Franklin may be seen kicking in the 1985 AFC Championship game in the video below. It's not as far as the 59-yarder, but at 23 yards, you can't tell he's kicking barefoot, as he has done in every other game of his career. The Patriots were defeated by the Buffalo Bills, 27-21.
Barefoot kickers weren't required to wear shoes in college football until the 2005 season, so Franklin being able to kick without footwear is not surprising. What is surprising is that no one else in the NFL seemed to have noticed him doing it before now.
Here is how the play went down: With the ball and no timeouts left, New England faced a 4th-and-15 from its own 34-yard line. The team elected to go for it rather than punt the ball away and give Buffalo another chance to score. A field goal would have won the game, but instead, the attempt was blocked by Bill Buckner who was playing center for the Boston Bruins at the time. The Patriots lost that game 7-4 and never returned to the Super Bowl.
In conclusion, the first ever NFL game with a barefoot kicker was played in 1985. That year, there were no extra points scored in the game (the rule wasn't introduced until 1994) so all we know for sure is that one player kicked off perfectly straight lines during pregame warmups.
Franklin, who was drafted in 1979, kicked barefoot at Texas A&M before doing the same in the NFL. On September 2, 1979, he made his first barefoot field goal. He kicked barefoot for ten seasons and owns the record for the longest barefoot field goal: 59 yards. In 1989, he wore shoes for the first time since his rookie season.
In 1991, Franklin joined the New York Giants. There, he played under head coach Bill Parcells, who is known for coaching teams that feature a lot of bare-handed work. Under Parcells, Franklin's role on the team became more limited as he was used mostly as a placekicker. He finished his career with the Giants with 114 points scored through kickers.
In 1992, Franklin signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With him playing there, they made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. That same year, he was selected for the Pro Bowl after scoring 102 points.
In 1994, Franklin returned to the Giants after they acquired him during the offseason. That same year, he set a new league record by making 15 field goals in a single game against the Dallas Cowboys. The record has since been broken several times.
In 1995, Franklin left the Giants after three seasons to join the Denver Broncos. With him there, they made the playoffs for the second time in franchise history.
Barefoot kickers are no longer seen in the National Football League, but there was a time when kicking with their shoes off was so prevalent that it went unnoticed. Tony Franklin, the New England Patriots' kicker, even hit a 59-yard field goal while wearing no shoes.
It started in the 1960s when John Mazurek became the first player to regularly wear shoe inserts. The practice caught on and by the 1980s almost all professional kickers were wearing some type of insert. By the 1990s nearly all wore a molded sockliner under each foot to provide more stability when making contact with the ball. Today's kickers are guaranteed $150,000 or less per season and most play for their own teams rather than for free agents who may change cities every other week. They also don't have to worry about losing their job if they get injured since there are always other players willing to step in without skipping a beat.
The decline of the barefoot kick can be attributed to several factors. First, it is much harder to make accurate kicks with your feet encumbered by footwear. Second, there is a concern that removing one's shoes before entering stadiums could be construed as disrespectful, given that kicking games used to be done with the players' shoes off during pregame rituals. Finally, there is now a safety reason for not being barefoot: Many fields have surfaces that are not smooth enough for players to stand on comfortably while wearing shoes.
The Eagles, Broncos, Rams, and Steelers were all known to kick off their shoes before the game began (except for the Rams-their kicker always wore shoes on kickoffs).
In fact, only three players in NFL history have scored more than 100 points without kicking a field goal: Pete Gogolak, Dave Krieg, and Adam Vinatieri. Gogolak and Krieg did it in the pre-rule era of the NFL, when no field goals were allowed. Vinatieri has done it since the rule was changed in 1978. He's the most successful kickers in NFL history with 353 points scored over his career. The second most is Matt Prater with 320 points scored.
There have been several famous cases of players who had their feet inspected by the team doctor before each game and then went out and kicked field goals or extra points without their shoes on. Most notably, Frank Tripanelli of the Chicago Bears and Mel Hancock of the Philadelphia Eagles did this. Both men had strong legs and knew that they would not be examined by the team doctors before the game started. They also knew that they would be given some time at half time to put their shoes on if they wanted to.
In addition, there have been several cases of players going out into early games without their shoes on.
On November 8, 1970, Saints kicker Tom Dempsey beat the Detroit Lions with a 63-yard field goal. When I watched this virtually amazing kick, I was a 12-year-old youngster sitting in the end zone of the old Tulane stadium. Some of the factors that contributed to this incredible kick include: a soft turf due to heavy rain prior to the game, poor lighting at night, and a wind blowing out to left field. The 63-yarder is currently the longest field goal ever made in NFL history.
Dempsey was a great kicker who played only one season for the Saints. He spent most of his time playing for the Oakland Raiders where he was a three-time All-Pro selection. After his career ended, he returned home to Louisiana where he worked as a color commentator for New Orleans radio stations WWLD and WGNO. He died at the age of 42 after being hit by a car while crossing the street to go to work.
The last player selected in the 1970 NFL Draft was chosen by the Saints in the seventh round. He played only one season for the team before moving on to play nine seasons in the USFL for four different teams. Nicknamed "Downtown", he finished his NFL career with 672 yards and seven touchdowns on 70 attempts. The Saints lost this game 14-10.
This week's winner will be announced on Friday, November 16th.
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