What is the longest punt in NFL history?
Punters are generally underrated by football fans, media, and sometimes even by other football players and coaches.
The value of a good punter cannot be understated, though. Football is often a game of field position, and punters play a big role in that. When a punter consistently puts an opponent's offense in disadvantageous field position, it makes things easier for their team's defense, and ultimately sets their team's offense up for better scoring opportunities.
And on the flip side, a bad punter can regularly put his team's backs up against the wall, making it easier for the defense to get scored on, and harder for the offense to keep pace.
Punters are important, there is only one punter in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Ray Guy of the 1970s and 1980s Oakland Raiders.
In the 2020 NFL Draft, only two punters were picked, in the sixth and seventh rounds. In the 2019 NFL Draft, only two punters were picked.
Ray Guy is widely considered the greatest punter in NFL history.
Shane Lechler, a six-time All-Pro who played for the Raiders and Houston Texans from 2000 to 2017, has the highest career yards-per-punt average in NFL history at 47.6 yards per punt.
Jeff Feagles, a two-time Pro Bowler who played for five teams between 1988 and 2009, accumulated more punting yards than anyone in NFL history with 71,211 total yards.
But the longest single punt in NFL history belongs to a punter who played just five years in the league and never earned Pro Bowl or All-Pro accolades.
Punting for the New York Jets as a rookie in 1969, Steve O'Neal booted a 98-yard punt that still stands as the longest in NFL history.
It was Sept. 21, 1969, a Week 2 contest between the Jets and Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium. (The notoriously thin air at the mile-high altitude may have played a role in O'Neal's historic punt traveling so far. It may not be a coincidence that the longest field goal in NFL history also happened in Denver.)
The Jets were backed up against their own end zone when they lined up to punt. O'Neal caught the snap with his back foot just inches away from the back of the end zone. His punt sailed from the end zone all the way to about the Broncos' 35-yard line, where it bounced just outside the reach of Denver return man Bill Thompson. The ball rolled all the way inside the 1-yard line before Thompson picked it up and tried to run, but he got tackled at about the 2-yard line.
O'Neal punted five times that day for an average of 57.4 yards per punt. Even though eventual Hall of Fame running back Floyd Little returned one of those punts 52 yards, O'Neal overall did his job helping the Jets in the field-position battle.
New York ultimately lost to the Broncos, however, 21-19.
O'Neal didn't play pro football for long. His final season was with the New Orleans Saints in 1973, and he was out of the league well before he turned 30. After his playing days, O'Neal became a dentist.