Emilyne Rogan had just gotten her baby to sleep for the night a couple Sundays ago when Cincinnati defensive end Joseph Ossai shoved Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City moved into field goal range and a trip to the Super Bowl hung in the balance.

“OK, I can’t scream,” Rogan thought because of that sleeping baby. “So, what are we going to do?”

Her decision: stand in the corner of the living room with a blanket over her eyes.

“I can’t watch,” Rogan told her husband.

Many Kansas City fans (and maybe even some Cincinnati fans) probably felt the same way in the final seconds of the AFC Championship Game. But the reason Rogan was nervous, then elated when the kick was good ― she took off running around the house, silently of course ― was personal.

Her brother is Kansas City’s long snapper, Oklahoma native James Winchester.

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He grew up with a triumvirate of sisters, and while marriage has left Carolyn Baker, Becca George and Emilyne Rogan with different last names now, they are proud to be not only part of Winchester’s family but also part of his fan club. They have watched him play football, first in Washington, then at OU, now in the NFL, for almost three decades.

Sunday, they’ll watch him on the sport’s biggest stage, the Super Bowl.

He's already been a Super Bowl champion, and this will be his third Super Bowl in four seasons.

“It’s just unbelievable that he’s going to his third Super Bowl,” Becca said. “I mean, that’s something that I feel like as a kid, every little football player dreams of someday, and so few get to do it.

“The cool thing is, it doesn’t get old to James. It just is never taken for granted.”

His sisters don’t either.

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'He is just James. He hasn't changed.'

James Winchester started playing little league football in Washington when he was only 4 or 5 years old.

Carolyn, born two years before him, remembers being at his games. So does Becca, born two years after him. Emilyne, five years younger than James, doesn’t have any memories of his early games, but she was there, too.

“Sports and family are synonymous in our family,” Becca said.

If James or one of the girls had a game ― they played just about every sport offered in their tiny hometown 15 minutes south of Norman ― everyone in the family was there.

They were there when James played his first game at OU. He joined the Sooners as a walk-on, expecting to be a receiver but instead converted to long snapper. His Sooner debut, the 2008 season opener against UT-Chattanooga, was a 57-2 rout.

The only two points Chattanooga managed?

A bad punt snap from James went out of the end zone for a safety.

“It was kind of like, well, it’s only up from here,” Carolyn said with a laugh. “It’s just gonna get better.”

And it did.

In August 2013, James signed with Philadelphia as an undrafted free agent but was waived by the Eagles a couple of weeks later. He kept working out and getting tryouts but didn’t sign with another NFL team for two years.

Kansas City signed him in March 2015, and he hasn’t missed a game since, 147 in a row.

Winchester is the second-longest tenured player on Kansas City’s roster, behind only Travis Kelce.

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“That didn’t happen immediately for him,” Carolyn said of making the NFL, “and he worked really hard for it.”

Becca said, “I think you have to be special. And I think that not only do you have to be special, you have to not think you’re special, which is such a hard thing to do.”

A few years ago when Becca was an assistant coach for the OU rowing team, she invited James to talk to the rowers. One thing he said that day sticks with her even though she’s no longer coaching.

“Don’t be afraid to be a try-hard kid,” he said. “Everybody wants to come in and be big stuff and they’re not trying hard.

“Be the try-hard kid. Go in every day, remember your why and be the try-hard kid.”

Winchester is approaching a decade in the NFL, and a little over a year ago when Kansas City signed him to a contract extension that would keep him with the franchise through the 2023 season, he became the highest-paid long snapper in the NFL.

Still, Winchester’s sisters say his humility is the thing that makes them proudest.

“It’s just so easy to support his journey and support his dreams … because he is just James,” Becca said. “He hasn’t changed.”

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'We are more nervous for him than he’s ever been in his life'

The Winchester sisters don’t get to all of James’ games anymore.

Families and jobs and travel distances make it impossible. But every season, all three of them get to at least one or two regular-season games. But during the playoffs? They attend as many of those games as possible.

And this weekend, everyone will be in Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

They know the game could come down to a late kick just like the AFC Championship Game did. If that happens, Carolyn, Becca and Emilyne will be nervous. That’s how they are every time James has a snap, whether for a punt, an extra point or a field goal.

“Every time, I feel like we are more nervous for him than he’s ever been in his life,” Becca said.

She laughed.

“He’s our brother, and we want him to succeed in everything. He handles the failures just as well as he handles the successes, and I think that’s huge. But when you want something like that for him … we kind of put some of those nerves on us.”

But while they’ll be nervous, they’ll also be excited. Even though most punts and kicks are afterthoughts to a lot of fans, they are when James gets to shine.

“We’re videoing every time he takes the field,” Carolyn said. “Usually that’s your break time, right? We’ve scored, it’s an extra point, people are gonna go to the bathroom. And we’ve got our cameras out, totally invested in that one point.”

“It still is just the coolest thing to get to watch him do something that he loves and is good at.”

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Super Bowl: OU football alum James Winchester humility key to success