Lions' Star Snapper, Patrick Eby, Graduates from Columbia College with NFL Dreams

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I am a long snapper on the football team, which means,
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on punts, I'm the guy who snaps it 15 yards.
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And on field goals, I'm the guy who snaps it back
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to the holder.
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My name is Patrick Eby.
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I am in Columbia College, majoring in psychology,
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and I'm graduating May 2019.
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What coach Bagnoli and all the staff members
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he brought in-- what they did for this program is
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nothing short of a miracle.
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And being a part of that resurgence was,
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arguably, the best--
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it was the best thing I will ever
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be a part of because they set the goal of being the best
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Columbia football team in the history of the school.
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And given that we've been playing football for 120 years,
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that was a really exciting prospect.
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Watch.
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I'm just going to take the card.
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I'm going to shake it.
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What's that?
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Whoa!
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All right.
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You'll notice that there's one card from the deck.
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Oh, [INAUDIBLE].
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I said, what?
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Oh!
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Ay, yo!
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Oh, man.
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When I first came here, I would show magic tricks
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to small groups of people just to introduce myself.
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My head coach was like, yeah, so you're
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going to do a show for the team in two weeks.
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It was a big success.
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So every year afterwards, that was
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sort of my role on the team--
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other than long snapping.
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I would do a preseason, show every year,
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just to lift the team's spirits during preseason, which
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could be really difficult.
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So I would say my favorite moment playing
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for Columbia football was my junior year homecoming game.
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It was against Penn, and up until that point,
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we had never beaten them.
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At least in my career.
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And we were undefeated at that point.
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20,000 people showed up for the game.
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And our stands only hold 17,000 people, so it was packed.
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And then we were losing up until halftime.
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But we rallied back and tied up the game.
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And so we went to overtime.
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And then as soon as the ref signaled
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that it was a touchdown, we all stormed the field.
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So did the crowd, and the stadium
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blasted "All I Do is Win."
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And we were all just jumping on the field.
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That, far and away, was my favorite moment playing
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for Columbia football.
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After I graduate from Columbia, my plan
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is to pursue a career as an NFL long snapper.
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I have no idea when that journey is going to end.
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It could end in a month from now,
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or it could end 10 years from now.
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But whenever that's over, my plan
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is to go to graduate school and then become
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a practicing clinical psychologist.
Topic:

Columbia College psychology major Patrick Eby ('19) has been a part of the magic on and off the field for Columbia Football.

“Being a part of the resurgence of a perennially bad football team may be the best thing I will ever be a part of,” said Eby. He has been a four-year starter for the Lions, playing in all 40 games as the team rose to its best season since 1996, 8-2, in 2017. (In 2018 the team went 6-4.) He’s also a contributor off the field, as an amateur magician whose skills are put to use as team-building exercises.