Bengals long snapper breaks world record for longest snap

When it comes to athletes, it’s hard to think of anyone more anonymous than the long snapper. Calling it a thankless job would be an understatement because that would imply that people know it’s possible to thank a long snapper. They are the robots of football, viewing the world in an upside down lens before being immediately attacked by an oncoming lineman.

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If you can make the NFL, though, it’s a heckuva way to make a living and it might even come with a Pro Bowl trip if you’re among the best of the best. That’s where Clark Harris of the Cincinnati Bengals found himself for the first time in his career this weekend and he took the opportunity to set the Guinness World Record for the longest snap in world history: 36 yards and 8 inches.

Some of you might be thinking: Well, what’s the point of a 36-yard snap? It’s hard to imagine a game scenario where a team might actually need to snap it that far. (Vince McMahon, of course, might have different ideas for his reboot of the XFL.)

But questioning Harris’ record misses the point. No one really needed to know about the world’s longest game of Q-bert or the world’s heaviest twins, but Guinness was there to tell us about them and we’re happy they were.

Now if they could just clue us in on other sports records we never thought of, like fastest goalie slap shot or longest bounce pass …

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