By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

HOUSTON - Chances are, you'll never notice Brian Kinchen in the Super Bowl. Unless he fouls up.

You'll never notice the oldest guy in a New England uniform Sunday. The 38-year-old NFL reject who two months ago was teaching seventh-grade Bible class back home in Louisiana. And now he's playing in the Super Bowl. From Genesis to Houston in seven weeks.

"You hear about it. You read about it. You might even see it in a movie," Kinchen was saying of such a tale.

"But I don't think you ever expect to be a part of it.

"What are the odds?"

He is the long snapper. The forgotten man in punts and field goals. Unless, of course, the snap Frisbees over the punter or is a three-hop grounder back to the holder. Then suddenly everyone knows his name.

Especially in a Super Bowl.

But why rain on the fantasy? There is not a more unexpected face in this game. A man cut three years ago by the Carolina Panthers.

A man who tried out with three other teams that never called back. Who then went home to Baton Rouge, angry at the NFL, hurt by it, finished with it.

He coached kids in 2001 ... "game-planning all day for my fifth- and sixth-grade football team."

He did film breakdowns for the staff at his alma mater LSU in 2002.

He became a teacher in 2003.

"I'd wake up one or two nights a week, dreaming I was back in the NFL," he said. "I think it was the way I left. I felt betrayed by something or someone."

Football was over. Until New England General Manager Scott Pioli called him out of class one day in December. The Patriots needed a snapper for the stretch.

Kinchen hesitated. Asked Pioli to call him back. Polled his class. Talked to his wife. Prayed.

Did he want to return to the sport that spit him out? The Patriots had big prospects. Not that he knew about that. Kinchen had no idea they were 12-2 at the time. He had long ago stopped watching NFL football.

In 30 minutes, he decided. God was giving him one more chance. Who says no to God, not to mention Bill Belichick?

And now here he is, surrounded by the commotion of a Super Bowl media day, taking pictures for his wife and four sons back home.

"I know it's just a momentary span of time," he said. "Seven weeks. And I know then I'll be back to reality."

His snaps have been straight and true. The only discomfort has been the note by one of his students back at Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge.

"I'm confused," the girl wrote. "Does God want him here or does God want him there?"

He won't be a big hero Sunday. He might be a goat. Comes with the job. Or is it Job? Like the AFC Championship Game, when Indianapolis' Justin Snow sailed a snap over the punter's head for a safety. Great news for the Patriots.

"But I couldn't really rejoice. It was one of my brethren," Kinchen said. "In fact, I sought him out after the game. He was the first guy I thought of."

The media day crowd was not thick around Kinchen. He isn't Tom Brady. He's not even the punter. Just a middle-school teacher playing in the Super Bowl, for a team who will probably tell him goodbye after Sunday and send him back to his Bible class. A rent-a-snapper.

"I think I'll be over the bitterness that was there," he said. "To be able to walk away from the game on my own terms. I'll be a Patriot for the rest of my life."

Quotes from Media Day at the Super Bowl

"I think I have an appreciation of the game unlike any other owner today. I was in the huddle when the New York Giants were beating us 9-7 (in the 1959 NFL championship). And I was in the game when we were ahead 14-9 and then 21-9. Obviously there's not a current owner with a memory like that." - Carolina owner, and former Baltimore Colt Jerry Richardson, who with George Halas are the only former players to ever own NFL teams.

"I'm never tempted to get involved in second guesses. I do get involved in conduct issues. I don't do that at the stadium or in the offices. But they do get to come to my house." - Richardson on his ownership style.

"That is something that is crazy. He was the best quarterback in the history of the NFL." - New England's Tom Brady, on being compared to Joe Montana.

"Which president?" - Brady's question after owner Robert Kraft told him last week the president had invited him to the State of the Union address.

"I felt that Bill Cowher didn't like me, but he traded me to Marty Schottenheimer, his best friend. That's the way I think they were trying to get me out of the league. It didn't kill me. It only made me stronger." - Carolina defensive tackle Brentson Buckner about stormy earlier stops in Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

"This day coming up felt like a million miles away when I was in Arizona." - New England fullback Larry Centers, who played nine years for the downtrodden Cardinals.

"We were down 17-0 to Jacksonville and I'll never forget it. He comes in, slapping people on the helmet, high fiving, and he says, 'Let's roll.' I was telling someone you can't coach that ... There are certain quarterbacks who walk into a room and people rally around them. He's definitely our guy." - Carolina tight end Kris Mangum about Jake Delhomme.

"We came out, we played flat, we felt sorry for ourselves and we got our butts kicked. And it really opened up a bunch of guys' eyes." - New England safety Rodney Harrison about the 31-0 season opening loss to Buffalo.

"He Hate Me." - Carolina running back Rod Smart's self-given - and later trademarked - nickname in the XFL, since he figured all the defenders he burned hated him.

"She Hate Me." - A filly named by Carolina quarterback, and horse trainer, Jake Delhomme.

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