Eagles long snapper got his scholarship with somebody else's long snaps

Tim Thurman was Gold West Junior College's best long snapper. At six and a half feet tall, his form was pristine, and seemed impressive enough to get himself a scholarship.

But it wasn't. It was enough to get his teammate, Jon Dorenbos, a scholarship.

Dorenbos, putting together a highlight reel of his work as a linebacker, threw some footage of Thurman's long snapping on there as well, along with some snaps from a third teammate, Nick Heinle. Here he is back in March with Speial Teams U:

"My high school coach, Coach Craven, told me I should snap. I messed around with it my Senior year. And I could do it.... but I definitely didn't practice it or take it serious. It got the job done.

After high school I went to a Junior College. I played OLB and some fullback. We had a unbelievable long snapper whose name was Tim Thurman, a 6'6" TE that could snap, really well.

I later added some of his snapping film to my highlighted tape and sent it to colleges. I ended up getting a full ride to University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP Miners) because of it. Being that the snapper wasn't me on the tape, That's when I started taking snapping serious."

Claiming he was a great long snapper, Dorenbos sent the tape out, and college were indeed impressed. University of Texas, El Paso was especially impressed, and gave him a full ride. By his junior year, he confessed, but nobody cared.

These days, Dorenbos long snaps for the Eagles, and has been doing it since 2006. He mentions his move pretty casually, most recently to Tim McManus of Philly Mag.

Thurman went on to be a high school football coach in California, and Dorenbos is an 11-year NFL vet who greatly credits his career to a man with whom he hasn't spoken in years.