Chris Snee and his family will need time to adjust to his life as a retired National Football League player.
Snee had sheltered his sons, ages 10, 8 and 3, from speculation of potential retirement until the morning July 21, the day he made the announcement as the New York Giants opened training camp. When it was over, Snee and wife Kate took the boys away to their beach house for a few days.
“It’s been a tough week,” Snee said in a telephone interview Sunday night. “We just felt like we needed to get away and really just hang out with each other and not have any outside distractions.”
Snee played prominent roles in the New York Giants winning two Super Bowl titles.
When injuries – and the attempts to recover from three surgeries in the past two years – convinced Snee that it was time to end his National Football League career after 10 seasons, the Montrose graduate was praised as one of the best players in franchise history. That did not things much less difficult.
“I have no regrets about my decision and I never will,” Snee said. “That being said, it’s still tough to leave the game, a game I grew up dreaming of playing. I have my dream job for 10 years.”
Snee’s sons have been surrounding by the game, with a father as a standout player and a grandfather, Tom Coughlin, as his head coach
“That was my life. That was our family. We’ve been a football family,” Snee said. “To have my dream job and have to leave it would be difficult whether it was due to injury or if I had won the Super Bowl this year. It would still be sad. It would still be an emotional time.”
On the day Snee made his retirement announcement, Giants president and chief executive officer John Mara confirmed what many were quickly speculating, that Snee will be on the team’s Ring of Honor someday.
“I think Chris was everything you could ever hope for in a player: toughness, integrity, and a lot of pride,” Mara said, according to a story on Giants.com, the team’s website. “Winning mattered to him. I think he set a great example for all of the other players. He’s somebody we’re going to miss very much. He was one of the greatest offensive linemen in Giants history, and he’ll be on that Ring of Honor someday.”
Snee built a career as a four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro right guard on the combination of technique and brute strength. Workouts to try to rebuild his elbow, as well as both hips, after surgery made it clear that the strength had been sapped by the injuries that mount in the punishment that goes on in the NFL’s trenches.
One of the team’s captains last season, Snee said he was hopeful of being able to help teams prior to OTAs (Organized Team Activities) that precede training camp. When he had to start trying to move around other big bodies in the drills without equipment, the necessary elbow strength was not there. Weight-room workouts showed Snee that his arm strength was diminishing rather than improving.
“That’s kind of what my game’s been based upon,” Snee said during his retirement press conference. “I take tremendous pride in the effort I put in the weight room and being the strongest player on the field. I am nowhere near that.”
Teammates and Giants officials heaped praise on Snee for the contributions during his career.
“Chris is a pro’s pro,” Giants general manager Jerry Reese said. “He played the game right. He was as tough and prideful as they come. We will miss him.”
Coughlin, Snee’s father-in-law and the Giants head coach, talked about the transition Snee made from Boston College after being selected 34th overall in the 2004 NFL Draft.
“To me, he was the best guard in all of football,” Coughlin said. “No doubt. No matter who you put him against, all of the great defensive tackles in the game, the 350(-pound) guys, the 340 guys, he blocked them. When he first came here, he was so, so committed and so driven to excel at the professional level as he had excelled at the collegiate level.”
Snee started in 108 straight regular-season and playoff games at one point and had started every game of his career. He had played in 155 of a possible 161 games when injuries forced him to the injured list after just three games of the 2013 season. He did not know it at the time, but Snee’s NFL playing days were done.
In the days ahead, Snee said he will change his training emphasis from lifting heavy weights, reducing the stress on joints damaged by the life of a pro football player. He will concentrate on losing weight and “do a lot more running if my knees and hips allow me to.”
Snee is already in discussions with high schools in northern New Jersey and will probably serve as a volunteer football coach at one of them this season. That will allow him to test out his potential next move, to become a high school football coach, before making a full commitment in future years.
The Giants will have their own transition to make.
Research by ESPN’s Stats and Information Department showed just how valuable Snee has been to the team over the last five years. During that time, Snee was on the field for 4,031 plays and off of it for 1,001. The Giants averaged 4.2 yards per run with Snee and 3.7 without. Quarterback Eli Manning was sacked 5.7 percent of the time without Snee compared to 4.3 with him and had his passing rating cut about in half in Snee’s absence.
That impact came from a player who once had to be figured a long shot to reach big-time football.
“It just didn’t seem realistic at that point,” Snee said of a dream he established early, to become Montrose’s first Division I-A scholarship football player. “Nobody had ever gone to Division I football, even though the program was successful and I thought some of those guys were great football players.
“It just seemed a little far-fetched at the time.”
Snee planned to spend part of this week in and around Montrose visiting family and friends. He hoped to catch up to Tom Lucenti, the former high school coach who helped launch his career with a program that emphasized basic football and physical line play.
“I talk to coach Lucenti once a week,” Snee said. “I’d like to see him face-to-face.
“I thanked him over the phone for what he’s done, but it would be nice to see him and do a little reflecting.”
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Binghamton Mets lost ground in the Eastern Division when they took their last shot of the regular season at the Eastern League-leading Portland Sea Dogs.
Portland won the first two games of the three-game series on its home field to emerge with a 66-38 record and 4 ½ game lead over second-place Binghamton.
Brian Burgamy went 4-for-5 with two doubles Wednesday when Binghamton closed out the series with a 4-2 win.
Steven Matz (4-1) gave up just two runs in seven innings. Randy Fontanez and Cody Satterwhite each struck out two in a scoreless inning of relief. Satterwhite did not allow a hit or walk while picking up his ninth save.
Portland opened the series July 21 with a 6-4 victory.
Sea Dogs leadoff hitter and EL all-star Derrik Gibson, who is batting .367 for June and July, went 4-for-5 and scored twice in the win. Sean Coyle, another all-star, added two hits and two RBI.
T.J. Rivera went 4-for-4 and Brian Burgamy and Brandon Nimmo homered for the Mets.
Portland used a run in the bottom of the ninth to win the next night, 4-3.
Blake Swihart singled with one out and pinch hitter Jonathan Roof followed with a game-winning double.
Luis Diaz and Pete Ruiz (2-0) combined on a six-hitter. Diaz struck out seven while giving up five hits in seven innings. Ruiz pitched two scoreless innings, giving up just one hit.
Dilson Herrera and Travis Taijeron combined for five of the six hits and all of the run production for the Mets.
Herrera was 3-for-4 with a triple and homer. Taijeron was 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Curtis Mills of Susquehanna is on the City team that will take on the County Wednesday night in the 80th annual Dream Game at Henzes Memorial Stadium, Valley View’s home field in Peckville.
The game was moved this season because of ongoing construction at Scranton Memorial Stadium.
Montrose's Brenton Warner was also selected for the game, which features graduated players from the Lackawanna Football Conference and benefits sight preservation programs.
Mills was a first-team LFC Division 3 all-star linebacker, according to northeastpafootball.com.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
