Patrick Mannelly (born April 18, 1975) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

long snapper In gridiron football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a Center (gridiron football), center on American football positions#Special teams, special teams whose duty is to Snap (gridiron football), snap the football over a longer distance, ty ...

who played for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

and was selected by Chicago in the sixth round of the

1998 NFL draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

. Mannelly played with the Bears for 16 years before retiring in 2014. He is considered one of the top long snappers in modern-day football, a title given to him by sports columnist Rick Gosselin and

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their position. Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

NFL agent Kevin Gold. The

Patrick Mannelly Award The Patrick Mannelly Award is an award given annually in the United States to the best college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. ...

, which was named after him, is presented to the top

NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

senior

Early life

Mannelly attended Marist School in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, where he was a letterman in

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. In football, he was invited to the Georgia–Florida All-Star game after his senior season. Mannelly graduated from Marist School in 1993.

College career

Mannelly attended

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and was a four-year starter at long snapper and a two-year starter on the offensive line. He missed a majority of senior year due to a mysterious hip injury. In Mannelly's final college game he went up against Mel Tucker; 15 years later Tucker would join Mannelly at the

and became the Bears defensive coordinator.

Professional career

The Bears drafted Mannelly in the sixth round of the

. Per the Bears records he snapped the ball 2,282 times during his NFL career without a botched snap. In 2006, kicker Robbie Gould claimed that Mannelly played a pivotal part of his productive season, and praised him in his Pro Bowl acceptance speech. Gould considered him one of the NFL's unsung heroes. On September 27,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, Mannelly broke

Steve McMichael Stephen Douglas McMichael (October 17, 1957 – April 23, 2025), nicknamed "Mongo", "Ming", and "Ming the Merciless", was an American professional football player and professional wrestler. He was a defensive tackle for 15 seasons in the Natio ...

's Chicago Bears record for most games played as a Bear, with 192 (the record now stands at 245, at the time of his retirement he was tied for 43rd most in NFL history). In a 2011 game against the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

, Mannelly ruptured his ACL, and was placed on injured reserve. In 2012, Mannelly broke the record for most seasons with the Bears with 15. On December 24, 2012, Mannelly signed a one-year deal with the Bears. Mannelly retired on June 20, 2014, after a 16-year career. Mannelly ended his career with 81 special teams tackles, the third most by a Bear since 1995 (when the statistic was first officially recorded), and the longest tenured player in team history.

Life after football

On September 2, 2014, Mannelly debuted with Chicago sports talk radio station 670 The Score as a co-host to Matt Spiegel. Less than a year later, Mannelly left the show citing a lack of interest in covering sports besides football. He will remain on the station as a football analyst. In 2019, Mannelly partnered with NFL agent Kevin Gold and trainer Chris Rubio to create the

, given to the best long snapper in college football.

Personal life

Mannelly was born to Jay and Patty Mannelly. His brother, Bernard, played college football for Notre Dame. He and Tamara John, the daughter of former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher Tommy John, were married in 1998. The couple has one daughter who was born on Christmas Eve 2005. Mannelly is also a spokesperson for the American Lung Association's Athletes and Asthma program. Mannelly was a recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award on April 8, 2014.

References

External links

Official website

Chicago Bears bio

Patrick Mannelly Award

The Life of the Long Snapper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mannelly, Patrick 1975 births Living people American football long snappers Chicago Bears players Duke Blue Devils football players Players of American football from Atlanta Marist School (Georgia) alumni