Q & A With Former Seahawk/ Chief Longsnapper JP Darche

I wrote this originally for a small mag called Sports Xtra while JP or Doc Darche as they called him was still a Seahawk but it got bumped and then never ended up running so only saw the light of the day on my blog which is a shame because it gives some insight into the NFL life from the perspective of a longsnapper.   

Roy Halliday and Dwight Gooden may share his nickname but the Seattle Seahawks Long Snapper is actual M.D. material—currently on special leave from McGill Medical school. When Darche retires, the special teams whiz will gladly trade in his helmet and pads for a stethoscope and scrubs. Jean-Phillipe Darche is every father's dream son: he's going to be a doctor, and in the meantime he's playing pro football in the NFL.

You have the distinction of being the first member of the McGill Redmen to make the NFL. Will memories of your McGill days always be close to your heart?

No question, I take a lot of pride coming from there. It's such a great institution—first of all academically—and that's the most important thing. Yeah I'm really proud and I'm always going to have that McGill pride for sure.

Ever use your medical school moves on the field?

Oh, no, [laughs] I totally stay away from that stuff. Of course if I'm hurting me I usually have a pretty good idea what's going on and when my friends tell me what their injuries are I understand them. But as far as going in and trying to get involved with the trainers, that's a big no, no.

When you first arrived in Seattle were your teammates able to place your Quebecois accent?

There are all kinds of accents round here and no one could figure out where I was from, whether I was from the south, out east or whatever. They didn't understand why I spoke French—they thought I was from France. And when they heard I was from Canada the first thing they asked was, "aren't you supposed to you play hockey?"

What do you miss most about your hometown, Montreal during the season?

Out here I'm with my wife and kids but as far as family goes and friends too, the only friends I have here are from the team. I miss my family and friends from back home and May West, oh man. Have you ever had those [danishes], with the white cream in there? Oh man!

Yeah, they're like gourmet Twinkies, and speaking of tasty treats, Seattle is Starbucks central, what's your typical order?

I don't drink too much coffee! How bout that? I'm in the wrong city.

Is this the doctor in you, staying away from caffeine?

No I just don't like coffee that much so I'll take the occasional coffee when I'm tired in the morning but that's it. If I went to Starbucks I'd order just regular coffee, none of that fancy stuff.

Who would you say is the biggest prankster on the Seahawks?

Well QB Matt Hasselbeck is a pretty good prankster. Once in training camp Hasselbeck hid four alarm clocks in my room. He set them to go off at four different times during the night so I woke up four times looking for alarm clocks—it was a pretty good little prank.

Do Special teams players get enough credit from the fans and the media?

I think it's good enough. Of course the attention is always going to be on the guys who score touchdowns but this is a specialized job. You don't get as much credit but that's all fine with me. It's probably a tougher job than most people think, as if they'd keep a guy around just to snap a ball, kick, or punt. If it was easy they could get anybody to do it—it's a tough job. I don't mind not getting attention. If I get attention it's usually because I didn't do my job.

When you do make the switch from special teams to specialist, what kind of medicine will you practice?

The specialty I've been thinking of is orthopedic surgery, it's something that always interested me and in medical school it was my best subject.

If you could play any position for a day where would you want to be?

I'd definitely want to be a linebacker, that's just what I played before and if anything I'd love to play there again, but it's probably not going to happen.

So you want to sack qb's?

Yeah, I guess, just like in the old days.

Copyright © Mike Dojc