Pontbriand: Relaxed at the Pro Bowl
Ryan Pontbriand
02.09.2008

Greetings from Hawaii.

It's been a few days now that I've been here preparing to be the long snapper for the AFC team at the 2008 Pro Bowl.

While I was picked as the "need player" to long snap for the club, it looks like you'll be seeing me a lot more come the game Sunday. There aren't a whole lot of players here who usually play special teams so I'll be out there for kickoffs, kick returns and punt returns in addition to my normal duties.

It's definitely an honor to be out there with all of this year's Pro Bowlers. It's the best of the best for this year.

Practices here are very relaxed. They only last about an hour and that includes meetings. As for intensity, they're just one step above a walkthrough. We had our helmets on the first day but we've been in baseball caps the rest of the time. It's been really laid back and easy going.

So what short practices equals out to is more free time than I expected, but when you're in Hawaii there's nothing wrong with that.

Besides, I've gotten to do some pretty cool things. Yesterday, some teammates and I went out with a surfing group called Hawaiian Fire. They're firefighters who give surf lessons. We were out there surfing for like two hours just shredding waves. It was awesome.

We visited a Marine barracks earlier this week and took part in a firearms demonstration. There's also a golf tournament coming up that I'll be taking part in.

My family is enjoying themselves as well. My wife Nicole, my parents and my in laws are out here. They have even more free time than I do. Some of them have been cruising the island while others have just been hanging out by the pool and people-watching.

But everything leads up to the game Sunday, which should be a lot of fun. I'm going to be a little rusty for contact, I'm not going to lie. But I think after the first couple plays I'll get my feet under me and just have a good time.

I'm going to treat the game the same way I'd treat a regular season game. I want to do a good job and represent the Browns well. I also want to represent long snappers and make sure the honor of having a "need player" that's a long snapper is an offer that doesn't get removed. I don't want them to say, 'We used to have long snappers out there but not after Ryan.'

The whole week has been a blast so far and I'm sure that'll only continue. I'm going to remember this whole experience. If I don't I'm going to be upset with myself.

I'm going to work my butt off to try to get back here. link