Jason Kelce's Pro Bowl Outing Provided a Valuable Lesson on Special Teams

While the guys in the trenches are an important part of any good football team, offensive linemen don't always get the same love as the other positions. That's not exactly fair, but it does make sense; we all love to see touchdowns, highlight reel catches, and big tackles; a fundamentally sound block doesn't carry the same level of visual excitement.

Jason Kelce, however, has been doing his part to change that. The Philadelphia Eagles center, who may be done playing football, has joined his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, in the spotlight. Between their podcast and some of Jason's extracurricular activities—think being named one of the sexiest men alive or celebrating a Chiefs touchdown shirtless in Buffalo—at least one lineman has gotten his due.

And, during the Pro Bowl Games, Kelce helped highlight his position group in another way: By struggling to long-snap.

Kelce Simply Isn't a Long Snapper

Although most All-Star games lack a certain je ne sais quoi, the Pro Bowl was always especially lacking; tackle football simply doesn't translate to an exhibition game. The National Football League (NFL) seems to have understood that reality and shifted the event's format. Now there's a skills competition before some flag football, and the entire package is dubbed the Pro Bowl Games.

On Thursday night, Jason took part in one of the one-off challenges dubbed "Snap Shots." Three players (two centers and one long snapper) from each conference took turns long-snapping a ball at a target board with various holes cut in it; getting the ball into smaller holes awarded you more points.

The Philadelphia center kicked things off, and things didn't go according to plan. While there may have been a tactical error on his part—he locked in on the smallest, five-point target and refused to budge, later saying that he had to go big or go home—he only sunk one snap in 45 seconds. The rest of his attempts bounced off the target.

His performance ended with a single, one-word descriptor: "Damnit."

In complete fairness, though, the other centers struggled, as did Jaguars long snapper Ross Matiscik. Vikings special-teamer Andrew DePaola, however, delivered a nine-point round, sealing an NFC victory.

To be clear, it's not worth putting much stock in the Pro Bowl Games from a competitive perspective. Long-snapping into a tight, stationary target is unrealistic, and the event's tone was one of fun rather than fighting tooth and nail. With all of that being said, though, Kelce's performance still provides a good perspective.

Kelce, at the risk of stating the obvious, is a very good center. This is his seventh Pro Bowl nod, and, perhaps more impressively, he's also earned six first-team All-Pro honors. The Eagles' official website, which might be a bit biased, called the veteran "the most dominant center in the NFL."

And that's the man who converted one attempt during the Pro Bowl Games.

From afar, it's easy to look at long snappers as the butt of a joke. Most fans probably don't even know their name, and they sit pretty high on the "I could do that" ranking. Throwing a 50-yard pass with perfect accuracy? That's clearly a challenge, but anyone can snap a ball seven and 15 yards. Right?

Maybe not.

Again, the aim here isn't to pillory Jason for his performance in a meaningless event; if he had to long snap in the game, he could probably get the ball close enough to the punter to survive. But seeing a center of such high profile (both on and off the field) fall relatively flat is a reminder that every pro athlete is incredibly gifted at their position. And long-snapping, like anything else, is a unique skill.

If you want a second opinion on that, listen to Bill Belichick's famous, nine-plus minute response on the evolution of special teams and how it's important to have someone filling that specialized role.

Whether we're talking about a quarterback, a long snapper or the last player on the 53-man roster, they all have to be in the top echelon of their field to even make it that far. And when you remember that, everything becomes that much more impressive.