‘60 Is the New 50:’ Rule Change Turns NFL Placekickers Into Long-Distance Bombers

When Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker converted a 69-yard field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second week of preseason, the ball cleared the crossbar with room to spare.Because the kick occurred during the Saturday night exhibition game, it will not count on official records. Yet, it served as a loud reminder of how a 2025 rule change regarding how footballs are prepared, handled, and deployed may impact the upcoming season.Mr. Butker made the kick as time expired in the first half of the Chiefs’ 16-15 loss. It would have broken the NFL record of 68 yards set by Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little on Nov. 2, 2025, against the Las Vegas Raiders, which was one yard longer than the 67-yarder Mr. Little converted against the Nashville Titans on Jan. 4, 2026.All three long-distance boots came after the NFL changed the rules over the handling of kicking balls, also known as k-balls, heading into the 2025 season. Previously, the NFL provided teams with three new footballs shortly before the start of every game and equipment managers rushed to “break in” the balls to suit the kicker’s liking.In 2025, the NFL gave every team 60 k-balls at the start of the year, giving each team plenty of time to condition, mold, and break-in their fleet of footballs throughout the weekly practice sessions before designating three specially selected for the game.Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio forecast the impact of the new rule after watching Bucs kicker Chase McLaughlin make field goals of 65 and 68 yards during the Eagles 31-25 victory last September at Tampa.“These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular,” he told reporters. “It’s almost like they need an asterisk here. It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs (Barry) Bonds and (Sammy) Sosa and (Mark) McGwire were hitting. The way they’ve changed the ball, the kicking ball, has drastically changed the field goals.”Back in the DayTo understand the magnitude of the modern shift, one must look back to the erratic history of football conditioning. Before league-wide protocols were established, team equipment rooms operated like chemistry labs.Stories abounded about balls being put in industrial dryers or left all day long in saunas or subjected to heaters and blow dryers. Footballs were flattened by weights or someone standing on them. Balls were inflated and deflated at random.One assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys from 1989 to 2004, Steve Hoffman, recalled taking footballs to a racquetball court and slamming them with baseball bats into a wall before putting them in a clothes dryer with damp towels. “It just got to the point where it was ridiculous,” he told the New York Times in 2023. “The balls were so fat and broken-in.” To eliminate such practices, the NFL created a procedure in 2020 where an equipment manager from each team would go to the officials’ locker room three hours before kickoff to hold a draft of six new footballs shipped in their original packaging. During the pregame draft, the home team’s equipment manager picked first, the visiting team’s manager picked second until each team had three balls. The equipment managers then had one hour to prepare those balls for competition, often using a wet towel or a team-supplied Wilson-branded ball brush.’60 is the new 50’When the NFL revamped its kickoff format two years ago with the aim of reducing high-speed injuries and encouraging more returns, it altered the rules about the preparation of the balls. Instead of the pregame disbursement, teams received 60 balls at the beginning of the season. Though rules are still in place prohibiting how the footballs can be prepared, kickers and equipment staff can manipulate the balls throughout the week.The impact has been dramatic. After kickers made just four of 14 attempts from 60-plus yards in 2024, a record 12 of 22 field goals of 60 or more yards were made in 2025, nearly as many as the 14 made in the previous three seasons combined. In addition to Mr. Little’s conversions from 68 and 67 yards, Brandon Aubrey of the Cowboys made kicks from 65 and 64 yards.Retired kicker Adam Vinaiteri, who was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this month after playing for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, remembers when anything above 50 yards was considered exceptional. “Now 60 is the new 50,” he told ESPN. “Now it seems like every week that there’s guys that are attempting 58s, 59, 60-plus. Not only are they attempting them, they’re making most of them.”Being able to kick the same ball in practice and learning how they respond is an advantage, according to one unidentified coach, who spoke to The Athletic. “The fact you get to kick the ball in practice is a huge difference,” he said. “You’re not supposed to use pressure or stand on the ball or put it in a clothes dryer, but how can they tell what you are doing when you get to have the balls at your own facility?”Impacting StrategyThe increased proficiency of long-range field goals may impact how coaches approach certain situations both offensively and defensively. Play calling may be less aggressive toward the end of a half or even a game to protect a 50- or 60-yard attempt instead of trying to get closer. Conversely, defenses can’t afford to play soft coverage if a kicker can nail a game-winning field goal from 65 yards.“It makes you really question your play calling around the 50-yard line area,” Mr. Aubrey told ESPN. “It’s interesting for kickers that have the leg to get it there, maybe there’s a little bit more value there. But it kind of (contradicts) the incentives of football where the goal is to get it as close to the other person’s half as possible. I like it for kickers. I think it’s a nightmare for play callers.”The Four-Point PlayThe National Basketball Association has its version of a four-point play when someone is fouled while making a three-point shot and then makes the free throw. This year, the United Football League, played in the spring, awarded four points for field goals made from 60-plus yards, a rule some think the NFL should adopt.No field goals of 60 yards were made during the 2025 UFL season, but this year the league made eight of 14 attempts from that range, including a perfect four-of-four during the playoffs.The NFL adopted its new kickoff rules from the XFL. Now, a four-point field goal may be on the horizon. “Heck yeah, man, let’s go,” Jaguars head coach Liam Coen told ESPN. “Up the ante a little bit.”Of course, Mr. Coen has the talents of Mr. Little, who made a 70-yard field goal against the Pittsburgh Steelers during a preseason game last year. But the Jaguars kicker isn’t necessarily ready for football’s version of a four-point play.“There’s been so many rule changes, I just think if we could keep some tradition to the game, I think that’s what makes the NFL really cool because we’ve kept a lot of rules,” Mr. Little shared with ESPN.Mr. Vinatieri supports the idea. “If you’re at 57 yards, do you lose three yards on purpose to get an extra point because you’re down by three, but now you can go for the win?” he asked. “It will definitely change the philosophy of teams and their analytics and what they want to do.”Regardless of what rules changes lie ahead, place kickers are becoming dangerous from longer distances by playing with their own footballs.

‘60 Is the New 50:’ Rule Change Turns NFL Placekickers Into Long-Distance Bombers

‘60 Is the New 50:’ Rule Change Turns NFL Placekickers Into Long-Distance Bombers

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