Only center Olin Kreutz has been a Bear longer than Patrick Mannelly–by less than a day. Both were selected in the 1998 draft, Kreutz in the third round and Mannelly in Round 6, and not even Kreutz has played as many games as Mannelly’s 128. He is a leader on special teams and, not surprisingly, signed to a long-term contract extension that makes him a Bear through 2010. Plus, he teaches long snapping via his Web site, longsnapper.com.
Q. You were recruited by several bigger football schools coming out of high school in Atlanta. Why Duke over Boston College, Georgia and North Carolina?
A. I have a hard time understanding why you wouldn’t want to go to a Northwestern or Duke or Stanford if you possibly could. Not everybody is going to go to the NFL, but if you have a chance to walk out of a Duke, Stanford or Northwestern, you do it. You got a good education and you’re in good football conferences. Football is a ticket as far as I was concerned. I had an older brother who played at Notre Dame and went through the same process. I wanted the best possible school for my education. If you’re good enough, the NFL will find you.
Q. Your major was history. If not the NFL …?
A. I had the chance to work in an internship for Morgan-Stanley in their private-client services department in their New York offices. When I left the internship, I told the woman in charge of the internship program that it was going to either be there or the NFL. She offered me a job, but the NFL called and I think it worked out all right. It was different, a blast. I stayed in NYU dorms, took the train to work every day and had a blast. I had fun with it.
Q. Funniest thing that happened to a Georgia boy in New York?
A. It’s kind of gross [laughing]. It’s not something you can put in the paper.
Q. Your wife Tamara is the daughter of former major-league pitcher Tommy John. How did you two meet?
A. We met at school. I saw her walking around school, and it’s a small enough school where everybody knew who everybody was so we got to talking. I chased her for two years and she finally said yes to a date. We met my freshman year and we’ve been married eight years.
Q. You’re from Georgia. What happened to your accent?
A. I lost it in college. It was Duke, in North Carolina, but it was a whole lot of northern students. I don’t know where it went.
