Snapper back selling cars after 'way cool' Lions tryout

Trever Kruzel's phone rang as he walked out of the Detroit Lions' Allen Park practice facility Sunday afternoon, and it didn't stop for the next eight hours or so.

The Northern Michigan long snapper-turned-car salesman had just finished his third and final day at Lions rookie minicamp and was heading home to the Upper Peninsula without a contract when his brother, Tyler, called to check in.

Kruzel recounted his three magical days with the Lions, how special teams coordinator Joe Marciano told him he was a "great" snapper and might have a future in the league, though the team wasn't ready to part ways with its longtime long snapper, Don Muhlbach, just yet.

He repeated the story for his girlfriend and his parents, old high school and college teammates and everyone else who reached out by phone or text message or on Facebook.

On Monday, back at work at Fox Motors in Negaunee, Kruzel spent the morning telling his coworkers all about his tryout. By the time his day was done, with one sold Jeep on his ledger, he estimated he'd heard from "hundreds" of friends, family, coaches and others.

"In all honesty, it couldn't have gone better for me," Kruzel said. "It was awesome, just looking at the huge, huge facility down there. And it was really cool getting in there, getting checked in, physicals and all that stuff. It was awesome, from the first time I got there till right when I left. It was first-class the whole way. Everything was more than I expected. It was the best of everything. And the guys were awesome, the guys were just a huge group of talented, talented guys. The whole experience of it was way, way cool."

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Kruzel, who played defensive line in addition to long snapping in college, said he went into his three-day tryout with realistic expectations.

He never thought that the Lions would cut Muhlbach, but he hoped to leave a lasting impression so that, maybe one day, he could be the Pro Bowler's replacement.

"I went down there with the intention of replacing him, hopefully, sometime in the future," Kruzel said. "If I could beat him out, great, that'd be awesome. Great. But I mean, he's a Pro Bowl long snapper; he's really good, he knows what he's doing, he's been around the block. So my goal down there was to do as good as I possibly could to get my foot in the door to an awesome organization and, hopefully, if anything were to happen for him, if anything were to change financially with them, if they need someone who they can pay less money to or whatever it may be, I was hoping I can be that guy. And by the sound of things, they really liked me."

Kruzel said he didn't have any bad snaps over the weekend, and he said Marciano told him his snaps were "really good, really tight, right where we want it."

He handled all of the long-snapping duties and even jumped in some drills that didn't call for a long snapper. A handful of times, he lined up as a spare body in a run drill to give the defense a look as a receiver.

In between phone calls on his long drive back to Marquette, Kruzel found himself thinking about the Lions and what had just happened. And not a single regret came to mind.

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"If I threw a bunch over their head, if I rolled a couple back, I'd be thinking about that the whole time," Kruzel said. "But I was thinking about, 'Man, that was such an awesome experience. I wonder what options there are to landing a job there, what can I do differently in my training this next week or two or year or whatever it may be?' Nothing was negative. … I was not bummed at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to walk away with a contract, but for how it is for the situation, I was really happy."

About halfway through his drive, Kruzel stopped in Boyne City, his hometown, to see his mom for Mother's Day. He gave her a hug and a kiss, and he gave her the photo the Lions took with all 59 players in rookie camp Friday afternoon.

Lions coach Jim Caldwell said that the picture is meant as a keepsake for players such as Kruzel who might never get another chance in the NFL. With just 32 long snapper jobs available, Kruzel knows that that's a distinct possibility, but he knew handing over that picture would make his mom's Mother's Day, too.

"She's going to frame it, do her thing with it and have it, probably, somewhere in the house somewhere," Kruzel said. "For me, that picture, it's a picture, cool, whatever, but I hand it to my mom, and her eyes lit up, and she was like, 'Man, I can't believe you did that. You accomplished that. And even though you didn't get a contract out of it or get a job out of it yet, you went and did it.' That was just really cool for me. So I know it meant a lot, just the picture itself meant more to my mother than me, so I was really glad to give that to her."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.