Golden Nuggets: Nick Sundberg's Grand Entrance

As a longsnapper, Cal alum Nick Sundberg does not have the most glamorous role in football. No matter, Nick does what he can to make his entrance a memorable one. The rest of Joel Murphy's article is an excellent profile on Sundberg with some great stories about how he finally made it on an NFL team and how, since he was nine years old, he has helped test out some of TASER's products...on himself.

Before the Washington Redskins took on the New England Patriots this past Sunday, long snapper Nick Sundberg rushed out of the entrance tunnel, through the giant inflatable Redskins helmet and out onto the field. No one announced Sundberg’s name over the PA as he took the field. There was no music or pyrotechnics or theatrics of any kind. In fact, hardly anyone in attendance noticed. But that didn’t stop Sundberg from running out of the gate in a crisscross pattern with his arms fully extended out to his sides, enthusiastically mimicking an airplane as he made his grand entrance.
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"It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time," Sundberg said. "Never got to do it in college because kickers, punters, snappers, we always go out early. In the NFL, it’s the same way — we always run around it. I always thought that was kind of weird. The whole team runs through it except for us. We run around it."

So Sundberg said that one day he was making his way out to the field with kicker Graham Gano and punter Sav Rocca and he decided to just go for it. He tried to get the other two special teams players to go with him, but they wouldn’t do it.

"You know how kickers are with their stupid routines," he said.

But Sundberg went for it and he had a blast.

"It was like the best time ever. It really gave me a lot of joy," Sundberg explained.

After the jump the Bears begin to prep for Texas, Mychal Kendricks earns more postseason honors, and ESPN checks in on the best of the undecided recruits.

Football

• Ted Miller keeps tabs on what we should keep our eyes on during Pac-12 bowl season. For the Holiday Bowl he mentions the behind-the-scenes tension between Cal and Texas following the 2004 BCS snub.
• Kendricks continues to pile up the honors. His latest achievements include Phil Steele's second team All-America, College Sports Madness' second team All-America, and Sports Illustrated's honorable mention All-America.
• Cal Athletics set up a new site full of information on New Memorial Stadium.
• BearTerritory.net reports from Wednesday's practice, the first of their preparatory practices for the Holiday Bowl. With finals still looming over the players, Tedford will ease them into the Texas prep.
• ESPN compiles a list of all the top recruits who remain undecided. Cal is on the short list for many of them.