Scott Township's Christian Kuntz seeks to replicate debut season as Steelers long snapper

The player he works closest with on the team holds Christian Kuntz in particularly high esteem.

“Christian,” Pressley Harvin III said, “he’s the G.O.A.T., man. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, the G.O.A.T.”

G.O.A.T., of course, stands for “greatest of all time.”

Embarrassed when told of his good buddy’s description of him, Kuntz would much rather just avoid being “the goat” than being “the G.O.A.T.”

“I don’t really want to be recognizable,” Kuntz said after a recent Pittsburgh Steelers training-camp practice, “because if I am, it means I am not doing my job right. I try to stay under the radar.”

That’s life as an NFL long snapper, even one who’s something of a hometown hero. The long snapper is perhaps the most nondescript player on the roster. The only times you typically hear their names during a game broadcast or in media reports is if they make a mistake.

So, considering Kuntz made it through his first NFL season unscathed and relatively unnoticed might be the greatest compliment you can pay him. That is, if you even can pick him out of a crowd even though he touches the ball more often that all but typically one or two of the 52 other Steelers players on gamedays (the quarterback and running back).

Kuntz’s relative obscurity comes despite him being the only player on the Steelers roster who played his high school (Chartiers Valley), college (Duquesne) and pro ball in the area.

“It’s still the same,” Kuntz said, with a sheepish smile, on if anyone recognizes him now that he’s a Steeler. “I can walk in anywhere, and I still wait for a table — but that’s the good part about it. I like that.”

Sure beats angry social-media posters directing their angst at him, which is what could happen if the long snapper botched, for example, a potential winning field goal.

Kuntz not only avoided such ignominy in 2021, he performed his job well enough that the Steelers brought him back without any preseason competition for their long snapper job in 2022.

Not bad for a former FCS college linebacker who’d for five summers spent time in NFL training camps for four teams — plus played in the XFL — before finally nailing down a gig on a regular-season active roster last year. Kuntz beat out four-year incumbent Kameron Canaday in training camp in 2021.

“It’s different,” Kuntz said of having a job locked up this year, “but in a sense, I am always competing because they (the Steelers’ coaches) don’t miss plays.

“I am always competing because if I am slacking, they will have (a replacement) in here as quick as I can get out of here. So I am always competing (because) whether there is a (another long snapper) here or not, someone is always trying to come in and take (his job). That’s kind of how I try to keep my mentality: Someone’s always trying to get this spot.”

As Kuntz noted, for five years “I was that guy trying to get in.”

Kuntz joined four NFL teams, was released seven times and had a league fold on him (the XFL in the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic) before finally winning a permanent job at the same time Harvin likewise beat out a longtime incumbent at punter (Jordan Berry).

“I was (in Pittsburgh) for a good bit of (this) offseason, working with (Kuntz) every single day,” Harvin said. “It makes it easier when you get into training camp and get into the stadium, you don’t have to worry about ‘I don’t know where this ball is gonna go.’ You already have that level of trust in each other.”

From Scott Township to The Bluff of Duquesne University, Kuntz finally has made himself into an NFL regular who will play in his second season opener next weekend.

“It’s just way more comfortable this year,” Kuntz said. “We were comfortable last year, but now the chemistry has really grown. We’re gonna have a good year.”

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