HOUSTON -- Jon Weeks got the call every undrafted player prays for. It was the Detroit Lions, and they wanted him to try out at their rookie minicamp.

But it didn’t take long for reality to hit the long snapper.

“So I’m coming out of Baylor, and I get a rookie camp invite to the Detroit Lions,” he says. “I show up, and they’re picking up the specialists early for something, right? So we get on the bus. We’re driving. And out of nowhere, the bus driver goes, ‘Which one of you is the long snapper?’ I go, ‘I am.’ He says, ‘You might as well turn back right now. We got the Nolan Ryan of long snappers and you ain’t making this (bleeping) team.’

“I said good talk. Gooood talk.”

Weeks was no slouch either. He’s currently with the Texans, and nobody has played more games consecutively for that franchise than him. He even made a Pro Bowl. And hey, he tells a great story.

But maybe the best part of that story: It’s from 2008.

That’s 11 years ago.

And Don Freaking Muhlbach is still doing his thing.

OK, so he’s a long snapper, and this is a long snapper story. But stay with me for a moment, because this guy continues to do some remarkable things at the most unremarkable position in football. Consider this: Muhlbach has now played in 228 career games, and is poised to move into the top 100 in NFL history this season.

He’s already at 108th, and would climb to at least 53rd by playing in every game this year.

Not for a long snapper.

All players, ever, in the history of this great sport.

In fact, he’s currently scheduled to move inside the top 100 by passing Reggie White on Monday Night Football against -- you guessed it -- the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. How poetic is that?

“Haven’t even thought about it,” Muhlbach said. And of course he hasn’t.

This stuff makes him uncomfortable. And by this stuff, I mean any kind of attention at all. He’s old school like that. Where he’s from, guys like him aren’t supposed to talk to reporters. They aren’t supposed to be stories.

Sorry to ruin your day, Don, but you are a story.

It all started not far from Houston, actually, where the Lions have been practicing this week with the Texans. Muhlbach grew up about two hours north in a small city called Lufkin. And when Baltimore cut him as a rookie in 2004, he had no other offers. So he went home. He moved in with his parents. He got a job at a local bank. And his only contact with football was snapping to his old high school coach a couple days a week, and his father after church on Sundays.

“The biggest thing I remember is he would ask me where I wanted the laces,” Donald Muhlbach Sr. said. “He’d say, ‘1 o’clock or 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock?’ I’d say 2 o’clock or whatever, and then they’d come in at 2 o’clock. I’d say, ‘That’s amazing. How did you do that?’ And he’d just say that that’s what he does. We’d snap for a while after church and then go home and watch games.”

Then one Monday morning in November, the Lions called. And 16 years later, Muhlbach is still here. He’s appeared in more games than any Lions player not named Jason Hanson. There are only six guys in the whole league right now who have played in more games than him, and you’ve heard of all of them: Adam Vinatieri, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Eli Manning, Terrell Suggs -- and then Don Freaking Muhlbach.

On Thursday, Muhlbach’s father got to make that two-hour drive south to Houston to watch his son practice as the longest-tenured player on either side. They spent a few minutes talking after the workout, and then they hugged.

“He’s had a good run, and he still feels good too. Just hope it continues for him. He’s getting to be an old man now, you know?" Donald Muhlbach Sr. says with a chuckle. "But he really loves the Lions organization though. I still remember the day they called. We were just out snapping that Sunday afternoon at the (local) field here in Lufkin, and on Monday, he got the call from his agent to pack up his stuff and get on a plane to Detroit. He took off in his little green pickup truck to the airport. I can still remember it.”

Muhlbach’s longevity has become part of his legacy in Detroit, there’s no getting around that. He tried counting up all the quarterbacks he’s played with the other day, and gave up after 20. He’s seen more than 1,000 teammates come and go through the halls of Allen Park. He’s played for six head coaches, and four general managers, and two owners.

“I don’t ever think about that kind of stuff, but you saying that the other day, it got me thinking about it,” Muhlbach said. "Then it’s like, ‘Wow, it really has been a while.’ Like the 1,000 people I’ve played with. I was thinking to myself, ‘Gosh, could I even name them all?' I don’t even think I could. Which is horrible, because they were all my teammates.

“But man, I still love doing this. I still love competing. It’s fun to come out here and keep proving that I can be out here with everyone who is 21 years old. I’m just glad none of them want to be snappers, which helps.”

Make no mistake, though, Muhlbach is no has-been clinging to former glory either. They tried to replace him just three years ago, you know. GM Bob Quinn drafted a long snapper named Jimmy Landes. But as one team source put it back then, “How do you cut a guy who has been perfect in camp?” Indeed, Landes wound up on injured reserve and was later cut without ever making the 53-man roster.

In the last 14 years, Muhlbach has only botched just one snap, in a 14-13 loss against Buffalo last year. He remains very much at the top of the league at this quirky little thing. He’s actually moving around better than ever thanks to a dynamic workout regimen that includes a lot of Pilates and chiropractor work and, well, he’s a long snapper. Even he knows you’re not really interested in how he keeps that finely-tuned athletic machine in shape.

What matters is he’s still got the Nolan Ryan fastball. He still snaps a strike 99 times out of 100. And he’s perfected the art of spinning the ball so it arrives to holder Sam Martin with the laces out. All Martin has to do is catch the ball and set it on its tip.

“He’s so good," Martin says with a grin, "I forget he’s 38.”

“You think I’m 38?” Muhlbach said. “That’s awesome.”

Muhlbach, always a stickler for the details, is actually 37. For another day anyway. His birthday is on Saturday, when he’ll face the Texans in an exhibition just two hours, 16 years and a whole lot of gray hairs from where this all began.

“And he’s still slinging it,” kicker Matt Prater said. “Even the young guys are saying how fast he’s still got it. Their guys came over and got a couple holds from him, and they were saying how fast he was slinging 'em. He’s going to be the first long snapper in the Hall of Fame."

Of course this kind of praise makes Muhlbach squirm, because any kind of praise makes him squirm.

“Oh give me a break,” Muhlbach says to Prater. “Please strike that from the record.”

Can’t do it, Don. You’ve been too good for too damn long. Sooner or later, somebody is going to notice.

“Death, taxes and Don Freaking Muhlbach,” Prater said. "I love it.”