despite their anonymity, a team lacking a skilled long snapper can be seriously undermined. a famous example of this was on january 5, 2003 during the 2002 wild card playoff game between the san francisco 49ers and new york giants. during the regular season, the giants suffered missed field goals due to the lack of an experienced long snapper, and signed trey junkin out of retirement to be the snapper for the playoff game. junkin botched a snap on a field goal attempt that could have won the game for the giants, who had led 38–14 at one point in the game. brad st. louis of the cincinnati bengals was another long snapper who, besides having already botched two snaps in clutch situations in 2005 (wild card play-off game against the eventual champions pittsburgh steelers) and 2006, gained even bigger notoriety in 2009, when he delivered five bad snaps on either field goal or extra point attempts (leading to missed, aborted or blocked kicks) in the first five games of the season, which led to the then ten-year veteran being released from the team.