A French-Canadian, an Australian, an Arkansas-bred owner and a bullish New Jersey tough guy head coach are in a van ...
No, it's not the start of some joke. It's how L.P. Ladouceur began his life with the Dallas Cowboys in 2005.
The Montreal native was in the van on his way to San Jose State for a workout. Sitting next to him was Mat McBriar, the Cowboys' Australian-born punter. With him were Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells. The Cowboys had remained in Northern California to practice between back-to-back games against the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders early in that 2005 campaign, but they needed a snapper, since rookie Jon Condo was struggling.
On the ride from the team's hotel in Fremont, California, to San Jose State, Ladouceur couldn't believe his surroundings.
"I'm like, 'Oh, my God, don't screw it up,'" Ladouceur said.
The workout wasn't very long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Coach Parcells stood next to McBriar for every snap, arms folded, trying to intimidate. Ladouceur did not know this at the time, but the Cowboys were going to sign him with just a couple of good snaps.
His snaps on that day were good enough to get signed. He has been the Cowboys' snapper ever since.
On Sunday, Ladouceur returns to Oakland for a regular-season game for the first time since signing with the Cowboys in 2005. He has been perfect on 1,840 career snaps -- 887 punts, 559 PAT attempts and 394 field goal tries.
"He's been doing it for a long time," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "It's Year 13 and he doesn't miss a day of practice, doesn't miss a game and doesn't miss a snap. The operation is critical for the success of the specialists, and our specialists are as good as they get. But he's such an anchor on our special-teams unit. He's one of those guys who's kind of a quiet leader, goes about it the right way, really well respected by his teammates with the way he works and certainly the way he produces with the job we ask him to do."
Earlier this season, Ladouceur became just the seventh player in team history to compete in 200 regular-season games, along with Jason Witten, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Bill Bates, Randy White, Tom Rafferty and Emmitt Smith. Sunday will be the 203rd game of his career.
All of this because he just so happened to be close to San Jose when the Cowboys were in need. Ladouceur played collegiately at Cal. He was living in Davis, California, at the time, wondering if he would get on an NFL roster after he was among the New Orleans Saints' final cuts.
"I was in San Francisco that day when [the Cowboys] played the 49ers and watching the game on TV with some friends, and the next thing you know, I'm calling my agent: 'Hey, someone's struggling in Dallas,'" Ladouceur said.
Ladouceur went to training camp that summer with the Saints. He actually recorded a sack/fumble in a preseason game while playing defensive end. He had a workout with the Buffalo Bills, which was followed by one for the Miami Dolphins.
Because the Cowboys were in California, his agent, Gil Scott, struggled to get a hold of any personnel people. Scott represented a kicker, Shaun Suisham, on the practice squad and was able to talk to special-teams coach Bruce DeHaven, who set up the workout.
"It was probably like 10 o'clock in the morning and practice started at like 10:30 or 11," Ladouceur said. "Just put my pads on and went to practice. Kind of a weird deal."
Five days later, he was at his first game. Ladouceur had about 10 friends in the stands watching him play a week after he was watching a Cowboys game on television. Because the Athletics were still playing at that time of the season, he had to snap on the infield dirt at the Oakland Coliseum, which is never an easy thing for a snapper.
"I remember the first play," Ladouceur said. "It was Warren Sapp to my left and Langston Walker to my right with double A gap pushes. That's when they used to truck us."
The Cowboys lost 19-13, but Ladouceur had the job. However, he had one problem. He did not have any clothes with him to fly back to Dallas with the team. He asked Parcells if he could fly back on Monday after he went back to his apartment to get some belongings.
After the game, Ladouceur, with a Cal backpack and duffle bag, walked with his friends to the Bay Area Rapid Transit station outside the Coliseum, took the train to Berkeley and then went to his apartment in Davis.
"Nobody recognizes anybody unless you're a Drew Bledsoe or one of those kind of guys," Ladouceur said. "I didn't have any Cowboys stuff; I just had jeans and a shirt. I was just a tall, 6-5, 260-pound guy back then. Just one of those guys."
Ladouceur is signed through this season but hopes he can land a three-year deal to remain with the Cowboys. He is 36 and wants to play until he is 40, maybe longer.
"To think it all started there and going back this week, it'll be great," Ladouceur said. "It'll be fun to be there."