For James Winchester, Father's Day Carries a Profound New Meaning

Former OU deep snapper carries his father's Sooner legacy even further while now raising two kids of his own

Through the suffocating darkness, through the incomparable joy, Father’s Day now holds profound meaning for James Winchester.

This year marks Winchester’s first Father’s Day as a Super Bowl champion. It’s also his first as a Girl Dad. And, of course, Father’s Day naturally gives Winchester pause to contemplate both the enduring memory and the tragic death of his own father.

“You know, I would say, as any son would want to, you want to carry on your father’s legacy,” Winchester told SI Sooners. “You grow up in his footsteps, and in a way you want to follow dad.”

James Winchester lines up for a snap against Pittsburgh :: Photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Mike Winchester was 52 when he was murdered by a Southwest Airlines co-worker in Oklahoma City in November 2016. James’ world, and that of the whole Winchester family, was shattered at the loss of their patriarch.

“You obviously can’t imagine going through something like that and losing your father that way,” Winchester said.

Then, 11 months later, James and wife Emily enjoyed the other end of life’s constant, bittersweet stream when son Jase was born.

“I already get fired up and a little emotional thinking about following his career,” Winchester said. “I hope he plays longer and does bigger things. It’s such a cool thing carrying on your dad’s legacy playing.”

Winchester said his family, nearly four years after Mike was killed, is “doing good; doing really good” in part because of his success — Winchester is an exceptional deep snapper for the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 50 years last February — and in part because of the arrival of one Rylee Winchester one week prior to the big game.

“She was born … January 20, the day after our AFC Championship Game against Tennessee,” Winchester said. “So while everybody else was still out celebrating, my wife and I went to the hospital at about 5:30 in the morning to induce for our little girl. She’s as healthy as she can be.”

“Blessed” is how Winchester describes his life and his football career. He’s right, but it’s also much more: hard work, faith, uncommon perseverance, and a network of Oklahoma Sooners who lifted him up when he needed it most.

James Winchester acknowledges Chiefs Nation / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

In five seasons with Kansas City, Winchester has earned $3.46 million, according to Spotrac, and he’s under contract for two more years at $920,000 a year. And now he’s a Super Bowl champ.

“Pretty crazy,” he said. “It’s like every time you see a picture or some kind of memorabilia, you sit there and stare at it like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’ It’s pretty amazing. It honestly is. Offseason is always the time you can reflect on the season. It was extremely special. Pretty cool to be a part of. Never imagined being part of a Super Bowl, but it is cool. It is pretty cool.”

Not bad for a walk-on wide receiver who played Class A high school football.

“I think every kid has a dream, honestly, to play in the NFL,” Winchester said, “but really, my dream was just to play for the Sooners. That was my dream, and it wasn’t until I got to senior year I started thinking like, ‘Hey, maybe I can go play at the next level.’ ”

Winchester punted and played receiver at Washington High School, just 14 miles straight south of Norman. He figured he could play wideout at Oklahoma, where his dad punted on Barry Switzer’s 1985 OU team that won the program’s sixth national championship. But he never got a scholarship offer.

James Winchester / Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

Instead of taking a scholarship at a smaller school, Winchester lived out his dream and walked on at his dad’s alma mater. The walk-on life was full of challenges, but Winchester embraced it. Scholarship or no scholarship, he was living the life. So were his sisters (Carolyn was older and played basketball, Rebecca was younger and joined the OU rowing team).

“Being a part of Oklahoma and wearing ‘Sooners’ across my chest, that’s what I dreamed of my entire life,” Winchester said. “That’s because of my dad playing for Switzer back in the day. I just grew up living and breathing it. We had season tickets to the games and I wanted to be a part of it. Dad didn’t push us to go to OU by any means; we just grew up loving it, loving the crimson and cream, and we wanted to do it.”

This one’s for you, Dad. #SuperBowlLIV #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/KVKBS1zI4I

— James Winchester (@J_Winchester41) February 3, 2020

Winchester walked on in 2008 as a Sooner wideout, but with a receiver corps that included Juaquin Iglesias, Manny Johnson, Ryan Broyles, Quentin Chaney and Jermaine Gresham, he realized he probably wouldn’t play much.

But when deep snapper Derek Shaw was injured in preseason practice, Winchester — who hadn’t ever snapped full-time, even in high school — sensed an opportunity. He showed up early for special teams practice and showed Bob Stoops what ultimately became his true calling: snapping the football on punts.

Winchester’s first snap went infamously awry — OU was up 50-0 in the third quarter after a long rain delay in the ’08 season opener against Chattanooga, and the first time the Sooners needed a punt, he sent the snap through the end zone for a safety — but Stoops stuck with him.

