“Long Snapper” Needs To Go Away
Ok, first of all, this is not a football post… But I need to start with the football mumbo jumbo, so bare with me if you are not a football fan.
Yesterday, Eagle’s linebacker Simoneau became David Aker’s backup and kicked an extra point. It wasn’t pretty, but it was good.
While Paco and I were checking out the photos, and videos of that kick, we also got into a heated debate. I figured if a linebacker has the capability to do a kicker’s job, why the hell NFL still needs long snappers? These guys just hike the balls up and place them for the kickers. That’s all they do for a minimum of quarter million a year. Soccer teams don’t have special positions to score field goals. Although Paco’s point is also valid that long snapper has to be precise every time, I still think the job can be performed and trained by other positions, maybe not a quarterback, but a punter?
At the end of the day, it’s all about the “special position”. But if you think about it for a sec, this kind of could-be-eliminated-special-position actually exists everywhere.
Just a few months ago before my current project was wrapping up, we had about 3 project managers to manage 3 of us. Somehow, our executives figured that we need project manager to manage the project managers who manage the project staffs. My co-worker and I were really bitching about it since it caused us to do more status reports. We can’t figure out why the hell a special position is needed for just a few hours of work that any of us can do.
We all know FEMA is under really hot pressure to explain their slow responses during the Katrina disaster. I bet if they eliminate some “long snapper” positions, they’d be in a much better shape to effectively respond to the rescue requests. And, the best part, the agency probably could shrink by 2/3, therefore saving us some tax dollars.. 
NFL probably will never get rid of those long snappers. But we sure can try something in our surroundings to make our lives a little easier. My co-worker and I communicated our concerns and provided evidence as how many hours we have wasted in responding to multiple project managers, so we got rid of our “long snapper” successfully. I am wondering if enough staffs in FEMA has proactively advocated their voices of the ineffectiveness of the agency, the guy sitting on the top of the food chain has to pay some attention. And maybe things can be done differently?
ME Strauss said,
September 19, 2005 @ 7:50 pm
Having been evacuated during a flood, i’ve had a little experience with FEMA. I wonder how much is really FEMA and how much is the over-bloated bureaucracy. The problem was the rules. There weren’t enough people and there were too many rules that the people had to follow. You could get plenty of help from the minute you signed up, but if you didn’t sign up until day 3, you were out for days 1 and 2. So the FEMA folks were swamped and over-worked at the beginning, because people needed the vouchers to pay for the first two days too.
It’s a good think that Yuma’s Village isn’t anywhere near a flood plain. None of my houses have been anywhere near one since then.
smiles,
liz
Yuna said,
September 19, 2005 @ 8:20 pm
Didn’t know you had that kind of experiences.. .glad you are by Michigan lake now. But Yuna’s Village is still in the earthquake zone..
Natalie Gulbis said,
October 7, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
quarterback videos…
Interesting post. I came across this blog by accident, but it was a good accident. I have now bookmarked your blog for future use. Best wishes. Natalie Gulbis….
natalie gulbis said,
March 27, 2007 @ 7:01 am
natalie gulbis…
Come And Get Some Baby..;)…