Ex-Husky snapper has deep NFL dreams

It's not so much that Bryan Pittman wouldn't take no for an answer in a quest to make the NFL that often seemed irrational even to those closest to him.

Instead, he says, he simply never heard it.

"That doesn't mean it wasn't ever said," he said. "But no one had ever said it to me."

And until the day that happened — that some NFL scout watched him snap for punts and told him he wasn't good enough — Pittman was going to keep trying.

Thanks to that persistence, Pittman spent last weekend in the Cleveland Browns' minicamp, competing for a job as the team's deep snapper, as unlikely a name on an NFL roster as there is in the league.

A 26-year-old graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way, Pittman's only real football claim to fame until now is spending the 1997 season with the Huskies as a walk-on deep snapper, earning a letter.

But he left UW the following season, saying he was angry he hadn't gotten a scholarship he said was promised to him by coach Jim Lambright.

Since then, he has played semipro ball while working a variety of odd jobs that generally paid no more than $12 an hour, while pursuing a dream of landing in the NFL that even friends and family sometimes considered outlandish.

"Five years — that's a lot of dedication," said best friend Sean O'Laughlin, who was the punter on the receiving end of Pittman's snaps at Jefferson, Walla Walla Community College and UW. "A lot of guys would have given up after one or two. Even I said to him, 'I know that's your dream and that's awesome, but you need a backup plan.' But he kept the faith and kept on working and he finally got a shot."

Said Pittman: "I know they were thinking, 'When are you going to go back to school and get a real job?' I would say, 'When I get a shot. When some coach tells me I'm not good enough to be an NFL deep snapper. Then I'll call it quits and finish up school and get a normal job.' "

That doesn't mean Pittman hadn't been turned away by NFL teams.

For several years after leaving UW, Pittman attended Pro Day at Husky Stadium, when scouts come to town and try out UW seniors and others who no longer have college eligibility.

But Pittman said he always advertised himself as a tight end/deep snapper. Scouts would take one look at his tight-end skills and write him off before watching him snap.

"I'm just a semipro tight end," he said. "But I think I'm an NFL deep snapper."

He thought he had a breakthrough in 2001 when he signed with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League. But he tore up his knee before playing a game, the one time he seriously wondered if he should give up his football dream.

"But I would watch the games on Sunday and watch the deep snappers and think, 'I can do that just as well as they can,' " he said.

So Pittman came back to Seattle to get healthy, play another year for the Federal Way Jets, and snap 50 to 100 balls five times a week.

Along the way, he decided to change his strategy in attracting NFL interest, advertising himself solely as a deep snapper. That is something that is suddenly a hotter commodity in the NFL. Teams are looking for someone to concentrate solely on deep snapping after seeing what happened to the New York Giants in last season's playoffs.

"A lot of teams are going that way now because they understand the importance of having a good specialist," Pittman said.

Pittman had a couple of individual workouts for teams in the past year, including with the Seahawks, but no solid offers.

His big break came in April when he attended a special-teams combine in Reno, Nev.

Scouts for a half-dozen or so NFL teams looking for deep snappers, kickers and punters attended. Several teams, including the Browns, offered to bring Pittman in for more extended tryouts, impressed by his ability to get the ball back to the punter in .5 seconds. Anything under .8 is considered acceptable by NFL standards, Pittman said.

He flew to Cleveland for a workout April 8 and was signed two hours later to a contract that included a $2,000 bonus and a promise of the NFL minimum of $225,000 if he makes the opening-day roster.

"He's got a chance to go from $25,000 to $225,000 if he makes a team," marvels O'Laughlin. "I tell you, it's the American Dream."

It won't come quite that easily, however. The Browns drafted another deep-snap specialist, Ryan Pontbriand of Rice, in the fifth round and Pittman knows the Browns likely will opt to keep a draft pick.

"I was down for the first day or so after the draft," Pittman said. "But then I talked to my coaches and family and my girlfriend and they said, 'Hey, this is part of the game. They want the best.'

"I know I've got to be twice as good as him to keep my job. But at least now I have my foot in the door. Not every snapper is going to stay healthy this year. If it doesn't work out here, there will be another team that will give me an opportunity."

But Cleveland special-teams coach Jerry Rosburg — who scouted Pittman at the Reno combine — said he won't be surprised if Pittman makes the opening-day roster and concludes one of the more unlikely routes any player has taken to the NFL.

"We wanted to bring a couple of good guys here to camp," Rosburg said. "He's working hard, getting stronger, and doing everything that we've asked him to do. Bryan is not without talent. He's got a chance to make it. There are a lot of different ways for guys to get to the NFL, like Kurt Warner and the beer man down in New Orleans (receiver Michael Lewis, who was a beer distributor before landing an NFL roster spot at age 29).

"Hopefully Bryan's story will have a happy ending, too."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com