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January 28, 2004
IN A PINCH: Kinchen made unlikely return
By John Delong | JOURNAL REPORTER
HOUSTON
When the Carolina Panthers released Brian Kinchen after the 2000 season, Kinchen was bewildered, and more than a little bitter.
He was also at the end of his career, or so it seemed.
He returned to his home in Louisiana, and settled into a life of retirement geared around golf and church activities.
But when the Panthers face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII Sunday at Reliant Stadium, Kinchen will - quite unexpectedly - be trying to win his first Super Bowl ring.
He came out of retirement in December to serve as the Patriots' long snapper for the final two games of the regular season, and has remained with the team through the playoffs.
No matter what happens, Sunday's game will probably be his last - and if the Patriots win, it will definitely be his last.
"My whole mantra for this week is from George Costanza on Seinfeld," Kinchen said yesterday. "They have that episode where he tells the joke and everyone laughs and he says, 'That's it, I'm outta here, I'm leaving on top.' Hey, if we win the Super Bowl, I'm outta here."
It's a bizarre story, one that Kinchen said still has a bit of a surreal feeling to it.
Kinchen was teaching seventh grade at a private Christian school in Baton Rouge, La., and was coaching fifth- and sixth-graders when the Patriots called. They'd lost two long snappers to injuries in the previous two weeks, and were desperate to find someone with experience. Kinchen shrugged off the notion at first, being two years removed from the NFL at the time. But his wife, Lori, their four children and his seventh graders insisted that he play.
"I had gone to some tryouts a couple years ago and got my hopes up about playing again and then it didn't work out," Kinchen said. "So I was at the point where I said, 'I don't know if I ever want to go through that again.'
"But I talked to my wife, and I surveyed the class, and all of them were like, 'You need to go, you need to go.' My wife's thing to me was, 'If you don't go and they wind up going to the Super Bowl, you're going to kick yourself.' At that point, I realized I couldn't pass up the opportunity."
Coming back has been - pardon the pun - a snap.
"Initially, it was kinda surreal," he said. "For a while there, I was thinking, 'I'm 38 years old, I haven't done this for three years, I never thought I'd be doing this again.' But after a while, the honeymoon was over and I felt like one of the guys again, and it was a matter of going out and doing my job."
Kinchen began his NFL career in 1988 with Miami, as both a long snapper and backup tight end.
The resume includes three seasons in Miami, five in Cleveland, three more with the same organization in Baltimore, then two with the Panthers.
He started all 16 games at tight end for the Ravens in 1996, catching 55 passes for 581 yards and one touchdown, and has caught 160 passes for 1648 yards and seven touchdowns over his 14-year career.
He signed with the Panthers as a long snapper and third tight end in 1999, George Seifert's first year as head coach. He had played for Scott O'Brien, the Panthers' special-teams coach, and thought that he would be in Carolina as long as O'Brien was around.
But even though he had two mistake-free years as a long snapper and caught six passes as a backup tight end, the Panthers chose to release him after the 2000 season. They signed Jason Kyle, their current long snapper, shortly thereafter.
"I didn't leave on the greatest of terms," Kinchen said. "I was released for no apparent reason. I was healthy as a horse, and doing as good as the day I showed up. In my mind, when you're a snapper, you get in 15 years, minimum. So it was hard for me accept at the time. I still don't understand it."
He joked yesterday that it was the move that led to Seifert's demise.
The Panthers went 1-15 in 2001, Seifert was fired, and he hasn't surfaced since.
"I've been released twice in my career, by Carolina and Green Bay," he said. "The two coaches that released me, George Seifert and Lindy Infante, both went 1-15 the next year and got fired and never worked again. So I couldn't have been better vindicated."
He said he's not a vindictive person, however.
"I'm happy for the Panthers," he said. "I still know probably eight to 10 of the guys there, and for them to do what they've done and achieve what they've been able to achieve it great. I'm excited that they're here.
"I look back, and I don't know if I was fortunate or unfortunate that I wasn't on that 1-15 team. What they've done since shows that in the NFL, with free agency and the way things are anymore, anything's possible now."
Anything's possible, indeed.
Even for a guy who never dreamed he'd be playing in the Super Bowl this year.
"Two months ago, I was teaching seventh-grade Bible classes," he said. "The odds of me ever getting signed again were astronomical, much less the odds of us getting here. So you combine the two, and what are the odds? I'm very touched. I'm very grateful."
• John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com