NFL Films shares forgotten tale of Brian Kinchen from Patriots' second Super Bowl under Bill Belichick

BOSTON -- If you witnessed firsthand the initial run of Super Bowl victories in New England, then you've no doubt consumed just about every bit of media produced about the dawn of the dynasty. Books, DVDs, TV specials, magazines, merchandise -- all of it.

It is quite rare, then, to come upon a story that's largely been untold -- at least on a wide scale. Yet on Thursday afternoon, NFL Films released an 8-minute video on social media that told a tale that many New Englanders might not have known.

(The story had been told in a Sports Illustrated article in 2017, and in a book released in 2009, though it was one that likely slipped under many radars.)

The story is that of long snapper Brian Kinchen. It took place at the end of the 2003 season, after Lonie Paxton suffered a season-ending injury and after replacement Sean McDermott (no, not that Sean McDermott) also suffered a season-ending injury after just one game with the Patriots. Desperate for a long snapper, Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli dialed up an old friend in Kincher, who was the long snapper in Cleveland for Belichick's entire tenure with the Browns.

The only issue was that the 38-year-old Kinchen stopped playing NFL football after the 2000 season. By 2003, Kinchen was a seventh-grade teacher at Parkview Baptist Middle School in Louisiana, as well as a youth football coach. 

"When [Scott Pioli] asked me to come try out, I didn't really know that I wanted to," Kinchen says in the video. "I told him I didn't know. And I told him to call me back later and I'll make a decision. I decided to go, and a couple of games, everything was good. And then playoffs hit, and chaos ensued."

The chaos Kinchen refers to was a case of the yips. Kinchen bounced a snap to punter Ken Walter on a frigid night in Foxboro in the divisional round of the playoffs vs. the Titans. Another snap was off target to Walter's side. The punter handled both snaps and got away his kicks, but the mechanics and confidence of Kinchen were out of whack.

"I had put a ball on the ground once in 13 years," Kinchen said. "So yeah, it started to become a mind game at that point."

In the AFC Championship Game, Kinchen released a slightly high snap on a successful Adam Vinatieri field goal, in a game where a high snap by the Colts' long snapper resulted in a safety.

Though Kinchen and the Patriots had avoided disaster, Kinchen was a bit of a wreck in practice, even telling Pioli that he wanted to go home during Super Bowl week. Then, Kinchen cut his finger during the team's pregame meal. Once the game started, Kinchen one-hopped a snap on a punt and one-hopped a snap on a field goal, which was no good.

"I can see Belichick out of the corner of my eye, and Belichick says, 'We're playing in the Super Bowl, Brian. You're not doing a very good job,'" Kinchen shared. "So obviously I'm as distraught -- that's probably the most difficult moment."

Kinchen was hoping to not factor in to the rest of the game, but as everyone knows, this was a Super Bowl decided by a Vinatieri field goal in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. And -- again, as everyone knows -- it was a successful snap, hold and kick, lifting the Patriots to a hard-fought 32-29 victory.

"So we run onto the field to kick the field goal, and I'm just absolutely terrified, thinking in my mind all these thoughts that this is a moment that I'll remember for the rest of my life, that will define my career," Kinchen said in an audio diary after the game.

"I'm not gonna be shy," Kinchen said almost 20 years later to NFL Films. "I'm gonna throw it like I always did. So as soon as [Walter] gave me his hand, I released it, and I knew it was perfect."

With the likes of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Deion Branch, Kevin Faulk, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law, Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi, Adam Vinatieri, Mike Vrabel, and Troy Brown involved, the long snapper understandably didn't draw much of the coverage that followed. But as we now know, Brian Kinchen may have been fighting the hardest of all that night in Houston.