Cameron Dicker's 57-yard free kick field goal on Thursday night was one of the rarest of football's rarities.
The Chargers' 3-point play, the result of a punt interference called for a fair catch as time expired in the first half of the Chargers' 34-27 win over the Broncos, was the first completed play at the NFL level since 1976.
The play is so rare in the NFL that the YouTube highlight collection of the televised free kick is less than four minutes long and consists of just eight attempts.
It's rare enough for a team to be in a position to attempt a free kick field goal, with only five teams actually attempting a free kick field goal since 2000, all of which have failed.
According to , at least 29 fair-caught free kicks were recorded during the regular season. quirkyresearch.com.
The last player to take a fair catch free kick was Ray Wersching of the San Diego Chargers in 1976.
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh was one of them, taking command when 49ers kicker Phil Dawson missed a 71-yard shot in Harbaugh's first NFL game with San Francisco in 2013. Ta.
“I've been trying to get one of those every game. Cam Dicker stepped up and had success. That was huge and got us back into the swing of things,” Harbaugh said.
The most recent attempt was a 60-yard miss by Joey Sly with the Panthers in 2019.
Until Dicker connected on Thursday, no one had made a 3-pointer since Ray Worthing did it for the San Diego Chargers in 1976.
“It's cool. I didn't know that was a thing,” Dicker said of achieving this rare milestone. “It was fun to go out there. It was fun to be a part of that scenario. If there was a penalty, I thought it would be.”
It's time to update your highlight reel. This time I will update using actual makeup.
