Sports Americana

On September 21, 1969, a rookie Jets punter did something that sounds almost impossible. And 57 years later, nobody has done it again.

There are plenty of ways to become a piece of NFL history.

Throw 55 touchdown passes.

Rush for 2,000 yards.

Catch the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl.

Or, apparently, stand in your own end zone and absolutely launch a football.

That’s what New York Jets rookie Steve O’Neal did on September 21, 1969.

And somehow, the record still stands.

The Situation Wasn’t Exactly Ideal

O’Neal was playing in only his second professional game when the Jets found themselves backed up against their own goal line at Denver’s Mile High Stadium.

The Jets had the ball at their own 1-yard line.

There wasn’t much room to work with.

According to O’Neal, quarterback Joe Namath had been sacked three times on the series, leaving the rookie punter with essentially one job:

Get the ball out of there.

O’Neal lined up with his heels barely inside the end line.

Then he kicked.

And kicked.

And kicked.

The ball traveled roughly 75 yards through the air before bouncing toward the Denver end zone.

Broncos returner Bill Thompson got his hands on it—but couldn’t corral it.

The ball took another favorable bounce and rolled all the way to the Denver 1-yard line.

98 yards.

An NFL record.

And it was immediately announced inside Mile High Stadium.

Think About How Crazy That Is

O’Neal didn’t kick the ball 98 yards in a perfectly controlled situation.

He did it from his own end zone.

He didn’t have 15 yards of runway.

He didn’t have the luxury of casually setting up a punt.

He was trying to keep the Jets from giving Denver the ball in scoring position.

Instead, he nearly put Denver in its own end zone.

The punt remains the longest in NFL/AFL history at 98 yards. O’Neal’s career statistics show that it was also his longest punt by a staggering 27 yards over his next-best mark.

And there’s an important little quirk to the record.

A 99-yard punt isn’t necessarily possible.

If a punt travels 99 yards from deep in a team’s own territory, it would cross the opposite goal line and result in a touchback rather than being recorded as a 99-yard punt.

So O’Neal’s 98-yard blast is essentially the mathematical sweet spot.

You can go farther—but you can’t officially get credit for it.

The Funny Part?

Steve O’Neal wasn’t exactly a household name.

He was a 13th-round pick out of Texas A&M, selected 338th overall by the Jets in the 1969 draft.

He would spend four seasons with New York before finishing his career with the New Orleans Saints in 1973.

In five professional seasons, O’Neal punted 337 times for 13,725 yards.

He averaged 40.7 yards per punt.

And, of course…

One of them went 98 yards.

That one punt became his calling card forever.

A Record That Refuses to Die

The NFL has changed dramatically since 1969.

Different offenses.

Different punting techniques.

Different equipment.

Different athletes.

Different stadiums.

And yet the number remains:

98 yards.

Steve O’Neal.

September 21, 1969.

Denver.

His second professional game.

Fifty-seven years later, it’s still sitting there in the record book.

And that’s exactly why this belongs in the You Probably Forgot About… file.

Because somewhere in the long history of professional football, a rookie punter stood in his own end zone, swung his leg as hard as he could, and accidentally created one of the strangest records in sports history.

And nobody has been able to erase it.