Carolina’s JJ Jansen will become the NFL’s all-time record holder for games played by a long snapper on Sunday.
The Panthers-Eagles game will be Jansen’s 282nd, breaking a tie with Trey Junkin for the most games played at long snapper in NFL history.
The 40-year-old Jansen long snapped at Notre Dame and then signed with the Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2008 but played only in the preseason, spending the regular season on injured reserve. In 2009 the Panthers needed a long snapper, so they traded a conditional 2011 draft pick for Jansen. He’s been their long snapper ever since.
Long snapping is a skill that few players ever learn, and most who do have a story of a football mentor who taught them the technique that can earn playing time on the varsity high school team, a college scholarship for some, and NFL riches for a select few. For Jansen, that mentor was his father, who had been a high school long snapper.
“I still remember we practiced in the same way every single time,” Jansen told Darin Gantt of Panthers.com. “We had like a square piece of grass that was probably 20 yards by 20 yards. I’d stand at one end in front of a tree that was right in the middle. My dad would stand at 15 yards away, and I would snap it. We’d have those legendary long nights where you’re good, and then you stink, and then you’re good, and you stink, and you’re mad at yourself because you stink, so you yell at your dad, and he’s yelling back at you and, there’s this whole, you know, boys and their fathers moments.”
Jansen has played the second-most games of any active player, behind only Ravens defensive end Calais Campbell, who has played 283 games. If both Campbell and Jansen play all 17 games this season, at the end of the year Campbell will have played 295 games, tying him with Darrell Green for the 16th-most in NFL history, and Jansen will have played 294, good for 18th-most in NFL history.
All 281 of Jansen’s games have been with the Panthers. Former Lions kicker Jason Hanson has the NFL record for most games played with one team, at 327. If Jansen keeps playing every game in Carolina, he’ll move ahead of Hanson in the final game of the 2028 season. Jansen is showing no signs of slowing down.