(SportsRadio 610) - Coming up Sunday, 13-year veteran long snapper Jon Weeks will play in his 200th career NFL game.
They've all been consecutive and they've all been with the same team, the Houston Texans.
Weeks got emotional Thursday morning as his wife and oldest daughter surprised him, alongside the McNair family to celebrate his accomplishment.
Weeks set the franchise record for most games played back in 2020, with 170, surpassing Andre Johnson.
With Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans, Weeks will join 14 other players in NFL history who played exactly 200 games.
However, Weeks, 36, isn't planning on going anywhere.
"I would love to play as many games as the organization would like to have me around, to be honest with you," Weeks said Thursday. "As long as I don't think I'm a hindrance to this team, as long as I feel like I'm the best player for my position, I'm going to continue to go out there and do that. If the day comes where they ask me to step down, it would be a sad day, but I don't see that day coming anytime soon from my point of view."
Weeks was named a team captain before the start of the regular season for the first time ever in his career.
If Weeks can continue his consecutive game streak, by season's end the former Pro Bowler will be inside the top 240 players all-time for most games played in NFL history.
Special teams coordinator Frank Ross spoke highly of Weeks ahead of surprising him with a cake Thursday morning, saying that he hasn't always been the one doing the coaching, rather he's learned a thing or two from Weeks himself.
"Selfishly, I've been fortunate and lucky to coach that, because people like Jon Weeks in our business of the NFL, the ability to do it day in and day out, season in-season out for four years is difficult," Ross said. "Now, we're talking about 200 games, so I'm fortunate to learn from him, to have him on our roster where I know week in and week out I know he's going to do exactly as asked and work hard every week to do so."
The consummate professional that Ross spoke so glowingly of is one of the things the veteran long snapper tries to instill upon his younger teammates.
Weeks looked back upon some of the most influential players he played with over the years.
"Early in my career, working with Matt Turk and Neil Rackers was very special," Weeks recalled. "Two very well proven vets that came in and took a young kid under their wing, showed him how to do the right things and how to last in this league and take care of your body and how to establish your routine that you're comfortable with that prepares you for Sunday. I had the privilege to snap to Shane Lechler for six, seven years, watching how he went in day-in and day-out, did his stuff, super special."
While special teams players are often on a different field during practice, out of the locker room early for games and preparing differently for their roles, Weeks always made a point to watch other players he respected closely to one day pass that knowledge on to others.
"Getting to see guys like Arian Foster, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels, Matt Schaub, Brian Cushing, JJ (Watt), see how they take care of their bodies, the mental aspect, the physical, everything that they did to prepare for Sundays," Weeks said. "I sat back, I watched and I tried to learn and pick up from that. Those are things that I try to pass on to the younger kids because I watched a bunch of great football players do it the right way, and I was privileged to do so."
The Texans will celebrate Weeks on Sunday when he takes the field against the Titans, and while he told reporters that he'd try to enjoy it as much as possible, number 200 will taste a little better if they can take care of business against a division rival.
"I'm going to enjoy Sunday, but I'm going to enjoy it more if we can get the 'W'."
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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