing on Houser's mind when he accepted a football scholarship to Ohio State University, where his father, Tom, and brother, Bob, played before him.
He already had decided to become a financial adviser. "I credit that to my grandfather (James Crowe)," Houser says. "He lived through the Depression years, learned to be very prudent. And he was always teaching us grandkids how to manage money. He'd take us to the bank. Let us count the money in his wallet.
"It wasn't so much what he said, but how he and my grandmother lived. Their best asset was their family, and material things were never that important. They were comfortable in a house that my grandfather actually built with his brother. They're still living there now (in Canfield, Ohio)."
After a solid career playing tight end for three seasons and long snapping for four with the Buckeyes, Houser began getting enough attention from pro scouts to hire an agent.
"When a pro team would come and work out some of our guys, they'd ask me to come out and snap," he says.
Within a span of 10 days in the spring of 2000, Houser got married, went on a honeymoon cruise and was drafted in the seventh round by the Saints.
"To this day, it's still hard to believe that I belong here," Houser says. "I mean, I've watched NFL games on TV all my life. I realized long ago how unbelievable these players are. Believe me, I'm perfectly willing to throw a ball between my legs, and high-five the other guys when they score touchdowns."
Even though Houser sometimes makes light of his contribution to the team, he understands this: In a game where coaches agonize and strategize, and every-down players beat each other into a bloody pulp for three hours every week, the outcome often rides on the shoulders of three players - the snapper, holder and kicker.
"None of us can do our job if Kevin doesn't do his," says kicker John Carney. "I feel blessed to have him. I don't have to worry about whether the snap is going to be there, and that takes a lot off me."
But Houser refuses to get comfortable in his job. He offers an example why: Trey Junkin.
"Trey was the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of long snappers," he explains.
Over 18 seasons with eight different teams, Junkin was so consistent that NFL teams realized long snapping was an art, a specialty.
Then in 2002, Junkin came out of retirement to join the New York Giants during the playoffs. The final snap of his glorious career, on a potential game-winning field goal, was low and wide. The kicker never had a chance.
In many fans' minds, Junkin's career has been whittled down to that one play.
"I was watching it on TV, and I'd gotten to know Trey a little bit," Houser says. "My heart broke for him, his teammates, his family. There's no guy who took more pride in his position than Trey. But that's why we play the games. Freak things can happen."
In a split second, anonymous people can become synonymous with failure.
That's why Houser can't, or won't, name one pressure-packed snap that stands out above the others in his six years on the job.
"Every snap, there's pressure," he says. "Every single one of 'em."
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Buckskin86
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Kevin Houser, who was cut by the Saints, and other players seek to get film investment back
Posted by Robert Scott, The Times-Picayune
June 30, 2009
Susan Poag/The Times-Picayune
The Saints are not saying whether an investment deal brokered by New Orleans Saints longsnapper Kevin Houser contributed to the team's decision to cut him this week.
BATON ROUGE -- A veteran Saints football player who was just released from the squad is trying to get back money that he and other team members invested in an Elmwood motion picture studio, representatives for the player and the film company said Tuesday.
Kevin Houser, who for nine years handled snaps for punts and field goals, was let go Monday and replaced with an older player in a move that puzzled fans and observers.
Houser put a "very significant" amount of money into Louisiana Film Studios, and others with the team followed that lead hoping to reap a financial benefit that has not materialized, his attorney Rob Couhig said.
Studio Chief Executive Wayne Read said the project has had trouble qualifying for state tax credits to boost its finances but that in any event, the investors will be repaid. He said Houser was involved in helping to raise investment dollars for the project.
"Everyone's going to be made whole, " Read said.
Also, a construction company owned partly by Houser's wife, Kristen Houser, did contracting work for the studio and has not been paid in full, her attorney Jimmy Castex Jr. said. The company and its subcontractors began work in January and are owed about $681,000 by the studio and Read, Castex said.
Saints officials would not talk about the impact that the investment controversy has had on the team, player relations or Houser's position.
"We are not privy to any of our player's individual investments, and as a policy we do not comment on such matters, " Saints spokesman Greg Bensel said.
Kevin Houser, who was cut by the Saints, and other players seek to get film investment back - New Orleans Saints Beat
Houser was solid for Saints | DailyComet.com | The Thibodaux Daily Comet | Thibodaux, LA
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Buckskin86
Moderator
Former New Orleans Saints longsnapper Kevin Houser says he was surprised to be released by the team
Posted by Robert Travis Scott, The Times-Picayune
July 02, 2009
Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune
Kevin Houser said today that he was surprised when he was released by the New Orleans Saints.
Former New Orleans Saints player Kevin Houser said Thursday that he was surprised and unprepared for the call that came Monday from Coach Sean Payton telling him that he was being released from the team.
Houser said Payton was businesslike and did not discuss a film studio investment controversy that has affected Houser and more than two dozen current and former players and coaches for the Saints who could lose nearly $2 million.
The team members individually sought to purchase state tax credits from Louisiana Film Studios, which has yet to acquire the credits or repay the players for their investment. Many of the players had followed Houser's lead in putting money into the project, and Houser has sought legal assistance to get repaid.
But in an interview Thursday, he said that when Payton called, at a time both men were on vacation, he was not told that the tax credit controversy or any potential ill feelings among the team members played a role in his dismissal.
"Was I prepared for it? No. Was it heart wrenching? Yes. did I lock myself in the bathroom and cry like a baby? Sure," Houser said.
"But, that being said, listen, it's a business world. We're all something that were meant to be put out there to win a championship. And if there's anything, or maybe this could have caused a rift, and if there are any underlying issues out there that people didn't come out and say to me, or that people did not have all the answers to the questions that they had for one reason or another .... listen, I understand."
Former New Orleans Saints longsnapper Kevin Houser says he was surprised to be released by the team - New Orleans Saints Beat
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