Mike Bartrum

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Mike Bartrum
Date of birth	June 23, 1970 (age 36)
Place of birth	Gallipolis, OH
Position(s)	Long snapper Tight End
College	Marshall
Pro Bowls	2005
Statistics	NFL.com DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1993 1995 1996-1999 2000-present	Kansas City Chiefs Green Bay Packers New England Patriots Philadelphia Eagles

Mike Weldon Bartrum (born June 23, 1970) is an NFL long snapper/tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles. He finished the 2006-2007 season on injured reserve.

1 Pre-NFL career
2 NFL career
3 Injury
4 Trivia
5 References

[edit] Pre-NFL career

Bartrum attended Meigs High School in Pomeroy, Ohio and was a letterman in football, basketball, and baseball. In football, he passed for 1900 yards and 24 touchdowns,during his junior and senior seasons.

He attended Marshall University intending to play quarterback. However, a knee injury ended that dream in his sophomore year. He moved over to tight end for his remaining two years. In 1991 and 1992, he hauled in 109 receptions and 10 touchdowns. His senior year, he played on Marshall's Division I-AA championship team, earning a selection to the All-Southern Conference team. It was his offensive coordinator at Marshall who taught him how to play long snapper, giving him another route to the NFL.

[edit] NFL career

He saw minimal playing time in his early career and taughtspecial education when he was not playing. Between the Kansas City Chiefs (1993) and the Green Bay Packers (1995) Bartrum only saw action in a total of seven games with no receptions.

From 1996-1999, he was a regular long snapper with the New England Patriots playing 57 games with two receptions, both of which were touchdowns.

Signing with the Eagles in 2000, he took over as the long snapper and tight end. He caught nine passes, four of which went for touchdowns. In 2005, he handled kickoff duties in two games due to an injury to David Akers. In 2006, Bartrum was the emergency quarterback after an injury to Donovan McNabb. His play earned him a selection to the Pro Bowl after the 2005 season.

[edit] Injury

After a defeat to the Colts in November 2006, Bartrum complained of extreme pain in his neck. Testing revealed that Bartrum had an "incidental finding of a small chip on one of the bodies of his vertebrae"

An MRI showed some bulging in one disc as well as a disc which is "herniated centrally and is lying against his spinal cord."

The Eagles have responded by placing Bartrum on injured reserve for the remainder of the season. He has not announced whether he will return to football in 2007, but former player and commentator Garry Cobb claimed that Bartrum will retire. Jon Dorenbos took over long-snapper duties for the Eagles for the remainder of the season.

[edit] Trivia

Bartrum has six career touchdowns in 11 receptions. Only Mike Vrabel has a higher percentage of catches for touchdowns, with six career catches which were all for touchdowns.