Ex-Green Beret Nate Boyer Details Incredible Story of Learning to be an NFL Long Snapper While in Afghanistan

Nate Boyer is known for advising Colin Kaepernick to kneel during the national anthem, but the former United States Army Green Beret also had his own incredibly unique path to the NFL.

It wasn’t until after he already served in the US Army and was accepted into the Green Berets that Boyer tried out as a 29-year-old walk-on for the University of Texas, despite never having played organized football in his life.

“I prepared myself in Iraq starting out, watching YouTube videos and trying to teach myself how to backpedal or run routes,” Boyer said Thursday morning on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.

After his tenure as a Longhorn, Boyer reenlisted in the Texas National Guard, where he had the “opportunity” to go to Afghanistan.

“I taught myself over there,” Boyer said of honing his skills as a long snapper with sites of joining an NFL team. “I would bring my shoulder pads and a couple footballs and built a little target out of plywood and just long snap when we had 20, 30 minutes in the desert…I kind of did it around the corner hidden away, because it was a little weird and kind of embarrassing.”

“It’s very similar to how I learned to shoot the pistol,” Boyer added. “These little movements that you would practice, we would draw it from the holster a thousand times before you ever squeeze a round off down-range.

“So with snapping it was the same for me. It was all about the stance, grip and those little pieces…learning any skill like that, if I applied that military mentality to it, it just helped me figure it out quicker.”

Boyer was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2015 at the age of 34-years-old. Seattle released Boyer prior to the start of the regular season. The following year, Boyer made NFL headlines when he advised Kaepernick on what he believed was an appropriate form of protest during the national anthem.

Watch above via NFL Network