Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

May 1, 2009
By Donald Starver

The Steelers announced that they have released long snapper Jared Retkofsky.

Retkofsky was signed in the middle of the 2008 season after long snapper Greg Warren suffered a season-ending knee injury, and a short-lived experiment with James Harrison as long snapper proved to be an abysmal failure.

This comes as a bit of a surprise, but it clarifies a mystery that occurred earlier in the week.  The Steelers signed undrafted free agent long snapper Mark Estermeyer out of Pitt.  This writer questioned why the Steelers would sign a long snapper when they already had Warren and Retkofsky on the roster.  Apparently, Retkofsky was in an offseason motorcycle accident and hurt his shoulder.  What’s up with the Steelers and motorcycles?  I suggest that Coach Tomlin institute a new “no motorcycles” rule.

Now that that mystery is cleared up, I can go back to thinking about more important things like how they put that creamy filling inside a Twinkie.

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Hallelujah!!!! The Steelers signed a long snapper. Now James Harrison can go back to doing what he does best; terrorizing quarterbacks. More importantly, we will no longer have to watch him endanger women and children (and low flying birds) with his poorly aimed long snaps that inevitably end up in the stands rather than in the punter’s hands.

The Steelers signed Jared Retkofsky as their new long snapper. James Harrison and James Farrior can both breathe a sigh of relief.

Retkofsky was in training camp in 2007 with the Steelers. However, he was beaten out by Greg Warren for the position. Retkofsky was an undrafted free agent from TCU.

Jared Retkofsky

I don’t know about you, but this is possibly the best day of my life. I never thought that news about a long snapper could bring me to tears, but I did in fact shed tears of joy when I heard that Retkofsky had been signed. If I had been forced to watch James Harrison launch one more high velocity brick into the endzone, I think I may have killed myself.

Jared Retkofsky is officially my favorite Pittsburgh Steelers player. Who woulda thunk it?

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James Harrison is the Steelers’ backup long snapper????? WTF???!!!!

Is it just me, or were other Steelers fans completely baffled when James Harrison lined up as the Steelers’ long snapper when Greg Warren went out with an injury? If you had told me prior to Sunday’s game that the Steelers coaching staff would ever use James Harrison as a long snapper in an actual NFL game, I would have accused you of smoking one of Santonio Holmes’ special cigars. But use him they did. Even after the fact, I’m still stunned.

To make matters worse, after James Harrison launched his first (and hopefully last) long snap over punter Mitch Berger’s head, I saw James Farrior warming up on the sidelines to give it a try on the next punt. These are definitely signs of the apocalypse. Repent, for the end is near.

I’ll be the first to admit that I know about as much about long snapping as I do about cold fusion. Nevertheless, I am completely confused by why the Steelers have a linebacker as their backup long snapper. Afterall, they have a guy on their team named Justin Hartwig. You know, the center. The guy who is paid to snap the ball for a living. Sure, he makes his living performing regular snaps, but how much different can a long snap be? Isn’t it pretty much the same as snapping the ball to Ben Roethlisberger while he’s in the shotgun formation? Something tells me that if Hartwig had snapped the ball to Berger, it wouldn’t have gone 10 feet over his head.

Or how about Darnell Stapleton? You know, the undrafted free agent who has worked his way up to Steelers’ starting right guard. He was the starting center for Rutgers while in college. In fact, he was so good at it that he was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy, which is awarded annually to the best center in college. Are you telling me that guy has never snapped the ball to a punter before?

I’ve never been a fan of Steelers offensive line coach Larry Zierlein. This latest debacle just cemented that opinion.

The Steelers were dominating the Giants until the point where Harrison snapped the ball over Mitch Berger’s head for a safety. After that, everything just seemed to change.

I’m not going to blame the loss on that one play. That would be silly. But I sure do wish the Steelers could take that one play back. Don’t you?

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