The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers 24-17 in an AFC West division matchup in Mexico City on Monday night. However all the talk from the primetime matchup in Mexico is what happened before the game.
That is when Harrison Butker of Decatur, Georgia lined up for a 71 yard field goal attempt in warmups and nailed it. Ok. It did not happen during the game. But to be able to kick a field goal 71 yards through the uprights at anytime is simply mind boggling. The National Football League record for the longest field goal is 64 yards. That record belongs to Matt Prater of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, who achieved the mark for the Denver Broncos in a 51-28 win over the Tennessee Titans on December 8, 2013.
In the game on Monday night, Butker did successfully kick his only field goal attempt. It was 41 yards and came with 1:43 left in the first half which at the time put the Chiefs up 10-6. Butker also successfully kicked three converts, which in today’s era of the NFL is not as simple as it once was.
Many players on special teams in the NFL do not get the stardom or spotlight like many offensive stars do, especially those who play quarterback, running back and wide receiver. Once in a while, it is neat when a kicker comes up huge and makes headlines, even though the remarkable performance came in practice.
With the win, the Chiefs improved to 7-4 and the Chargers dropped to 4-7. Kansas City was supposed to play in Mexico City last year but their game got moved to Los Angeles because of concerns about the field conditions. The Chiefs ending up losing 54-51 to the Los Angeles Rams, in what many considered as the best game of 2018.
