Tom Dempsey: The Kick That Lasted Forty-Three Years

The Kick That Lasted Forty-Three Years

Thomas John Dempsey was born on January 12, 1947, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He came into the world without toes on his right foot and without fingers on his right hand. He wore a custom flat-front kicking shoe to accommodate his foot, and he became a professional football kicker because he refused to let anyone tell him what he couldn't do.

Dempsey signed with the New Orleans Saints in 1969 and earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors in his first season. He was a good kicker on a bad team — the early Saints were lovable losers, and Dempsey was one of the few bright spots. But on November 8, 1970, he became immortal.

63 Yards

The Saints trailed the Detroit Lions 17-16 with two seconds left. The ball was at the Lions' 45-yard line. It was a 63-yard field goal attempt — seven yards longer than the existing NFL record, a distance that most coaches wouldn't have even considered. Saints coach J.D. Roberts sent Dempsey onto the field.

The snap was good. The hold was good. Tom Dempsey's flat-front shoe connected with the football, and it sailed through the uprights as time expired. Saints 19, Lions 17. Sixty-three yards. The longest field goal in NFL history.

The record stood for forty-three years — until Matt Prater kicked a 64-yarder in 2013 in the thin air of Denver. Dempsey's kick, by contrast, was at sea level in New Orleans. The NFL later implemented the "Tom Dempsey Rule," restricting modified kicking shoes, essentially saying that the league needed a rule specifically because of what this one man accomplished.

A Saints Legend

Tom Dempsey played for five NFL teams over eleven seasons, but he belonged to New Orleans. He lived in the city after retirement and became a beloved figure in the Saints community. He developed dementia in his later years and was living in a New Orleans assisted living facility when COVID-19 swept through in spring 2020. He tested positive on March 30 and died on April 4, 2020, at seventy-three. The man who kicked the impossible kick was taken by the impossible virus.