John Denney has played for the Miami Dolphins longer than anyone on the roster. He has been in every one of their games the past 12 years and is the only player remaining from their last playoff appearance in 2008.
It is debatable, though, whether the two-time Pro Bowl long snapper is the most recognizable or well known figure in his own household. His wife Christy has established herself as an all-star on the internet with her food blog, "The Girl Who Ate Everything."
"I think she's been recognized in public as of recently more than I have," Denney says, adding, "I don't expect anyone to know who I am. The hardcore Dolphins fan can pick me out. But it doesn't happen often at all."
While Christy thrives on page views, generating about 3 million a month on her blog, her husband has good reason to prefer to remain as inconspicuous as possible. His job is to hike the ball for punts and placekicks. Generally if he is noticed it is because one of his snaps has gone awry.
It rarely happens. That's how you get to play in a team-record 190 consecutive games in such a highly specialized role.
As the Denneys raise their five kids in Weston, Fla., one thing they have in common is neither envisioned how far their unusual career paths would take them.
Christy set up her website eight years ago merely to facilitate sharing recipes within her family. She realized she was on to something when "people other than my mom were reading it."
Now six of her recipes have been "pinned" more than a million times on Pinterest. It has led to doing recipe development and other projects for companies such as Disney, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Hershey's and Old El Paso. She gets invitations to appear on the Food Network, though being a mother of five makes it difficult to get away.
"Slowly she realized you can make money at it," says John Denney, whose hope when he came to Dolphins camp in 2005 as an undrafted defensive end (who could also snap) was "to maybe get a couple bucks under my belt to get a down payment on a house or a new car."
He won the job of long snapper over incumbent Ed Perry and has stuck through the regimes of coaches Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano, Joe Philbin _ plus interim coaches Todd Bowles and Dan Campbell _ and now Adam Gase.
"To be thinking I was going to be a long-term guy in Miami was unforeseeable," says Denney, 37, who ranks fourth in career games played as a Dolphin.
