An All-Big 10 center at the University of Missouri as a senior, Tim Barnes' trip from the campus in Columbia to St. Louis and stepping on the field for the Rams took much longer than the actual two-hour drive.
Undrafted in 2011, he signed as a free agent with Baltimore but was released eight days before the regular season got underway. But unlike the title of Thomas Wolfe's novel, You Can't Go Home Again, the Hughesville, MO, native did when he signed with the Rams two days after their Week 1 game and put on the practice squad.
"It was really nice to be able to be that close to home. I grew up just a couple hours west down I-70," Barnes said. "And then just going through such a knee-jerk reaction of emotions. You get let go, but then you get picked up. I was excited to get another chance to get your foot in the door, but it was also very nerve-racking."
Instead of calming himself by breathing into a paper bag, the rookie found all he'd have to do was pay attention to the veterans in the O-line's corner of the locker room.
"I ended up becoming pretty good friends with all the guys. But Harvey Dahl, he was one that I was able to kind of see how things were," Barnes said. "And then Scott Wells was, too. He played center and I was behind him in the lineup. But those two guys, especially.
"Not that there wasn't more, but Scott was a student of the game and he was smart. Watching him and how serious he took the film and taking notes, I tried to emulate his actions as much as I could because he was a Pro Bowl guy and somebody that had been there and done it for a while."
Spending his first year on the practice squad offered Barnes a perspective on the NFL and how it worked. Or so he thought. His mental notes on how Steve Spagnola ran the team could be erased when the head coach was let go at the end of the season and replaced by Jeff Fisher.
"It's brand-new again for everybody because any time a coach gets fired, there's going to be a lot of turnover in the locker room," Barnes said. "And especially being a practice squad guy, you really have no idea what to expect. Or at least I didn't.
"So I think that that pressure kind of adds up maybe even more than saying. 'OK, year two in this system with these coaches, they know me and I know them.' But no, it was brand-new coaches right off the bat."
Solid on special teams and as a backup for three seasons beginning in 2012, Barnes persevered, and in 2015, his fifth year with the Rams, earned his way to become the starting center.
"That was real important to me to stick it out and then ultimately win that job," Barnes said. "Because, I mean, they drafted Barrett Jones as a center, and you can't really hide that on a team. We were good friends and there was never any hostility about it, but there were three of us that were trying to get that job. And to ultimately get it, and have the coaches sit there and be like, 'OK, you're the guy. We trust you. You're going to make all the calls…'
"Of course, there's pressure that comes with that and responsibility, but I just felt like being in that system and being able to learn it for a couple years, and getting more comfortable with it and developing my own style, that was what was most important about it.
"And having my own way I did things and communicated with the players, especially on the field and in the huddle, I think that really helped me. I started four games in '13, so I was much more comfortable in getting ready for the season. Because once you get on that field, and you realize you can do it, that takes a lot of the pressure off of that, what if? It goes back to concentrating on your preparation."
Barnes' preparation was equaled by the results. And more notably, his incredible reliability. It was death, taxes, and No. 61 at center for the Rams.
"Once I started, I think I missed three snaps in two years," he said. "And those were because someone had stepped on the back of my shoe during a game in 2015. It came off and I couldn't jam it back on. So that was frustrating because you want to hit that 100 percent.
"And in 2016, I didn't miss any snaps, so it was 100 percent. And that was even though I completely ruptured my plantar fascia against the Jets, and somehow didn't miss a play on it."
With the Rams for six seasons and in two cities, five on the active roster, before finishing his career with San Francisco, what are among Barnes' fondest memories from that time in his life?
"I think it's probably similar to what everyone says, being able to make relationships with the different guys you come across, and ultimately seeing a locker room come together for an ultimate goal, winning games," Barnes said. "Unfortunately, we never made any playoff runs, but we did have some successful games. There was some excitement there.
"And my O-line coach Paul Boudreau, it was so important that he believed in me and trusted me to be the center. For someone who coached for decades in the NFL, that was a huge deal for me. I'm grateful to him and Jeff Fisher and all the other coaches on staff.
"(And what makes me most proud of my career is) just the fact that going from being undrafted to the practice squad to being cut several times, and then being able to fight for that starting job, and ultimately being able to actually stick it out and start, there's a very low percentage of anyone that can do that. Everyone's physically gifted when you get to that level, but being able to stick it out mentally, that's one of the best things for me."
Following his playing days, Barnes, his wife, Lindsay, and their children: Madeline and Jackson; made their way back to his hometown where they lived on a farm and raised cattle and grew crops. But besides barnyard chores, he also took on coaching duties at Smith-Cotton High School in nearby Sedalia.
Three years ago, Barnes returned to his alma mater, Northwest High School in Hughesville, where he's coaching as well as teaching social studies.
"I kind of always assumed that I would fall back into some sort of coaching role," Barnes said. "In college, I was a history major and started taking education courses. I kind of always figured that might be something that I would fall back on.
"Some football positions opened up here and my old high school coach was moving back to the school, and so I said, 'Yeah, I'd love to come help.' And the next thing I know, I'm also teaching part-time. That turned into teaching full-time and helping coach girls' basketball. And then me and him are also the athletic directors at the school."
As a coach, when you see your getting through to your players…
"Whenever the kids figure it out, whenever they believe in you, and believe in what you're doing, that makes it really rewarding," Barnes said. "You can look them in the eye and they, 100 percent, will do whatever you tell them to. Because they believe in what you're teaching and they know that if they put in the work, that it's going to be fruitful for them."
And as a teacher, when you see that you're getting through to your students…
"That's a lot of the same thing. Because if you walk into a majority of kids' classrooms, most of them are going to say, 'Why do I have to learn about history? It's boring,'" Barnes said. "And yes, I agree. There's some stuff that I don't really care for. But it's those lessons that maybe I think are not as interesting, that a kid is like, 'Oh, I really, really like this.' So then you kind of feed off that energy and it makes it better for everybody.
"And so the kids I get to interact with every day, whether it's in my classroom or on the football field or the basketball court, I get to go and relate to them there and tell them what they can do and they don't know it yet. That's a big thing for kids to understand. And that's my job, to bridge that gap. You can do this. You don't know you can do it yet, but we're going to get there. And this is how."
