JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

You probably know football is mainly about throwing, catching and running the ball, so NFL kickers have never been, shall we say, main characters. But this season, kickers have become essential, and that is starting to change the way the sport is played. NPR’s Becky Sullivan has the story.

BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Once upon a time in the NFL, hitting a long field goal to win a game wasn’t a sure thing.

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AL MICHAELS: It’s going to be a 47-yard field goal attempt.

SULLIVAN: Back in Super Bowl XXV, the Buffalo Bills were trailing the New York Giants by just one point. With eight seconds left, the Bills lined up for a field goal. All they needed was their kicker, Scott Norwood, to hit it. But he missed, prompting the famous call from ABC’s Al Michaels.

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MICHAELS: No good. Wide right.

SULLIVAN: Back then, in the 1990 season, the odds of making a field goal from that distance were worse than a coin toss. That year, kickers made only 1 of every 3 of the longest field goals they tried. Compare that to this season - kickers are now hitting almost 3 of 4 field goals that are 50 yards or longer.

MICHAEL HUSTED: It’s pretty impressive.

SULLIVAN: This is Michael Husted. He was a kicker in the '90s, mostly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. One big difference between then and now, he tells me, is coaching. Back when he was getting started, almost no one had a kicking coach. Now kickers at all levels, from high school to the pros, work with coaches like Husted, who teach them the techniques he had to learn on his own - still upper body; power from your core.

HUSTED: It’s very synonymous with a golf swing. It’s not about trying to hit the ball as hard as you can. It’s about being fluid and loose and relaxed.

SULLIVAN: Coaches also help with weightlifting regimens and the mental aspect, too - how to manage the intense pressure of those end-of-game scenarios. The other key difference that has really uncorked this long field goal trend isn’t the kickers at all, says Dan Orner.

DAN ORNER: Ten years ago, guys were hitting 60-yarders in practice. I think the coaches weren’t confident enough.

SULLIVAN: Orner coaches dozens of high-level college kickers. He says head coaches have completely transformed the way they think about those guys.

ORNER: They value the kicker. They value the punter. The younger head coaches - you see a lot of those guys going, we got this weapon of mass destruction. We might as well use it.

SULLIVAN: The result - teams are trying longer field goals nearly twice as often as they did just a few years ago.

JEFF MILLER: Obviously, something that you take note of. It changes the game. It changes strategy.

SULLIVAN: This is Jeff Miller, an NFL spokesman. Last month, he was asked whether league officials would consider changing the rules to make it harder for kickers. He said they’re going to take a look at it. One idea would be to narrow the goalposts. Right now, the uprights are about 18 feet apart. Narrowing them to 16 or even 14 feet would make things harder - for a little while, at least, says the former kicker, Michael Husted.

HUSTED: Eventually, I think they’ll probably just have a pole back there with a cowbell, and you have to hit that at the rate these guys are going.

SULLIVAN: Until then, the NFL’s longest-ever field goal might be the league record with the shortest life expectancy. That record belongs to Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens, who hit a 66-yarder back in 2021. This season, someone came closer than ever. Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys got one from 65 yards in September. I talked to Tucker after a game this month. He told me, from that distance, it’s not just about the kicker.

JUSTIN TUCKER: Anytime a guy’s trying to make a kick from the opposite side of the logo, everything’s got to be just right. The snap’s got to be there. The hold’s got to be there. The conditions have got to be right.

SULLIVAN: In other words, it’s a perfect storm that may or may not happen anytime soon. This season isn’t over yet, but kicks are harder to make in the winter. Balls don’t travel as far in the cold. Wind is a challenge, too. So Tucker’s record may yet live to see one more year.

Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Baltimore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.