The longest tenured player on the Chargers� roster and the only remaining player from the Chargers� 1994 Super Bowl team, long snapper David Binn is the franchise�s all-time leader in career games played (223) heading into 2008. Known for pinpoint accuracy, Binn is among the best at his trade. He�s a 15-year veteran who joined the Chargers as an undrafted free agent from Cal-Berkeley in 1994 and has spent his entire NFL career in Lightning Bolts. He is also one of the league�s most durable players, having missed only one game in his career to injury during his first 14 seasons.
Long overlooked despite being the BEST at his trade, Binn was finally rewarded with his first trip to the Pro Bowl in 2007 when AFC coach Bill Belichick selected him as the conference�s need player. Binn�s accurate snaps have helped the careers of several of the leading kickers and punters in team history, including the team�s current duo of Nate Kaeding and Mike Scifres, and past greats like John Carney and Darren Bennett.
In May, Binn signed a new four-year contract that will keep him with the Chargers through the 2011 season.
Binn is also an avid golfer whose pinpoint accuracy with his clubs has allowed him to record a handicap that hovers in the low single digits. He has been invited to compete in golf tournaments around the country. In 1999, he won a trip to Hawaii in a hole-in-one contest sponsored by a local golf venue.
Since his arrival in San Diego, Binn has been a supporter of the local military. In May 2003, he visited the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln at sea as the ship and its crew returned to San Diego from the war in Iraq. Aboard the ship, he was joined by President George W. Bush, who had also flown to the carrier to deliver a speech to the nation declaring an end to the hostilities in Iraq. Binn was photographed with the nation�s Commander in Chief. In 2000, he received a special invitation to fly in an F-18 with the Navy�s Blue Angels.
Throughout his NFL career, Binn has been one of the Chargers� most active players in the community. In 1998, he started the David Binn Foundation to support environmental education and scholarship programs. The foundation supports several worthy causes including the annual Teddy Bear Drive to Children�s Hospital, in which Binn joins forces with the Coronado Police Department to deliver stuffed animals to young patients.
Binn has visited many interesting places, including Russia, Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, Europe and Costa Rica. His great grandparents on his father�s side of the family are Russian emigrants who moved to the United States during the Russian Revolution. During the trip to Russia, Binn visited Red Square, he went to a Russian orphanage outside of Moscow, saw a ballet at the Minsky Theater, and also traveled to St. Petersburg where he visited The Hermitage Museum, one of the largest and oldest art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world.
A native of San Mateo in Northern California, Binn now makes his home year-round in PacificBeach. In 2007, he was honored in his hometown when he was elected into the San Mateo County Hall of Fame, joining such stars as NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann and former San Francisco Giants� slugger Barry Bonds.
At his home in PacificBeach, Binn owns a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Kingston. |