Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

In the rarest of rare NFL plays is it true that the last successful Free Kick occurred over 39 years ago done by
Ray Wersching, San Diego vs. Buffalo, November 21, 1976 ? The handful of attempts done in the last 39 years
have all missed.

single wing wrote:In the rarest of rare NFL plays is it true that the last successful Free Kick occurred over 39 years ago done by
Ray Wersching, San Diego vs. Buffalo, November 21, 1976 ? The handful of attempts done in the last 39 years
have all missed.

According to wikipedia you are correct. I had been under the impression that the last successful Free Kick was Mac Percival in 1968, but it was actually Wersching in 1976:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_catch_kick

Looking at this list of unsuccessful Free Kick FG's, it does explain a lot of these long missed Field Goals, such as the 74-yarder by Mark Moseley in 1979 and the 73-yard miss by Fred Steinfort in 1980. Moseley's miss was the longest attempted FG in pro football history (that I could find) until Janikowski's 76-yarder a few years back.

The Wersching play developed when Marv Bateman punted from the Buffalo four during the second quarter, with Mike Williams then calling for a fair catch. Wersching said it was just like practice, since he wasn't being rushed, with Tommy Prothro actually asking an official beforehand if it was going to be allowed. BTW, the Chargers' OC at the time was Bill Walsh.

Thanks guys. Rupert i never even thought of looking at Wikipedia. Great to see they list all the attempts even made.
BD thanks also to you for given some of the details behind that kick. I can remember one strange case where the team messed up by not trying one. I believe it was Baltimore Colts vs Detroit Lions on a Thanksgiving day game in mid60's. On the last play of the game the Lions made a fair catch on the Colt 42 yard line. Wayne Walker after thinking about a 42 yard free kick during a timeout decided instead to try a 49 yard regular field goal simply because it was more familiar. Needless to say the attempt was a partial block which then shanked off to the side. As a result the game ended in a 24-24 tie since back then no overtime was played.

single wing wrote:I can remember one strange case where the team messed up by not trying one. I believe it was Baltimore Colts vs Detroit Lions on a Thanksgiving day game in mid60's. On the last play of the game the Lions made a fair catch on the Colt 42 yard line. Wayne Walker after thinking about a 42 yard free kick during a timeout decided instead to try a 49 yard regular field goal simply because it was more familiar. Needless to say the attempt was a partial block which then shanked off to the side. As a result the game ended in a 24-24 tie since back then no overtime was played.

Thanksgiving Day 1965, a game that happened to be the first CBS NFL game in color. The Colts needed two fourth quarter TD's just to salvage a tie, which eventually got them into the playoff against GB, where they got screwed.

Yes indeed they got screwed in that playoff game. One of the greatest efforts by a team when down in flames on a bad call