Chicago Bear Patrick Mannelly Snaps with the Shamrocks

Chicago Bear Patrick Mannelly, one of the NFL's leading long snappers, worked with players at St. Pat's football camp on Wednesday.

Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly shared a lot of expertise with the Shamrock football campers Wednesday afternoon, but none of it was more emphasized than his advice to players to be as competitive in the classroom as on the football field.

“The biggest thing is to be competitive in the classroom because this won’t last forever,” said Mannelly, who attended Duke University after graduating from Marist High School in Atlanta, Georgia. “My former teammates and I weren’t only competitive on the football field. We were competitive in the classroom as well.”

Mannelly’s talk to the team followed an hour of running through long snaps, shotgun snaps and extra point field goal snapping with several players. He took time to critique players’ form and give them suggestions for improvement.

Senior Pat Koutnik was impressed with how Mannelly’s recommendations had an instant effect on his snapping. He felt that his teammates had a similar experience.

“Everybody was excited to see him since he’s a pro football player,” said Koutnik, who is already looking forward to the Shamrock’s home, season opener against Proviso East on Aug. 27. “The group took to it well and listened to what he had to say.”

Mannelly has spent a lot of his time working with youth and says he is motivated to do so because of what he calls the “fortunate” experience of being able to learn from his older brother, Bernard, an alum of Notre Dame football. With 12 seasons behind him, he is the second-longest tenured player within the Bear’s active long snappers. He has also recorded 70 career special teams tackles.