There's only one position in football that is truly thankless. And that is long snapper.
An offensive lineman can knock a pass rusher to the ground. A punter can pin a team inside its 5. Just about everyone else has the ability to either score or emphatically prevent someone else from doing so.
The long snapper is only noticed when he fires the ball over the punter's head or out of the reach of a holder on a kick.
And so Jon Condo went about his career quite anonymously, making 49 starts from 2001 to 2004 (50 if the Orange Bowl at the end of his freshman year included, since that was the last season bowl stats didn't count toward career figures) while substantially aiding the success of kicker Nick Novak and punters Brooks Barnard and Adam Podlesh.
Not a punt was blocked in that stretch, nor has Maryland suffered a blocked punt in more than a decade. Novak wound up setting the ACC career scoring record, and was a solid 80-for-107 for his career.
For his part, Condo's concrete statistical contribution was 22 tackles --- some on special teams, some as a backup linebacker. But overall, his was a career of opportunism after redshirting in 2000.
Scott Rudolph, a four-year starter from 1997 to 2000, graduated. His likely successor was, in media guide parlance, "an academic casualty." Into the void stepped Condo, who didn't give up the gig until his eligibility expired even if he wasn't the easiest player to notice.
He also happens to be one of Maryland's best pro success stories from the last five years. He eventually latched on with Oakland in 2006, and earned his first Pro Bowl nod last season. It might be difficult to fully quantify Condo's value --- both in college and the NFL --- but there's no doubt he was a crucial piece to some strong special teams units in College Park during the first half of the Aughts.
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