Matthew Charles Katula (born August 22, 1982 in

Brookfield, Wisconsin Brookfield is a city located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It had a population of 37,920 in the 2010 census. Brookfield is the third-largest city in Waukesha County. The city is adjacent to the ...

) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point at ...

. He was signed by the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2005. He played college football at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. He was also a member of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

and

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

Early years

Katula attended

Catholic Memorial High School Catholic Memorial High School (or CMH) is a co-educational Catholic high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Established in 1949, it is a member of the National Catholic Educational Association and is a World School in thInternational Baccalaureate O ...

Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. The city is adjacent to the Village of Waukesha. History The area that ...

and was a letterman in football. As a senior, he won first-team All-Conference honors on offense, and second-team All-Conference honors on defense as a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

. His younger brother, Sam, was a standout basketball player at UW Parkside.

College career

Katula attended the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, where he

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

ed as a freshman in 2000. He went on to long snap for the Badgers in his final four seasons, playing in 48 of 51 possible games.

Professional career

Baltimore Ravens

Katula joined the

as an

on April 29, 2005. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

and 2006, he played in every regular season game. In 2005, he recorded 10 special teams tackles, the most by a long snapper. After playing in every game again in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, Katula was signed by the Ravens to a five-year contract extension on September 6, 2008. He played in every game again in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, he lost his long snapping job to rookie

Morgan Cox Morgan Cox (born April 26, 1986) is an American football long snapper for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2010. He played college football at Tenness ...

and was released on August 13, 2010.

New England Patriots

The

signed Katula on November 10, 2010, after waiving former long snapper

Jake Ingram Jacob Ingram (born February 23, 1985) is a former American football long snapper. He played college football at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft as a center. ...

. He played in the final eight games of the season for the Patriots. He was waived on August 29, 2011.

Minnesota Vikings

On November 29, 2011, Katula signed with the

to replace the injured Cullen Loeffler. He performed the Vikings' long-snapping duties in the team's final five games.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Katula signed with Pittsburgh on June 13, 2012.

External links

New England Patriots bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katula, Matt 1982 births Living people People from Brookfield, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Waukesha, Wisconsin Players of American football from Wisconsin American football long snappers Wisconsin Badgers football players Baltimore Ravens players New England Patriots players Minnesota Vikings players Sportspeople from the Milwaukee metropolitan area