Former Hawkeye Casey Wiegmann: the NFL's ultimate ironman

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. ­­­- Kansas City Chiefs center Casey Wiegmann is the NFL's version of a Timex watch: he takes a licking but keeps on ticking.

Wiegmann, 38, enters his 16th NFL season, which is impressive but not unique. His work ethic and toughness are admirable but not unusual. However, his consecutive snaps played streak makes him an ironman in a sport - and a position - where even the toughest players leave the field for a breather or an injury.

Wiegmann has played 10,141 consecutive snaps, the longest stretch by an offensive lineman. That streak dates to Sept. 23, 2001, the Chiefs' second game that season. He also has started 159 consecutive games.

“I take great pride in what I do and want to be in there for my teammates,” Wiegmann said. “Hopefully that leads to leadership and helps the other young kids out and helps them develop, too. I take pride in it.”

Wiegmann bounced around the NFL in his early years. After graduating from Iowa in 1996, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Indianapolis Colts. He then played for the New York Jets and Chicago Bears before signing with Kansas City in 2001. He missed the Chiefs' first game that season after an emergency appendectomy, then played every offensive down in Kansas City through the 2007 season. He then played two seasons in Denver where he initially was signed as a backup to Tom Nalen, but Wiegmann landed the starting job instead. Wiegmann earned his only Pro Bowl nod in 2008, but moved back to Kansas City last year. He now is in position to start once again.

“You talk about leadership, I mean this guy's a phenom, he's a phenom,” Chiefs Coach Todd Haley said. “You don't do what he's done for as long as he's done it by accident. He knows how to do it. He knows what to do, and this good group of men we have, you make sure occasionally that you say, ‘Take a look at the guy in the back of the room; he wrote the book on how to have a great career, so I'd be trying to do most of the things he's doing.'”

Wiegmann doesn't take his career for granted, based on his Parkersburg, Iowa roots. He's one of the smallest centers in football at 285 pounds and often is at a disadvantage when going against 340-pound nose tackles. But he knows leverage the techniques necessary to succeed at his position.

“I'm 38 so of course I don't have what I used to have, but I still feel like I can go out on the football field and get it done,” Wiegmann said.

With Wiegmann's toughness and longevity also comes respect. In an early-camp team meeting, Haley joked with Wiegmann about playing until he was 50, and Wiegmann “got mad,” Haley said. The coach then stopped mocking him.

“I think he's the epitome of what I've coached for many, many years in being the same guy every day,” Haley said. “You can count, he'll be in the same seat, he'll be out on the field at the same time, he'll be in the same area and not a lot changes. He's just managed to get a little better each and every day in a lot of different areas.”

Wiegmann has started three playoff games in his career. His best team, the 2003 Chiefs, were 13-3 and featured Hall of Fame-caliber offensive linemen Will Shields, Willie Roaf and tight end Tony Gonazlez. It was a fun time for Wiegmann.

"We talk about it quite a bit in the locker room, just how good of an athlete Willie Roaf was, just the professional Will Shields was," Wiegmann said. "The guys would do anything and everything to be on the field and help the team win. I'm looking forward to going to a Hall of Fame enshrinement and say I actually played with those guys. It's pretty special."

Wiegmann has made transitions in his life, from getting married a few years ago to former Survivor winner Danni Boatwright to starting a farming business with former college teammate and best friend Jared DeVries. Wiegmann prolongs the decision to return to football a little later each year. He didn't decide to play this year until June, which didn't make much difference to anyone because of the five-month NFL lockout.

“It took me a while to decide, but now I'm fully in so I'm trying to get back into the routine again of doing things and picking up from there,” Wiegmann said. “Thankfully a few teams called, and I chose the Chiefs.”

Wiegmann also has stayed in touch with his roots. In July, he participated in a golf outing for Ed Thomas Family Foundation, a charity that raises money for scholarships in the name of his former high school football coach. Wiegmann and DeVries also agreed to participate in the new “ANF - America Needs Farmers” initiative between the Iowa football program and Iowa Farm Bureau.

“He's a kid that didn't grow up on a farm,” said Rick Klatt, Iowa's associate athletics director for external relations. “But his father worked at John Deere for 35 years so when the farm crisis, his family felt the pinch. As a player for Coach (Hayden) Fry back then, he indicated that it meant a great deal to him that his coach was concerned about the American farmer because his father was a byproduct of that business.”

“What it stands for is about farmers, of course, and whatever we could do to help the state and help Iowa football in anything we can do, we're going to try to do to our best,” Wiegmann said.

Now Wiegmann tries to hold on in pro football for one more year, start one more game and play each snap as it's his last. As always, Wiegmann has to prove himself on the field. It's nothing new for him. He's been doing that his whole life.

“I'm just grateful that he chose to come back to Kansas City with us and believed enough in what we were doing to be a part of it again this year,” Haley said. “I'm fired up, so now we've just got to make sure he can still play.”