Aiken’s amazing ride takes him to Indy

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Long journey... New England Patriots long snapper and former Virginia Cavalier Danny Aiken talks with punter Zoltan Mesko during media availability at the team hotel in Indianapolis. Photo by Mary Schwalm

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February 3, 2012

By HECTOR LONGO for the Daily Telegraph The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Fri Feb 03, 2012, 04:56 AM EST

INDIANAPOLIS — Nothing less than perfection is expected Sunday night from Roanoke’s Danny Aiken.

The long-snapper for the New England Patriots has been flawless on 104 field goals and extra point attempts and 61 punts so far this season. And he can’t afford to start making mistakes in the biggest football game of the season and the biggest of his career.

The Cave Spring High School graduate would have it no other way. He’s living a dream that has driven him since he excelled for the Knights, playing wherever he was needed — quarterback, snapper, defensive line.

Considering that in September, the undrafted free agent was cut by Buffalo and was staring at the prospect of returning to Virginia, it’s been an amazing five-month run.

Aiken filled a void for the Pats when he signed before the season-opener against those same Bills. The Pats had gone through several long-snappers after losing multiple Super Bowl team member Lonnie Paxton to free agency in 2008.

“The whole thing has been a great experience,” said Aiken. “It’s been one you dream about when you are younger.”

Aiken sauntered through the Tuesday “NFL Media Day” experience, filling folks from coast to coast in on Cave Spring High, its history and its more notable grads, like Tiki and Ronde Barber and J.J. Redick.

“I guess I’m No. 4,” said Aiken, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 255 pounds.

Actually, in his sharp navy blue Patriots home uniform, he’s No. 48.

“Snapping, kicking and punting, you’d rather be seen and not heard,” said Pats place-kicker Stephen Gostkowski. “Danny’s been great. He comes in here and does his job every day; he’s been very consistent.

“He’s got a good attitude, which is tough to have sometimes as a rookie because you don’t know any better. He’s fit in very well, and has snapped very well.”

Aiken first picked up long-snapping before his junior year at Cave Spring, when the coaches at the school ran a skills camp.

“One of the events was snapping into a bag, I was pretty good at it,” said Aiken, who has lived in Roanoke since the age of 6. “I didn’t know any form, but I was snapping and hitting the bag pretty good.”

Coach Walt Deery took Aiken under his wing and coached the basics, how to hold a football, simple mechanics.

“I worked hard at it because I saw where it could lead,” said Aiken, who went on to a post-graduate prep year before snapping for four years at the University of Virginia. “If you work hard, and there is an ultimate goal you want to be, you can achieve it.

“It was an honor and a privilege to play at Virginia,” said Aiken. “It’s a great school, and once that offer came on the table, anything else really didn’t matter.”

• • •

Salem loss still stings

Even amid the excitement of Super Bowl XLVI, the words “Salem Spartans” can take the smile off Danny Aiken’s face.

In 2005, Salem spoiled Cave Spring bid for a perfect regular season with a 7-6 shocker that was marred by a controversial call that involved Aiken.

“It’s a bitter subject, but it is what it is,” said Aiken. “I mean, it’s just a football game, but the call didn’t go our way. That’s how football is.

“I went diving at the pylon, hit the pylon and they said I didn’t score. It’s a play you can watch over and over again to see what happened and not understand the call. Sometimes things don’t go your way.”

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Aiken’s amazing ride takes him to Indy

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