Why there are so many long field goals in the NFL this season, including a record-setter

By Coy Wire, CNN

(CNN) — It’s not often that an NFL kicker is trending. When they are it’s almost always because they whiffed wide right, or doinked their team’s chances of victory away – making said fans want to doink their heads off of the top of the bar.

But the Jaguars’ Cam Little is trending big time today in a very good way: He made a 68-yard field goal on Sunday – setting an NFL record for longest field goal made.

His team needed it too. The Jaguars beat the Raiders by a point.

If you haven’t noticed, we’re seeing loads of longer field goals from kickers across the NFL this season, and it is very likely because of a new rule that was implemented for this season. Let’s call it “The K-Ball rule.”

In previous years, kickers got three new footballs on game day and they didn’t have much time to break them in.

This season, though, each team got 60 kicking balls at the start of the season. Kickers can break them in, squeeze and squish them, trying to make them more pliable. They also have much more time to rub them down like a deep-tissue massage to try to wear away the thousands of tiny bumps on the ball.

Just halfway through the season, there have been seven field goals of 60+ yards, already the most in any season. Could we be on the verge of seeing a 70-yard field goal in the NFL this season?

Earlier this season, after watching Bucs kicker Chase McLaughlin hit 65- and 58-yarders against his team, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio vented to reporters about the new K-ball rule a bit.

“These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular,” he said. “So it’s almost like they need an asterisk here. It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs (Barry) Bonds and (Sammy) Sosa and (Mark) McGwire were hitting. The way they’ve changed the ball … the NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals.”

Fangio added, “In years past, the officials would rub them down or other people would rub them down and you play with them. Now the balls are in house all week and they kick those balls that they’ve had and nobody else touches them.”

For all the old-school hip-hop lovers out there, fire up some Bell Biv DeVoe, and envision Cam Little singing, “Smack it up, flip it, rub it down,” while sitting at home with his kicking balls. He’s the same guy that made a 70-yarder in a preseason game in August.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.