Kirk’s Coming In Through Out Door

Randy Kirk has an interesting perspective on life. Call it upside down and backward. Literally and figuratively.

It also must be said that Randy Kirk is smart and patient. He understands that fame and fortune will not come his way if he brazenly embraces them. He will dirty his hands and keep his mouth shut and maybe, just maybe . . .

By now, you might be wondering just who this character must be and what it is he does. Good questions.

Kirk, 22, plays for the Chargers. He is listed on the depth chart as the third-string inside linebacker on the right side. He is also listed among specialists as the first-string snapper on punts.

“That,” he said, “is my ticket. It’s one of those things that nobody ever does.”

Or wants to do.

There’s certainly no glamour in the job. No one knows, or appreciates, the player known as the long snapper. (The short snapper would be the snapper on field goal and extra-point attempts, and no one pays much attention to him, either.) No one even wonders who the long snapper might be unless the ball sails 10 feet over the punter’s head and instant replay identifies the culprit.

Yet Kirk embraces this role. In fact, he will embrace any role that puts him in a National Football League uniform, even if the number on it is 94. Linebackers, the linebackers, have numbers in the 50s. A linebacker getting the number 94 is a guy who isn’t expected to stick, kind of like a baseball player who gets to spring training and discovers he has been assigned the number 74.

And Randy Kirk has endured a lifetime of not being expected to stick at the next level.

He was a high school star at Bellarmine Prep in San Jose but had to settle for two years at De Anza College. He was a star at De Anza but was recruited by the likes of Portland State. He chose to walk-on at San Diego State, where he played sparingly until an injury gave him an opportunity in the last game of his junior year. Opportunity being all he needed, he earned a scholarship for his senior year and led last year’s Western Athletic Conference champions in tackles.

Alas, he was not drafted by the NFL. He had to expect that. Nothing had ever come easily.

“My dad always told me to get in some way,” Kirk said. “It doesn’t have to be by the front door.”

So he found a back door. An easy way in. He would go to camp as a free agent with the New York Giants. Piece of cake. The Giants didn’t have any more than three or four Pro Bowl-caliber linebackers. And they were coming off a down year in which they won the Super Bowl by only 19 points.

“I get asked a lot about going to the Giants,” he mused. “I felt I had only one real year of college football, so I didn’t think I was going to go anywhere and get a starting job. I hoped I could make it as a long snapper and eventually get into the depth chart.”

And maybe even carry the Gatorade for Harry Carson.

It didn’t work out that way. The Giants cut him. It hasn’t worked out too well for the Giants, either. A 2-6 record will dry up the Gatorade real fast.

Meanwhile, another back door was about to open for Kirk. At about the time he was to enroll at SDSU to chase his marketing degree, the National Football League players went on strike. The Chargers, like all the others, needed more than just long snappers. They needed anybody who could play this game.

Kirk got the call.

And he’s still there. In fact, he is one of nine Charger replacement players on the roster for Sunday’s game against the Raiders.

Again, it is a time for patience. He’s not, for example, about to rush out and do something crazy like buy a house in Rancho Santa Fe (or anywhere else) or jump behind a wheel of a $40,000 car.

“I try not to look too far ahead,” he said. “Just go with the flow.”

Kirk’s moments will come with special teams. He is on the kickoff, kick return and punt return teams. He does have a sack this year--against the Raiders, of all teams--but that came during the strike.

“I figure if I get the chance to re-sign, I’ll maybe have a chance to work into a linebacker job in camp,” he said. “As for now, it’s too far along in the season to be trying to get somebody else ready to play, especially someone as young and green as me.”

Add realism to his traits.

And so he spends, by his estimate, half of his practice time crouched over the football, looking back between his legs at an upright punter who looks upside down to him. The whole world looks upside down from such a position.

“If I’d known in college what I’d be doing today,” he said, “I’d have been doing it every day. Every single little thing you can do can make you or break you.”

The long snap on the punt is not exactly a gimme. Go out in the yard and pace off 15 yards, contort yourself so that you are almost standing on your head and then try to propel a football so accurately that it will hit a man in the belt buckle. You might also consider doing it with a gorilla breathing on top of your head to get the total experience.

Wayne Sevier, the special teams coach, talks about Kirk as if the young man is a godsend.

“When Randy came in with our replacement players,” he said, “I saw him snapping on the side and tried him. He was great. He’s a kid who got an opportunity and took advantage of it. And he’s a good athlete who can do other things in coverage and protection. He’s learning and working hard and getting better and better.”

No one appreciate little things more than special teams coaches, who do not, of course, consider little things to be little.

And no one appreciates big things as much as Randy Kirk does. He was a part of San Diego State’s dream season a year ago, and here he is in the middle of what has so far been a dream season for the Chargers.

“This is very reminiscent of last year,” he said. “It’s been a matter of a winning team developing a positive attitude. We really look forward from week to week to the next game.”

Maybe, just maybe, Randy Kirk also can start looking forward to next year. He might even get in through the front door.