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or a man who once made his living<br />
looking backward—through his<br />
legs—Ryan Kuehl always has been<br />
intently focused on the future.<br />
In the hierarchy of professional athletic<br />
glamour, long snappers—football players<br />
who specialize in snapping the ball on punts,<br />
field goals, and extra point attempts—rank<br />
somewhere near middle relief pitchers in<br />
baseball or members of the pit crew in auto<br />
racing. Although they’re an important cog<br />
on a successful team, they toil largely in<br />
anonymity. If you see a fan wearing a long<br />
snapper’s jersey at a game, you can safely<br />
assume they’re a relative. McDonald’s has yet<br />
to sign one to hawk Big Macs.<br />
Over the course of a 12-year NFL career,<br />
during which he played for four teams,<br />
including the Super Bowl XLII champion<br />
New York Giants, Kuehl intrinsically<br />
understood the realities of his position. He<br />
knew he lacked the earning power or dreamy<br />
dimpled chin of Tom Brady; he realized that if<br />
he was fortunate enough<br />
to retire from pro ball<br />
before the league chewed<br />
him up and spit him out,<br />
he couldn’t rely on his<br />
name, banked millions,<br />
or supermodel wife for<br />
his livelihood. So for<br />
seven long springs after<br />
each season ended, while<br />
his teammates lounged<br />
on a beach or teed up a Titleist, Kuehl,<br />
Kogod/MBA ’07, dragged his battered and<br />
bruised body straight from the locker room to<br />
classrooms at AU.<br />
“I remember very distinctly years when<br />
we would lose a playoff game in January, have<br />
“I REMEMBER VERY<br />
DISTINCTLY YEARS<br />
WHEN WE WOULD LOSE<br />
A PLAYOFF GAME IN<br />
JANUARY, HAVE FINAL<br />
MEETINGS ON MONDAY<br />
WITH THE TEAM, AND I<br />
HAD CLASS TUESDAY<br />
IN D.C.”<br />
final meetings on Monday with the team,<br />
and I had class Tuesday in D.C.,” says the<br />
Washington-area native. “I would literally<br />
walk in limping. Forty-eight<br />
hours ago I was fighting for<br />
my life on the field, and now<br />
I’m sitting here in class.”<br />
Kuehl, 41, is perched<br />
at a high-top table in the<br />
Hungry and Humble Café,<br />
on the Baltimore campus of<br />
Under Armour. He joined<br />
the upstart athletic apparel<br />
company in 2008 and now<br />
serves as its senior director of sports marketing<br />
for professional sports. As the leader of a group<br />
of 15, he’s charged with forming partnerships<br />
with athletes, teams, and leagues.<br />
“Essentially what we do is provide the<br />
vehicles for our brand marketers and our<br />
32 AMERICAN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER <strong>2013</strong>
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