George Burman: the first long snapper

[readjack]

Wanted to share this story here for anyone who would enjoy it, from 2020, when I tracked down and identified George Burman (Bears, Rams, Washington) as the NFL's first full-time long snapper. Burman was a George Allen favorite and then had an academic career of renown. Fun story and great history:

https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2020/ ... washington

[Brian wolf]

Great read ... Jack. I always wondered if Tom Goode was the first full time long snapper but now I know for sure. This article just punctuates the legend of George Allen, who I also felt was a great network color commentator. Football was his life, but could George had lived longer had he not been doused by his young college team after a victory? He had a lingering cold but died due to a heart problem.

[readjack]

Great read ... Jack. I always wondered if Tom Goode was the first full time long snapper but now I know for sure. This article just punctuates the legend of George Allen, who I also felt was a great network color commentator. Football was his life, but could George had lived longer had he not been doused by his young college team after a victory? He had a lingering cold but died due to a heart problem.

Thank you Brian! And that's wild about Allen's death. I did not know that about the Gatorade bath. It wasn't lost on me that he died just after his final game, which I interpreted as romantic. But good golly!

Yeah, narrowing down the Burman thing was tough, but if you know Kevin Gallagher, he loved this project and he and I ran through one of Turney's lists of long snappers — I think this one: https://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com ... story.html

And we just looked for whether each player was also a position player. So we checked Goode. After that, I think I took my results back to Turney to get his view. Then checked with Gosselin, and then Gosselin checked with all of those coaches I mentioned. And of course interviewed Burman and got his timeline. Fun stuff!

[Lee Elder]

Allen's death was likely NOT linked to the post-game dousing. See my book on the matter.

By the way, Long Beach State couldn't afford Gatorade. Allen was doused with ice water.