Dempsey’s ‘miracle’ kick

Cam Little’s 68-yard field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday set a new NFL record, so the Jacksonville Jaguars kicker now stands alone with the longest three-pointer in league history.

But for how long?

His effort was of the “no doubt about it” variety, meaning it would’ve been good from 70 yards – a mark he had already met in a preseason game, incidentally. It was an impressive feat, and something he’ll always remember.

Thing is, though, it’s not gonna stand … not for any significant length of time, anyway. It might be broken later this season – or even as early as tomorrow. What once seemed next to impossible is now a probability.

The former record holder was Justin Tucker, whose 66-yard boot set a new standard back in 2021.

But this year alone there have been six field goals made from 60-plus yards, and 22 kickers have split the pipes from at least 55 yards away.

On October 19, both Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey and Green Bay’s Lucas Havrisik drilled 61-yard field goals, marking the first time in NFL history two 60-plus yarders had been made on the same day.

Yet, there was a time when a ball that cleared the crossbar from that distance was the ultimate rarity – and that time was November 8, 1970.

The lowly New Orleans Saints – on their way to a 2-11-1 worksheet in their fourth NFL season – trailed the Detroit Lions, 17-16, with just two seconds left in the game.

Instead of opting for a long bomb in hopes of a miracle finish, New Orleans boss J.D. Roberts (in his first game as head man after Tom Fears was fired) called Tom Dempsey’s number.

The 264-pound second-year kicker out of Palomar Junior College was asked to attempt a 63-yard field goal, which seemed ridiculous.

The longest field goal in league history was 56 yards, that set in 1956 by Baltimore’s Bert Rechichar in the Colts’ 13-9 victory over the Chicago Bears.

But long odds were hardly new to Dempsey, who was born with a congenital condition that left him with no toes on his right foot and no fingers on his right hand.

In fact, he wore a specially designed (and NFL-approved) shoe that featured a 1 ¾-inch-leather block at the toe. The 23-year-old had a powerful right leg, and the sporting world was about to learn just how strong it was.

So, with the ball at the Saints 45 (goal posts were located on the goal line in 1970), the snap to Joe Scarpati was placed down at the 37.

Sixty-three yards and an inch or two later, New Orleans had a 19-17 victory and the Crescent City had a new folk hero.

“We were beaten by a miracle,” Detroit coach Joe Schmidt said.

There were 66,920 fans at Tulane Stadium that day, and I’m guessing most claim to have witnessed the “miracle.” But Detroit’s Errol Mann made an 18-yard field goal 12 seconds earlier, sending thousands of them toward the exits.

“I knew I could kick the ball that far, but whether or not I could kick it straight kept running through my mind,” Dempsey told the Associated Press. “I knew I had to hit the ball awfully hard and would need a little extra time.

“There’s so much involved in kicking a 60-yard field goal. You’ve got to try and hit the ball as hard as you possibly can, and yet, kicking it straight is a hard thing to do. It just happened that I hit it right that time and it happened at the right time.”

Dempsey had already kicked three field goals in the game and wanted to try a 55-yarder earlier.

“We didn’t let him kick that shorter one,” Roberts told AP. “He was upset and I said, ‘Well, if you think you can get high trajectory on it, we’ll kick a long one a little later.’ But I didn’t think it would be that long.”

Who would have?

Certainly none of the Detroit players.

“Tom Dempsey didn’t kick that field goal,” Lions linebacker Wayne Walker said. “God kicked it.”

But no good deed goes unpunished, and three days after Dempsey’s historic kick, Dallas Cowboys president Tex Schramm said he was going to protest the use of Dempsey’s shoe. Schramm’s reasoning was that it gave the kicker an unfair advantage because of its sledgehammer-like design.

There was immediate backlash at the suggestion someone born with basically half a foot had an “advantage,” and Schramm withdrew his protest on November 13.

“It was a mistake and bad timing on my part,” Schramm said in an interview with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. “I will not pursue it. I want to apologize to Tom Dempsey, the Saints and the people of New Orleans for the impression my remarks created. It was not my intent whatsoever to criticize Tom. That 63-yarder was a heck of an accomplishment and a tremendous tribute to him.”

(As a quick aside, in 1977 the NFL made a rule mandating that “… any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe.” It became known as the Tom Dempsey Rule, although Dempsey had no artificial limbs).

In 1992, the Detroit Free Press asked Dempsey to look back on his accomplishment.

“I always practiced kicking from 65 yards away,” he said. “Lots of times I’d kicked 70-yard field goals in practice, so I didn’t pay any attention to the distance on this kick.

“All I noticed was the goalposts looked a little small.”

The record stood for 43 years, although Denver’s Jason Elam tied it in 1998. It was broken by Broncos kicker Matt Prater’s 64-yard field goal against the Tennessee Titans on December 8, 2013.

Still, for those of us “old school” fans, Dempsey’s achievement remains one of the truly great moments in National Football League history.