Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick once was asked a seemingly simple question: Why do NFL teams devote a roster spot to a long snapper rather than teach a player at another position to handle the job?
“It’s an interesting conversation,” Belichick said.
What followed was a more than nine-minute, roughly 1,500-word history lesson on the evolution of long snapping.
The long snapper on Belichick’s roster that day was Joe Cardona, an El Cajon native and Granite Hills High School graduate selected by the Patriots in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft out of the United States Naval Academy. He was just the fourth pure long snapper ever drafted.
“I credit Bill for a lot of my own growth and development,” said the NFL veteran, now a Point Loma resident.
“You go in there immediately humbled by the amount of talent that was there, the knowledge that this team doesn’t need you, but I need to find a way to have an impact and to do my job. My goal was to prove him right in taking a chance on drafting me.”
‘Doing something meaningful’
For Cardona, 34, who helped the Patriots win Super Bowls LI and LIII before moving on to the Dolphins and Rams, the pressure of the position is almost paradoxical: The long snapper is supposed to be invisible.
Do your job perfectly, and nobody notices. Miss it, and everyone does.
On punts, field goals and extra points, the margin for error is tiny. A bad snap can turn a routine play into a blocked kick, a short punt or a game-changing mistake.
“I don’t think there’s ever a callus that you can build for big moments,” Cardona said. “And if I ever did build a callus for those emotions and those feelings, a lot of what this sport is would feel a little bland. Part of why I continue to play is going out there and feeling like I’m doing something meaningful.”
According to Drew Ferris, that ability to embrace the pressure is part of what separates Cardona from other long snappers.
Ferris, a former University of Florida long snapper who attended NFL rookie and training camps with multiple teams, first met Cardona as a teenager when the two competed as local high school long snappers, Ferris, a graduate of San Diego Jewish Academy, has since trained long snappers at multiple levels.
The long snapper, Ferris said, has to repeat the same movement over and over through a long season, regardless of weather, fatigue or pressure. But snapping is only the first part of the job. After delivering the ball, he has to get up quickly, execute his blocking assignment and, on punts, become a coverage player. A specialist can have one bad snap that changes a game — and potentially his career.
Long snappers are constantly evaluated, Ferris added, and one mistake can put a player in danger of being replaced. Sometimes, he said, a player can lose his job when a position coach wants to bring in his own guy.
“The guys who last a long time, their B day is probably better than most guys’ A days,” Ferris said. “It’s maintaining a high floor.”
Let’s turn back to Belichick for a moment. In his long-snapping lecture, which took place five years ago, he pointed to a shift in the mid-80s, and said “really the key guy in that was (Steve) DeOssie, in my opinion, because Steve was the first center that really, truly allowed a spread punt formation against all-out rush.”
He eventually arrived at the dilemma: A player who could perform multiple jobs would be valuable enough to save a roster spot. The problem, he said, is finding one.
“There would be so much value in a player that could do a couple of things and save a roster spot, but I would say there are so few of those players available,” Belichick said.
At that point, he was about to embark on the seventh season with Cardona on his roster.
‘Very, very good long snapper’
Ferris sees Cardona’s longevity going beyond the mental. Cardona’s physical skill set is unusually well suited to the position.
“If I was to build a long snapper, I’d build one like him,” Ferris said.
Cardona is big, strong and athletic, with the ability to snap, block and cover. His wide base and footwork help him stay square through contact, while his control of the ball’s velocity allows him to deliver quick punt snaps without making life more difficult for the punter. He also has the athleticism to get off the ground quickly and transition from the snap into his blocking assignment.
“He’s always been a very, very good long snapper,” Ferris said.
Cardona’s rookie season showed him how much more the job demanded at the NFL level. Ferris remembers talking with him that offseason about the adjustment — learning protections, understanding the responsibilities within the punt and field-goal units and adapting to the speed of the NFL game.
Cardona told Ferris he wanted to play as long as he could, but he didn’t know how long he would last. Even eight seasons, Ferris remembers, seemed like a lofty goal at the time.
For Cardona, the answer to that uncertainty was preparation.
“From a longevity standpoint, I think one thing that’s really benefited me, and I credit my time at the Naval Academy for this, is always having a focus on preparation,” Cardona said. “I’ve always prided myself on being prepared for whatever’s going to happen, and if you maintain that level of preparation, go out there and play hard and make the most of every opportunity, you just kind of find yourself continuing to do it.”
He eventually made that eight-season benchmark look modest.
Cardona became a mainstay in New England, spending a decade with the franchise before being released.
Leaving New England meant starting over.
“I had a lot of stability in New England for 10 years, and when I was thrust into a situation where I was released, as disappointing as it was for me, it was an opportunity to go and prove myself to a new team and a new group of teammates,” Cardona said.
New beginning
There were familiar faces in Miami, including punter Jake Bailey, a Solana Beach native and Cardona’s former Patriots teammate, and kicker Riley Patterson, who had previously spent time on New England’s practice squad. But Cardona said the experience forced him to confront a more fundamental question about his career.
“I had to really understand if I was the player and the leader I thought I was, or if I had just been there the longest,” Cardona said. “That was my opportunity to figure that out.”
He answered it by playing all 17 games for the Dolphins in 2025.
Then came another move, this time bringing him back to California.
The Rams signed Cardona to a two-year contract in March. He began his 12th NFL season when the Rams played the 49ers Sept. 10.
For Cardona, the story of his career starts in El Cajon.
Cardona grew up playing El Cajon Pop Warner at Wells Park and playing both sides of the ball at Granite Hills High, in addition to long snapping. The football program was not nearly as successful then as it has become under coach Kellan Cobbs. Cardona remembers winning only four games during his varsity career.
But he remembers something else.
“I got to play a lot of football,” Cardona said. “And those memories you make playing high school football, they never really leave you.”
The lack of success became part of the education, too.
“Sometimes when you don’t have success and you’re driven to seek success, those lessons can carry you a lot farther,” Cardona said.
El Cajon’s heartbeat
He also remembers the adults who helped shape him — youth football and baseball coaches who worked regular jobs, then chose to spend their free time guiding young people.
“El Cajon to me is really the community that shaped me,” Cardona said. “Blue collar, diverse, an area that has its own heartbeat.”
Those mentors, he said, showed him what it meant to invest in other people.
“These were people that worked for a living, nine-to-fives, and then they’d come and spend their time developing kids in their community,” Cardona said. “I’m a testament to that.”
Cardona now lives in Point Loma, but he still makes the trip east when he is home in San Diego, sometimes stopping at Kaelin’s Market, a place he said captures the character of the community that raised him.
“I could go on and on all day about how grateful I am for being from El Cajon,” Cardona said. “It’s a place that I’ll never cease to admire.”
When Cardona took the field for the first time as a Ram against the 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, the long snapper lined up on three punts and an extra point in his new team’s 27-7 loss.
He did his job, then disappeared again. For 12 seasons and counting, that has been Cardona’s specialty.
