By Zach Zook
NORMAL — Normal West and Indiana State graduate Josh Appel is fresh off of his first taste of professional football.
The All-American long snapper was recently invited to and participated in New York Giants rookie minicamp in May. Appel, 21, has spent the last semester training for the 2017 NFL Draft and credits his support system for keeping him focused in the months leading up to the draft.
PODCAST: Listen to Zach’s interview with Appel on WJBC.
“I did long snapping lessons over in Indianapolis with Justin Snow. He snapped for the Colts for 12 years and I think he retired in 2012. So just working with him and kind of learning the NFL style was great,” the former Sycamore long snapper said.
As exciting as it was to be preparing for the NFL and the draft process, it didn’t come without its fair share of stress. Although Appel understood he most likely wouldn’t be drafted, he was hoping to sign as an undrafted free agent shortly after the draft.
“I was expecting and hoping to get a call after (the draft) and hopefully sign with a team because I had three teams that had contacted me a week before the draft wanting draft day information,” Appel said.
Although he wasn’t picked up after the draft, his mental toughness eventually paid off. The following week he finally received a chance.
“I got a call (the following) Monday afternoon from a football operations guy from the New York Giants and he just said, ‘Hey we have a tryout opportunity for you and we think it’s a good opportunity to show the coaching staff what you can do,'” said the All-American.
Appel also said that it was nice to get his feet wet and understand how the NFL operates in terms of blocking and meetings. Although he didn’t leave with a contract, he stated that it is common for long snappers to take a more winding path to the NFL.
“With a lot of people it takes them two, even three years to break into the league. There’s only one on a team so there’s only 32 positions and a lot of them aren’t truly open each year,” the Normal West grad said.
The New York Giants current long snapper is 33 year-old Zak DeOssi, who is only under contract for two more seasons. Appel has had an incredible road to this point in his career and continues to train and await his next opportunity to break into the NFL.
