Former Bama Long Snapper Carson Tinker Talks About Experiences With Tom Brady
Carson Tinker, a former three time national champion with the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, joined The Game with Ryan Fowler on Tuesday to discuss his recent Super Bowl victory with the Los Angeles Rams.
Tinker has been an NFL journeyman, but before his professional career he was Alabama's long snapper from 2009-2013. Tinker was a foundational part of the beginning of the Nick Saban dynasty, winning three national titles during his time in Tuscaloosa.
He went undrafted in the 2013 NFL Draft, but found a home in Jacksonville for six seasons. After bouncing around the NFL and getting released by several teams for a few years, he got the call to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back up long snapper.
He told Ryan Fowler when he joined the team that they were fresh off their Super Bowl victory the season prior and most of their roster was exactly the same, Tinker was the new kid on the block. "I stuck out like a sore thumb," said Tinker.
His first face-to-face interaction with Brady was on the first day of practice. Tinker and Brady were walking on opposite sides of a long hallway outside of the locker room. Tinker tried to keep his head down and not make a big deal about it. Brady ended up dropping everything in his hand and said to Tinker, "Hey man! I'm Tom, nice to meet you." According to Tinker, Brady was the nicest guy in the world and went out of his way to introduce himself to the new long snapper.
Tinker is a huge family guy, and he found it really cool that no matter what after every single game win or loss that Tom Brady would FaceTime his family in the locker room and tell them how much he meant to them and that he loved them so much. Tinker's locker was only five feet away from Brady so he witnessed this first hand after every game.
Another awesome story about Brady that Tinker got to witness would occur during away games that the Bucs would stay at five-star hotels. Before the night games, Brady would come wearing a dress shirt and blue jeans to the team walkthrough. He would casually throw the football as close as he could to the fancy and expensive hotel chandeliers. Brady would throw the football directly under the banquet hall chandeliers to Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown and tried to get as close as possible to them without breaking them.
After spending a few weeks with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, Tinker ended up joining the LA Rams later in the season, and would wind up winning a ring with the team earlier this month.
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