“In my mind, it was kind of like, ‘I’m gonna play at Oklahoma, I don’t care what it takes,” Winchester said. “It provided the opportunity. I practiced it enough, you know, I could throw it fast. I didn’t always know where it was going, but it had some velocity to it. Proved to coach Stoops I could do it. Thankful he stuck with me after the first blip right out of the gate.

“You start as low as you can get and you just climb out of it,” Winchester said with a laugh. “That’s what I did.”

James Winchester celebrates a game-winning field goal / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Winchester snapped on punts for three seasons at OU, recovered a few fumbles (he was unofficially the fastest deep snapper in college football and even had a tongue-in-cheek Heisman campaign for a bit) and figured if he would ever play professional football, it would be as a receiver.

Nobody in the NFL needs a 185-pound deep snapper.

That’s where Winchester’s Sooner connections came in and pushed his career to another level.

After college, Winchester spent a year working in the oil and gas industry. His NFL dream still smoldered, though, so he ended up at a rookie minicamp with the Chiefs.

As a receiver.

“They wouldn’t even let me snap in drills,” Winchester said. “I actually played slot position on the punt drill because I weighed in at like 207.”

One of the Chiefs’ coaches at the time was former Sooner linebacker, Switzer defensive coordinator and erstwhile OU head coach Gary Gibbs. Gibbs knew about Winchester at OU, and he watched him intently during the three-day camp. Then, he bumped into Winchester at a health club in Norman, and took the opportunity to give some advice.

“One of the things he told me was, ‘Hey, I know you want to make it as a wide receiver, but your ticket to the NFL is as a long snapper.’ I was like, ‘OK, well, he knows what he’s talking about.’

“At that point, it was the end of the road at receiver for me.”

Gibbs told Winchester 207 pounds was still way too light for a deep snapper. So Winchester tapped into another of Switzer’s old aides: strength coach Pete Martinelli.

“He got me on a diet and a weight regimen that was pretty rigorous, consuming a lot of calories — more calories than anybody would ever want to eat,” Winchester said. “And I jumped from about 210 to about 245 in about 2 1/2 months.”

James Winchester / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

At that point, going into 2013, NFL teams started taking Winchester seriously. He “got my foot in the door” with the Philadelphia Eagles, then “had a couple workouts” with the Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts.

Then in 2015, he attended a free agent camp for kickers, punters and snappers in Arizona.

“I worked out for a bunch coaches and scouts, and that’s where I had the opportunity with Kansas City come up,” he said.

There are a lot of talented long snappers in college football, but only the best of the best get a job in the NFL. Consistency is a job requirement. Perfection is the goal.

As Winchester proved, networking can be huge in one's career. But he worked tirelessly at his craft, and still does.

“It’s like perfecting a golf swing,” he said. “You just always go back to the lab, go back to the range, and get back to the basics and the fundamentals and it’s just repetition after repetition after repetition.

“You try to keep your head down and you work and just persevere through the ups and downs and you get to this point. And even to this day, you don’t feel like you’re as good as you can be. You’re always chasing perfection even through that might not be possible. But you want to be as close to perfect as you can. That’s how you keep a job in the NFL as a long-snapper. That’s a tough question to answer.”

Winchester laments deeply that his dad wasn’t here to watch him win the Super Bowl. Even more, it hollows him out that Jase and Rylee won’t get to know their grandpa.

James Winchester, son Jase and wife Emily pose with the Vince Lombardi Trophy / Photo via Twitter

But Mike did get to watch James play four years at his alma mater, and he did get to see his son play 1 1/2 seasons for the Chiefs.

For that brief time, James Winchester is grateful.

“I’m really thankful he got to see that,” Winchester said. “He was around in 2015 and half of the 2016 season, and that’s such a cool thing. I wish he was here to be a part of the Super Bowl and see my kids being born and things like that, and same thing goes for my siblings and my family, but I’m thankful he got to see that, I’m thankful he got to be at Arrowhead and watch games and see that come true.

“Like I said, I never really had a huge dream to play in the NFL. I just wanted to be like Dad and play for the Sooners. It’s pretty incredible to see where God has taken me into the NFL and being able to provide for my family and provide lifetime memories and experiences for everyone that I love, everyone back home in Washington and Norman, everyone that’s followed my career all the way up. I think that’s one of the most rewarding things about what I get to do. You see how many people are rooting for you and how many people are proud of you. To me, that’s priceless. That’s one of the things I love about this job the most, is what it provides for everybody. That’s so cool.

“God’s been good to us and I feel very blessed to get to do it, honestly. It really is a dream come true. If it ended tomorrow, I’d obviously be a little disappointed, but I don’t think I could hang my head (about) anything with how good we’ve had it and being able to play and provide. It’s incredible to be a part of it.”

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