Akers joins the 63 Yard Club.

[cherokeeprogressive]

His 63 yarder hit the crossbar and went over.

Congrats!

[Upton]

1. Akers should hold the record by himself..

Dempsey made his with a special shoe, and the Janikowski and Elam kicks both came at Mile High Stadium.

[InternalDialogue]

2. Yeah, but all those others

made it without needing a bump from the crossbar.

Call it a wash, or start classifying records by indefinable conditions?

Either way, it's a stellar kick. I've tried football kicks from ten yards and can't imagine how someone can do a long one with any accuracy.
f

[fishwax]

3. The record should belong to Matt Bryant alone. Akers made the kick in a game with replacement refs.

Well, not really, but that's as good a justification for making a record unofficial as the Mile High excuse.

[Upton]

5. Not really..

Elam and Janokowski were both aided by the altitude, Akers had no such help..

[fishwax]

6. it's silly to claim that a kick in an official game in a regular stadium somehow shouldn't count

They were aided by altitude, but they were kicking in an NFL game in an NFL stadium, and nobody in any (regular season) NFL game anywhere has ever kicked one longer.

Additionally, while the reduced resistance of the thin air at altitude allows the ball to go a longer distance, it also requires greater precision, since their is less resistance to keep the ball on line. Between 2001 and 2009, kickers have made about 61% of their attempts longer than 50 yards at Mile High. At Lambeau, they have made 56.25% -- however, if you take out November and December, when the weather at Lambeau really hurts kickers, 80% of kicks longer than 50 yards have been good.

[hughee99]

8. An ESPN sports science investigation concluded Dempsey's shoe

offered him no advantage. I'm not sure how, exactly, that was determined, but different doesn't necessarily mean better. The record for the longest kick should probably belong to Martin Gramatica who kicked a 65 yard FG for Kansas State, since the goal posts are the same width in the NCAA as the NFL. The longest kick was Alan Saunders 70 yarder (Oregon-Clay High School Clay v Waite, 9/28/08) but High School goal posts are wider.

[Upton]

9. I remember the study..

seems like we argued about it around here...and I'm not going for it now anymore than I did then. There's no way Dempsey kicking with what amounted to a giant steel plated mallet wasn't an advantage..

[hughee99]

10. Take a square faced steel mallot out to your local football field

and see how many 63 yard fg's you hit. There was no steel in it either (other than the cleats), it was filled with cloth.

[Upton]

11. You might be right about the steel..

I see Dempsey claimed the shoe was x-rayed. Shoes such as his wouldn't be allowed in today's NFL however...meaning his share of the record means about as much as a record low ERA from the dead ball era..

[hughee99]

13. He kicked a 63 yard field goal using legal equipment,

that by several studies provided no advantage. Unless 63 yards was shorter in 1970 than it is now, I don't see the comparison to the dead ball era.

http://suite101.com/article/did-tom-dempseys-custom-shoe-assist-with-kicking-distance-a323212

"With so many variables, it became evident that to prove the advantage or disadvantages Dempsey may have had with his shoe, these variables had to be removed as much as possible. A mechanical kicking machine was created to prove or disprove the theory.

With four sensors attached to the end of the machine, Dempsey’s shoe was attached to the machine and a football was kicked. After Dempsey’s shoe was tested against Elam’s, the results showed that Tom Dempsey’s shoe did not give an advantage at all. In fact, it was more of a disadvantage in having a larger area between the ball and shoe, making it easier for error."

However, I know you're a big fan of the asterisk *, so if you want to try to diminish someone's accomplishments because you THINK they had an unfair advantage, no one's going to stop you.

[fishwax]

4. Great kick. I saw all the record kicks aside from Dempsey's

which happened before I was born. Couldn't tell if that was going to bounce over or back.

[era veteran]

7. Akers is a local kid from Tates Creek High School

Dempsey kicked his in heavy air in Tulane's old stadium. He was born with a club right foot, his kicking foot. The shoe was not a problem. Still ranks as the best for me.
That man overcame a handicap for his kick.
All of those are unreal.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. I'm With You

The people who think he had an unfair advantage really strike me as clueless. The guy was physically handicapped and the "special" shoe was something he would have surely have forgone had he had a foot like the rest of us.

Really small of people to belittle his accomplishment.

I also agree with you about having to have kicked that in the heavy air of New Orleans.
GAC