A new series for Steelers Depot we’ll dedicate a handful of posts to. You’ve heard about right player, wrong team to highlight those who changed organizations late in their career. Franco Harris in Seattle, Mike Webster in Kansas City, you get the idea.
Today, we’re looking at James Harrison’s brief and painful career at long snapper.
Yeeeeaaahhh, we’re talking about this one. Depressing as it is, few “out of position Steelers” can be remembered as vividly as Harrison’s emergency long snapping in 2008.
For years, Greg Warren was the Steelers’ guy. A consistent, valuable player but a forgettable one as virtually all long snappers are. They’re only mentioned when one of two things happened and neither of them is good:
1. They have a terrible, costly snap
2. They get hurt
On October 26th, 2008, a Week 8 game versus the New York Giants, Warren found himself on the latter list. Late in the third quarter, Warren was one of 10 Steelers to run down Mitch Berger’s punt. He got tangled up with linebacker Chase Blackburn, stumbling and falling to the ground before holding his left knee. The cameras captured it here as they focused on CB Anthony Madison, the left gunner who drew a holding call. After a commercial break, they showed Warren first walking off the field before his leg literally buckles, perhaps the moment when he completely tore his ACL, and painfully falling to the ground.
Fair warning, the moment legitimately might make you squeamish.
Pittsburgh led 14-9 at that moment but had more than a quarter left to cling to it.
The Steelers turned to their backup plan. Outside linebacker James Harrison. The NFL’s DPOY that year quickly carried a dual role.
Pittsburgh did all they could to avoid having to use him. On their next possession, instead of trying a 51-yard field goal on 4th and 5 (which admittedly, was tough to make at Heinz Field at that time healthy long snapper or not), the Steelers went for it. Ben Roethlisberger was picked by Corey Webster. But Pittsburgh’s defense held up, bending but not breaking and holding the Giants to a field goal.
On Pittsburgh’s following possession, it had no choice but to use Harrison. Following a Roethlisberger third-down sack, they faced 4th and 22 on their own 18. Harrison trotted out…snapped the footballl…and Berger (himself dealing with a pulled hammy) watched it sail 100 yards over his head, the ball cruelly barely rolling out of the end zone without Berger even having a chance to salvage things. Safety, tie game, 14-14.
Take a look at the snap. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
Pittsburgh didn’t need Harrison again. The Giants took the lead on their possession after the safety kick. The Steelers offense hit the field two more times, each ending on downs. Pittsburgh lost 21-14.
Tomlin, in just his second year on the job, took heat for turning to Harrison after the game. But he defended the choice, saying he was the right man for a difficult situation.
“James snaps at least once a week, every week since I’ve been here,” Tomlin said postgame via ESPN. “In practice and training camp is one thing. Inside stadiums and in the fourth quarter of a football game against the defending world champions is another thing. … If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing. I’d hope for a different outcome, but I’d do it again.”
Needless to say, Harrison’s snapping days were over. Pittsburgh signed Jared Retkofsky for the following week. He quit his job with a furniture moving company, joined the Steelers, and won a Super Bowl ring.
Backup specialists are always a team’s worst nightmare. The odds of needing one are low but not zero and the Steelers have encountered it before. There was a backup holder dilemma in 2021 when CB Cam Sutton nearly entered the game. Later that year, it wasn’t clear if Pittsburgh would have a punter available for a contest (it signed Corliss Waitman at the last second).
It’s always worth wondering who the backups at each position are today. The punter is presumably the backup kicker and vice versa. The backup holder is less clear with Sutton gone. A quarterback is an option, probably something Mitch Trubisky would be asked to do.
What about the backup snapper? It had been FB Derek Watt, who didn’t do it in college but worked there during the Shrine Bowl when he was coming out of Wisconsin…and evidently looked pretty good. Now? I’m not sure. It’s easy to say to have the backup center do it but as Tomlin pointed out at the time, snapping at center and long snapper are two totally different techniques.
Ideally, you never have to find out again. But Pittsburgh went down that road in ’08. And it’s a moment that hasn’t been forgotten today.
