Former Arkansas Razorbacks kicker now Jacksonville Jaguar Cam Little carved a mark into the record books Sunday as he booted a 68-yard field goal right before halftime against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Jaguars won the game 30-29 in overtime.
The kick was the longest in NFL history, topping a 66-yard mark set by Baltimore Ravens great Justin Tucker in a win over the Detroit Lions in September 2021.
“I kicked it straight. It kind of just stayed left-middle deep the whole time. It didn’t really draw much,” Little said of the historic kick. “Once [punter/holder] Logan [Cooke] threw his arms up, I kind of had an idea that it was going in. You go so far back and that ball takes a long time for it to get there. You don’t want to ever celebrate too early before the kick goes in.”
“Once I saw it clear the crossbar, obviously that’s when I knew it was good.”
This isn’t Little’s first headline in the pros. The Moore, Oklahoma, native dropped jaws when he drilled a 70-yarder in preseason, which made it ineligible the NFL record books but ranks as the longest football kick ever made in competition. It eclipses the former record-holder — a 69-yarder made by Abilene Christian University kicker Ove Johansson with a 17-mile-per-hour tailwind in 1976.
Sportswriters who saw Little’s 70-yard bomb in August reported the kick would likely have been good up to around 75 yards. Perhaps that is why Little’s postgame comments Sunday made him sound so nonchalant about the official record-holder.
“It’s like, ‘Kick it straight enough, kick it long enough, and it goes in,’ simply put,” he said. “We’re playing indoors, and we’re on natural grass. You kick it long enough and you kick it straight enough, it’s going to go in.”
Little was the definition of clutch during his three years with the Razorbacks. He hit on 53 of 64 field goal attempts, an 82.8 percent average, and he was a perfect 129 for 129 on extra points.
In his first year at Jacksonville, the sixth-round pick connected on 27 of 29 field goal attempts, including five of his six attempts from 50 or more yards. These included a 59-yarder that tied Josh Scobee’s record for the longest in franchise history.
Little is part of a generation of kickers who are enjoying nearly unprecedented attention these days in the NFL, where 50-yarders have become almost routine and nearly anything up to 70 yards feels possible. Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin hit a 65-yard field goal against the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this season, which tied Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey for second-longest all-time at the time. Aubrey also hit a 64-yarder to force overtime against the New York Giants this season.
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