The Craziest Moments In Detroit Sports History

“I don’t believe it! The field goal attempt was good from 63 yards away!”

Normally a game-winning field goal in a regular-season game wouldn’t make this kind of list, but Tom Dempsey hit an NFL-record 63-yard field goal to beat the Detroit Lions, and did so with only half of a foot. Just about every element of the story is improbable.

Tom Dempsey was born with no fingers on his right hand and no toes on his right foot. He stood 6’2,” weighed 255 pounds and was undrafted out of Palomar College, where he actually played defensive end before the coach discovered he could kick the ball out the back of the end zone on a kickoff. After college, he was signed by the San Diego Chargers to their practice squad before being picked up by the New Orleans Saints before the 1969 season.

Dempsey was named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie after making 33 of 35 extra point attempts and 22 of his league-leading 41 field goal attempts. (To be fair to Dempsey, while he was still below the league average for field goal percentage at the time, the Saints called on him to attempt 11 field goals of 50 or more yards that season, far and away the most in the league. He made one of them.)

The 1970 Detroit Lions were actually quite a good team that season, boasting three Hall of Famers in tight end Charlie Sanders and cornerbacks Lem Barney and Dick LeBeau as well as star defensive tackle Alex Karras while being coached by one of the great Lions ever, former linebacker Joe Schmidt.

Detroit had started the season 6-2 but was coming off a loss to the NFC Central-leading Minnesota Vikings the week before meeting the Saints at Tulane Stadium.

The Saints, on the other hand, were having an awful season, having started the season 1-5-1. They were quarterbacked by former San Francisco 49ers first-round pick Billy Kilmer, who would throw 17 interceptions and only six touchdowns that season, and finished next to last in the NFL in scoring offense and offensive yards.

The Lions led for most of the game, but the Saints’ defense kept it close, picking off Detroit starting quarterback Bill Munson three times before he was benched for Greg Landry.

A four-yard run by Tom Barrington gave New Orleans the lead in the fourth, but an 18-yard Errol Mann field goal put the Lions ahead 17-16 with 11 seconds left.

Coming into the game, Dempsey had hit only five of fifteen field goals on the season but made three of his first four attempts that Sunday, as well as an extra point. So, when Kilmer completed a pass to Al Dodd at the Lions’ 45-yard line with two seconds left, head coach J.D. Roberts, in his coaching debut after the firing of Tom Fears the week before, opted to send out Dempsey to try to win the game and break a 17-year old record by seven yards.

ESPN Sport Science analysis reportedly determined that Dempsey’s shoe did not give him an advantage, and may, in fact, have made it more difficult given the smaller striking surface.

Roberts reportedly asked his offensive coordinator Don Heinrich if they had a play for that situation, to which Heinrich reportedly replied, “Not really. We could go trips and throw it up for grabs.” Dempsey, who was with the coaches, said he could kick it, and says he heard Heinrich say “tell Stumpy to get ready.”

You seriously can’t make this up.

Joe Scarpati held the ball at the Saints’ own 37-yard line, 63 yards away from the goalposts at the front of the Detroit end zone. The ball was snapped and placed, and Dempsey ran straight on towards the ball and swung his leg. “It was like a cannon going off when you heard it,” said Scarpati, “He really thumped it, really got into it.”

Alex Karras said after the game that he considered the kick such a longshot that he didn’t even rush. After the game, Lions linebacker Wayne Walker said, “Tom Dempsey didn’t kick that field goal, God kicked it.”

The Saints reportedly celebrated the win past 7:00 a.m. the next morning in New Orleans. It was their last victory of the year as they lost their last six games and finished 2-11-1. The Lions finished 10-4 and made the playoffs as a wild card team before losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 5-0.

In 1977, the NFL required that kickers’ shoes “must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe,” in order to prevent any potential advantage gained by having a differently-shaped kicking surface, although an ESPN Sport Science analysis reportedly determined that Dempsey’s shoe did not give him an advantage, and may, in fact, have made it more difficult given the smaller striking surface.

Dempsey himself said at the time that he had no advantage. “Unfair, eh?,” he said, “How ’bout you try kickin’ a 63-yard field goal to win it with two seconds left an’ yer wearin’ a square shoe. Oh, yeah, and no toes either.”

The current NFL record for the longest field goal is held by current Detroit Lions kicker Matt Prater, who made a 64-yard field goal in 2013 with the Denver Broncos.