Who Kicked the Longest Field Goal in NFL History?

Who kicked the longest field goal in NFL history? The NFL is the highest level of play for American Football, a fiercely competitive team sport that combines rigorous physical action with strategy. Teams score points by getting the football into their opponent’s goal, or end zone, and one of the ways teams may score points is by a field goal.

So, who kicked the longest field goal in NFL history? As of 2010, that title is shared between two men who each kicked a field goal of 63 yards in official game time for the NFL:

• Tom Dempsey - His famous field goal kick was made when he played for the New Orleans Saints in 1970. Dempsey kicked a sixty-three yard field goal in the final two seconds of the game, giving the Saints the edge to win over the Detroit Lions at 19-17.
• Jason Elam - He scored his record-matching goal in 1998 playing for the Broncos. The sixty three yard field goal kick ended the first half of a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Tom Dempsey

Tom Dempsey was born in 1947 and played football professionally from 1969 to 1979. He played for several teams during his time as a football player, including the New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Oilers and the Buffalo Bills. It is notable that Dempsey employed a straight approach to kick the ball, as most players kick the ball in a style reminiscent of soccer.

Jason Elam

Jason Elam was born in 1970 and played professional football for the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons. Elam has also made a large amount of other records, notably that no player in the NFL has ever scored more points for a team than Elam did with the Denver Broncos and is one of the only players in NFL history to score more than two hundred points against three or more teams individually. The shoes he was wearing at the time of his famous field goal are on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

Longest Field Goals

So who kicked the longest field goal in NFL history? That title is shared between Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam. However, in 2002 Ola Kimrin kicked a 65-yard field goal in a preseason game for the Denver Broncos as they played against Seattle. However, since the game was preseason and not regular season, it doesn’t count in official statistics as a record-breaking field goal kick.

Also, the longest successful field goal in history was made in the college ball level at sixty nine yards. The goal was made by Ove Johansson in 1976 for NAIA College Football’s Abilene Christian against East Texas State. In 2006, Matt Bryant was exceptionally close to joining the rains of Dempsey and Elam when he kicked a sixty-two yard field goal for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Philadelphia Eagles. 

So although they have had plenty of competition attempting to match or break their records, Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam currently share the record of longest professional field goal in NFL history.