SJ Magazine - The Heart of South Jersey

Jon Dorenbos

The Magical Philadelphia Eagle

Even serious Eagles fans may not recognize Jon Dorenbos in his Philadelphia Eagle #46 jersey, even though this is his sixth season with the team. Long snappers don’t attract the same attention as high-profile positions, and many fans don’t even know what a long snapper does.

"There’s a guy who kicks off and does field goals and another guy who punts,” Jon patiently explains. "On a field goal or extra point after a touchdown, there’s a guy who holds the ball. I snap the ball to the guy who holds it so the kicker can kick the field goal. The same guy who holds it – on the Eagles his name is Chas Henry – is also the punter, so I snap the ball 15 yards to him, and he punts it when it’s fourth down.”

Though that sounds simple enough, it’s not that easy. "If you’re really flexible in your hips, it’s a lot easier to pick the ball up,” he explains. "A lot of bigger linemen struggle with it. It took me years and years to perfect it. It wasn’t until probably my fourth year in the league that I actually knew what I was doing and the last couple of years that I feel comfortable in what I’m doing.”

Jon found his true calling in an unorthodox way. "I messed around with it in high school a little bit and I went to a junior college,” he says. "I personally thought I was good enough to play outside linebacker at a Division One school, but it just didn’t happen. So I went to Golden West College and our team was 0-and-10. I wanted to transfer to a Division One school, so I took footage of myself and two of my teammates, including our long snapper, and mixed them into the ultimate highlight tape, saying it was me. I sent it to the University of Texas at El Paso, who needed a long snapper, and they offered me a full ride over the telephone.”

Jon ultimately confessed his crime, but because he was successful, everyone laughed. "I just felt like I needed an opportunity, and I had to create it. It might have been the wrong way to go about it, but I knew I was good enough to play at that level,” he admits. Jon played for the Buffalo Bills, then the Tennessee Titans before landing in Philadelphia.

Jon grew up in Woodinville, Wash. "My mom volunteered at school and my dad worked with Microsoft. He was the president of our Little League, so we kind of had the Brady Bunch family,” he recalls. "I went away to a baseball camp, and my father just snapped. There are different speculations of whether they were arguing over my brother’s car or my dad was seeing another woman – nobody really knows what happened. But he murdered my mom when I was 12.”

His father turned himself in pleading temporary insanity and went to prison for 11 years. He and Jon have been estranged for most of that time. Jon says he survived due to a loving family who made sure he made it through. He remains close with his older sister and the foster family who cared for them until his aunt was awarded custody. He then moved in with his aunt in Garden Grove, Calif.

"I also couldn’t have asked for a better therapist, whose full-time job was basically to get us right,” says Jon.
As an escape from his personal troubles, Jon discovered magic and was instantly hooked. "I got my first magic trick and magic book, J.B. Bobo’s ‘Coin Magic’ and I learned it cover to cover, all the sleights. I just got obsessed with the dexterity, and
I liked the time alone just working on that. It grew into an obsession where I spent years and years just practicing. I didn’t even do tricks. I got the fundamentals down, and then when I grew older I got the comfort and the gift of gab. Now I can put my personality into it.”

Magic has helped Jon fit into many new situations. When he first joined the Buffalo Bills, Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly asked him to perform magic at his charity event. "Jim Kelley is a legend,” recalls Jon. "I’m from El Paso, an undersized long snapper. He picks me up in a limo and inside are Jim, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Drew Bledsoe and other legends in the game. I was able to use magic at that event to build a relationship with all the influential people in the league and organization. I knew right away they all wanted me to succeed.”

Jon is also a motivational speaker, combining magic and personal experiences into his talks. One fateful day at a speaking engagement in 2006, real magic happened when Jon met his future wife. Jon and Julie Dorenbos have been married for two years.

"Julie was working for ING at the time, and I was going to speak at an event in Philly,” Jon remembers.

"I was blown away by everything he had to say,” adds Julie. "I was inspired by the stories he told.”

Jon was living in California at the time and invited Julie to come out for dinner. A Philadelphia native, Julie hopped on a plane and the rest is history.

"When I proposed I thought I was going to be so smooth and sweep her off her feet, that my words were going to be poetry,” Jon says. "But instead, I started sweating, my throat closed and I couldn’t talk. I got so nervous!”

Though the pair now lives in Philadelphia, for a time they lived in Voorhees near buddies and reality television stars Hank

Baskett and Kendra Wilkinson. Last year, Jon and Julie appeared on Kendra, traveling to Cancun with the show’s stars.

With one more year on his Eagles’ contract, Jon is hopeful his contract will be renewed. "Time will tell,” he says. "In the NFL you go one game at a time. If they want to have me back, I’d love to be back. If not, that’s just the way it goes. I love the speaking aspect and performing, and we have great connections in Las Vegas, so who knows if I’ll have a show out there. I love entertaining and the producing side of television and movies. I’ve had the good opportunity to do some projects with FreemantleMedia, creating and producing television shows. We sold our first show – I can’t disclose it yet – but it’s really exciting.”

Jon expects some changes to happen with the Eagles’ team in the off-season in light of their tumultuous season. "I’ve always tried to put myself in a position to succeed, and if it doesn’t happen because of outside factors, then that’s the way it is,” he says. "My job isn’t the most complex on the field, so I don’t have the answers of what’s wrong and why we’ve struggled this year. At the end of the day, players need to make plays and coaches need to put you in a position to succeed and for whatever reason, we haven’t won. I love playing for Coach Reid and the passionate fans.”

Julie recently opened her own business, Skin Palette in Philadelphia, with partner Susie Celek, wife of Philadelphia Eagle Brent Celek. Though Julie’s background had been in finance, she discovered airbrush tanning in California but couldn’t find it locally.

"I’m really against going out in the sun with the harmful rays and tanning beds, which are so bad for you,” she says. "I want to teach tanning enthusiasts that you can feel and look great, but you don’t have to get the harmful rays of the sun while doing so.”

As for the couple’s future, "You never know when the football career is going to be over,” says Julie. "You have to be prepared as a family for what your next step is going to be. We hope to be here, but if we end up somewhere else, we’ll just have to go with it.”