Minnesota Vikings rookie Austin Cutting talks with reporters after rookie minicamp workouts began at the NFL football team's complex Friday, May 3, 2019, in Eagan, Minn. Cutting became the first Air Force player drafted in 20 years when the Vikings took the long snapper in the seventh round. Pursuing a pro football career isn't so simple, though, with required military service to be sorted out first for Cutting. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Minnesota Vikings rookie Austin Cutting talks with reporters after rookie minicamp workouts began at the NFL football team's complex Friday, May 3, 2019, in Eagan, Minn. Cutting became the first Air Force player drafted in 20 years when the Vikings took the long snapper in the seventh round. Pursuing a pro football career isn't so simple, though, with required military service to be sorted out first for Cutting. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) Credit: Jim Mone

EAGAN, Minn. – Long snappers are the afterthoughts of the NFL draft. Players from the service academies, on track to join the military and not pro sports, are largely ignored.

Still, here was Austin Cutting, a seventh-round pick out of the Air Force Academy, sharpening his specialist skills in rookie minicamp on Friday with the Minnesota Vikings and taking the first step toward what would be an unlikely, complicated and potentially inspiring career in the league.

“It was just good to be out here for the first time,” Cutting said, “so I loved it.”

Continuing further into the NFL calendar will depend on a plan for fulfillment of the minimum of two years of active duty for all cadets upon graduation, which is on May 30. Two years ago, the Defense Department rescinded a policy that previously allowed service academy athletes to delay their active duty to pursue a pro sports career. That undoubtedly steered teams away from drafting Jalen Robinette, the all-time leading receiver for Air Force.

“Going to the academy, serving comes first,” Cutting said.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman has been speaking with academy officials about options Cutting might have to meet his requirement while simultaneously trying to make the team.

“It’s not, ‘Okay, the Air Force was done, and now it’s time for the NFL,’ ” Cutting said, adding: “It’s decisions that are made above my pay grade, and they’ll help me along the way.”

Cutting, who picked up his long snapping trade at Central High School in Keller, Texas, in the Dallas area, has been majoring in management. He’s an acquisitions officer, the personnel designated to serve as the government’s business managers and technical experts in buying everything from computers to helicopters for forces around the world.

“I’ve heard everybody who does it loves it,” Cutting said.

The chosen few who make it to the NFL usually do, too. Even simply taking the call from the Vikings last weekend, at home with family and friends, was one of those moments Cutting will always remember no matter where his career winds up taking him.

“When it actually happens, you can’t really describe it,” Cutting said. “It’s a great feeling.”