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GUEST EXPERT ARTICLE
Owen Pochman and Glenn Pakulak have combined to play for 16 of the 32 NFL teams, but never ended up in a long-term contract. Such is the life of pursuing a professional career in football...
One good thing did come out of all those years of persistence. They have a pretty cool story about how they have worked together to take all those old footballs they've gathered over the years and recycle them, using them to create football chains, instead of throwing them away.
Below is a picture of one of the chains they make. Visit their website at Footballchains.com for more information on how to order them.
I asked them to give us more details on how this came about, from a kicker and punter perspective. This is Owen's response back to me. Enjoy!
Maybe only a kicker or punter can understand this, but to me, there was almost no better feeling than having a beautifully broken in leather football with just the right air pressure in my hand as I teed it up thinking, "I am going to crush this thing." I can admit it, I'm a broken in ball junkie. If a new ball was put in my hands by a ref, all I thought was, "what is this hideous object!"
I am also a bit of a collector, so I made sure to keep any footballs that came my way during my travels in the NFL. I was drafted out of BYU by the Patriots in 2001 and finished up with the Ravens in 2005 spending time with seven teams in between. I can't speak for every team policy, but for most that I was on, they would always let you have balls from the kicking bag to train with in the off-season. Plus, one of the cooler things about being on the bottom of a football team totem pole is that many of those kicking balls are ones that trickle down from the games that got a scuff or two. Even as a NFL player I was always a fan, and when I knew I had an old New York Giants game ball I was practicing with, it was a special feeling. So the first time one of those balls popped on me, the artistic lefty side of me cut it open and played around with the leather, knowing I wanted to make something commemorative with it. Just not the wallet I tried to make that looked more like a pouch with rubber bands. I am not proficient at sewing. So knowing one day I would do something creative with my collection of NFL footballs, I made sure to keep even the ones that couldn't hold air, or became so bloated they looked like a rugby ball.
Fast forward to this past summer in Los Angeles where I live. I had heard that Glenn Pakulak recently moved here. I had always known of Glenn, kicking in the NFL is a small fraternity, and if you don't know a certain kicker/punter, you know someone that does. Glenn was an All-American Punter at Kentucky that began with the Seahawks in 2003, and spent time on a lot of teams (9) all the way till 2011, finishing up with the Raiders. He also starred on the Bravo reality show Dallas Most Eligible that year. Our friends connected us up, and in typical L.A. fashion, we met up at a Coffee Bean on Sunset Boulevard and it was odd how many things we had in common. We are both left-footed journeymen kickers with seven letter last names starting with P that no one can pronounce, who like making things, shopping at thrift stores, and a love of vintage leather. Glenn also had a huge collection of footballs from his NFL travels as well. We got talking a little bit more about what to do with football leather and BOOM! Football Chains was born right there at The Bean. We decided we were going to cut up our past, to help us segue into our futures as artists.
We spent months working on various prototypes of small leather good and jewelry pieces. But we kept coming back to the leather dog tag necklaces because they are stylish, athletic, and really draw people's eyes to say, "What is that?" Once we focused on the necklace, we learned how to burn the leather properly, and searched out the best metals to pair with the leather.
The actual process of making a Football Chain is a little tedious. You start with unpicking all the stitching on the ball and remove the laces, bladder, as well as the liner. We then go to a machine shop in downtown L.A. to precisely cut the leather. Our chains come from an old American company and we burn in each character by hand one by one. We even package it ourselves, but it's a pretty rewarding feeling to know we've turned a NFL football past its prime into a 1st edition Football Chain that is made by the hands of two washed up lefties out here in Hollywood chasing their new dreams.
-Owen Pochman Learn more about Brion Hurley >>> |
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