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By JEFF LEGWOLD
Staff Writer

They've put their heads between their legs and kissed an NFL career hello.

They do their best work — usually their only work — in the melee that is professional football's line of scrimmage.

They're buried in humanity, out of sight and out of mind — right up to the point they sail a football over the punter with the game on the line. Then the mistake is part of the cable-TV highlight loop until the next Sunday rolls around.

They are long-snappers — those players who snap the ball on punts and field-goal attempts. Although they don't fuel the NFL draft's hype machine, they are some of the most difficult players to find.

''You play a few plays, you need nerves of steel and you get one chance to get it right or they'll send you on your way,'' said Rob Davis, long-snapper the past five seasons for the Green Bay Packers. ''The thing is, you can either do it or you can't.''

Enter Kevin Gold. By day he's a labor and employment attorney in Harrisburg, Pa. The rest of the time he's a certified player agent whose entire NFL client list — three are currently on rosters — consists of long-snappers.

Gold scours the football nation each year looking for the best NFL-worthy prospects at the position — he's signed on Michigan State's Tony Grant, one of the best available in next week's draft — and what started as a quest for a little niche marketing has almost turned into a full-blown vocation.

Gold also created and operates Longsnap.com, an Internet site devoted to long-snapping. The site promotes his practice, contains a newsletter devoted to long-snapping and offers tips and drills to younger players who want to learn the trade.

''It's all gone a little beyond all of my expectations, really,'' Gold said. ''But right from high school on, when the coach says 'can anybody snap' nobody wants to raise their hands.

''I'm the opposite, I think you should raise your hand as quickly as possible. It can be a long career in the NFL.''

Trey Junkin, an unrestricted free agent who has played 19 seasons in the NFL, has had one of the longest long-snapping careers. He's played for five NFL teams, including the Arizona Cardinals most of the past five years.

Drafted as a linebacker by the Buffalo Bills in 1983 (the same year the Houston Oilers selected Bruce Matthews in the first round) Junkin played in just 18 games on special teams or at linebacker before being released two games into the '84 season.

He has been a long-snapper ever since, and had stints with the Redskins, Raiders (twice) and Seahawks before landing with the Cardinals.

That is often the vocational timeline. A player who's undersized or a step slow is usually told to try being a long-snapper when it may be his only chance of sticking in the NFL.

He may still have to hop from team to team, because in the salary cap era specialists are often the first players released.

''In my case a scout told me 'You were a hell of a defensive lineman in college, but that was at Division II Shippensburg State,' '' Davis said. ''The guy said you can either be constantly looking for work or you could be a long-snapper for a long time. I had done it one year in high school and in college, so I kept working on it.''

Davis, who was waived by the Jets twice and played in the Canadian Football League earlier in his career, and Patrick Mannelly of the Chicago Bears are considered two of the best long-snappers in the league.

Mannelly also found some room in cyberspace (longsnapper.com) to pass the word about his profession. Like Gold's site, Mannelly's also offers tips for younger players.

''I just felt like there wasn't a lot of information out there about it,'' said Mannelly, who also played tackle at Duke. ''It's a good niche to be in if you can do it. A lot of guys have played a long time doing it.''

The Titans have been a rarity, using a starter like Matthews to snap on punts and field goals for most of the last two decades.

In recent seasons, though, they limited Matthews' long snaps to field-goal attempts only because they were trying to keep him from having to run downfield on punt coverage. Kevin Long snapped on punts, meaning the Titans were the only team in the league last season to use a different player to snap on punts and field goals.

With Matthews expected to retire and Long an unrestricted free agent, the Titans are in the market for a long-snapper.

''A lot of guys can't do it, not at the level it needs to be done,'' Mannelly said. ''A [punt] snap is 15 yards and the ball has to be back there in .7 seconds and be on the mark. A lot of guys just don't have the right combination in the hips, back and wrists.''

Former Rams linebacker Jeff Robinson is further proof that long-snapping can be good work for those who can get it.

Although he played exclusively on special teams in St. Louis, Robinson was recently signed by the Dallas Cowboys, who had six kicks blocked last season, because of his ability as a long-snapper.

Robinson was given a four-year, $4.8 million deal that included an $850,000 signing bonus. Even Robinson said ''the only people who think I'm worth this money are my parents and [Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones.''

''Thing is, in the NFL contracts aren't guaranteed, so really a contract is just a permission slip to perform,'' Davis said. '' … I've worked hard, I've been lucky and because I can snap the ball and a lot of guys can't, I carved out a nice living for myself, and hopefully made a good start on setting up my family for the future. That's not bad.''

Jeff Legwold covers the NFL for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 259-8352 or jlegwold@tennessean.com