NJ Native, Rutgers Alum Headed To Super Bowl With Cincinnati Bengals

MANAHAWKIN, NJ — His name rarely appears in an NFL boxscore. You won’t see a bevy of rushing yards or touchdowns attributed to Clark Harris.

But Harris, a New Jersey native, has arguably one of the most quietly important roles on the field for the Cincinnati Bengals. As the long snapper, he’s entrusted to deliver the football to the punter or to the holder on field goals, and block any on-rushing defender.

It’s a role where he’s been delivering for more than 14 years in the NFL, and now, he will get to do it for one more game this season, as the Bengals head to Los Angeles for Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams. The game, on Feb. 13, will be televised on NBC and its streaming platforms, with kickoff about 6:15 p.m. Eastern time.

“I’m kind of letting it sink in,” Harris said Monday from his home in Cincinnati, where he was taking a brief breather after Cincinnati won the AFC Championship game in overtime on Sunday, beating the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24.

It is the first trip to the Super Bowl for Harris, who was born and raised in Manahawkin and graduated from Southern Regional High School in 2002.

Going to the Super Bowl wasn’t his dream as a little kid.

“You always dream of making the big play in the big game,” Harris said. But football wasn’t his favorite sport.

“I liked playing basketball more in high school,” said Harris, who averaged 15.3 points per game his senior year at Southern as the Rams won the WOBM Christmas Classic and the Shore Conference Class A South title. He also was an All-Shore javelin thrower at Southern, winning the Ocean County Championship in his senior year.

It was football — Harris was a tight end and defensive back in high school — that drew the attention of Rutgers University, where he played tight end and also was the Scarlet Knights’ long snapper.

Harris was drafted into the NFL in 2007 as a long snapper by the Green Bay Packers but bounced around until 2009, when he signed with Cincinnati. He's been there ever since.

Harris, 37, and punter Kevin Huber, 36, are the oldest players on the squad, and while that earns some respect, Harris said he focuses on the role the special teams play.

“I know everything about our team’s punts and field goals,” he said. There is a precision to executing the plays, and if someone isn’t focused or doing things the right way, Harris said he will address it.

“One big play on special teams can change a game,” Harris said.

That’s certainly been true during the NFL playoffs this season. Game-winning field goals decided three of the four games during the divisional round, sending the Bengals, the San Francisco 49ers and the Rams to the conference championship games, while the Chiefs won in overtime after a game-tying field goal. Field goals were missed as well.

Field goals were the difference in the conference championships, too. The Rams beat the 49ers 20-17 in the NFC championship with game-tying and winning field goals from Matt Gay. And Cincinnati took its first lead in the fourth quarter of the AFC championship on a 52-yard field goal by Evan McPherson, who then kicked the game-winner in overtime.

Those field goals (and punts, too) start with the snap. Harris deferred credit to McPherson and Huber, but the Bengals’ information guide notes his role, calling Harris “a paragon of reliability.” Coming in to the 2021 season, Harris had delivered the ball for punts and field goal 1,699 times with no unplayable snaps — meaning he never sent the ball over the head of the punter, or squibbed it on the ground to the holder for a field goal. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2020.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” he said. “I try to go out on the field and shut my mind off. I just try to let my body take over.”

That’s a lesson he learned years ago.

“One time, in my fifth or sixth year, we went out for a field goal,” Harris said. It was a field goal in the middle of the game, with no pressure of a game-winning moment.

“I looked up in the stands and thought, ‘Oh, wow, there’s a lot of people watching,’ and my heart dropped,” he said. The snap was perfect, he blocked the opponent coming across the line and the field goal was perfect.

“I never did that again,” he said with a laugh.

Harris blocks out everything, focuses on the snap and on blocking the defender trying to come across the line of scrimmage.

“My coach hates that,” Harris said. “My special teams coach likes to know the number of everyone who’s on the field. I know who I gotta block. By the time I let the snap go I can tell right away” if the outcome will be good.

Harris also credits his calm approach to his wife, Jessica.

“My wife keeps me focused and level-headed,” he said. She and their sons, Trent, 9, and Troy, 5, will be coming to Los Angeles for the Super Bowl and the festivities around it.

“It’s kinda cool to be going now,” he said, noting the boys should be old enough to remember the experience of seeing their dad playing in the Super Bowl. (When he was younger, Trent drew the spotlight by singing the national anthem at a Southern basketball game: Clark Harris' Toddler Son Belts Out National Anthem At SR Basketball Game)

While Harris focuses on the work, there have been lighthearted moments, such as when he became a meme this season.

“It was kinda fun,” Harris said. “Everyone just roasted me for my photo. Some were cool and some were mean. But it was fun.”

There will be plenty of time for fun in the offseason and the summer. Harris and his family live in Cincinnati full-time and are there while the boys are in school. but they have a home in Ocean County and spend part of their summers there, near his mother, Bonnie, and stepfather, Jim Hutchinson Sr.

While he comes from a fishing family — Jim Sr. is a fishing columnist for local weeklies and his stepbrother, Jim Hutchinson Jr., is the editor of The Fisherman magazine — Harris doesn’t do that as much as he used to.

“My main fishing now is in the Manhattan Cup,” Harris said, referring to a high-end striped bass tournament in New York City that is a fundraiser for conservation efforts. “I’ve won it the last two years.”

He and Jessica, who is a Neptune native, do have a boat and spend their time hanging out in some of the quieter spots behind Long Beach Island, where the boys can wade and they can relax.

For his part — and for the team in general — Harris said they are approaching it the way they have all season long, concentrating on the next game.

“We just keep our heads down and focus on what’s in front of us,” Harris said. Just like he does for every snap of every field goal and every punt.

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