Steve O’Neal’s 98-Yard Punt—and the Bounce That Made History

The longest punt in NFL history is Steve O’Neal’s 98-yard kick for the New York Jets against the Denver Broncos on September 21, 1969. The rookie punted from deep in his own end zone at Mile High Stadium, and the ball finished at Denver’s 1-yard line. As of October 14, 2026, the NFL identifies it as the record, as does Guinness World Records.

The 98 yards were not all through the air. A long flight, a touch by the returner and a rolling ball combined to turn a desperate situation into an almost field-length reversal.

How O’Neal’s record punt happened

According to the Jets’ retrospective, New York’s line of scrimmage was its own 1-yard line. O’Neal stood with his heels barely inside the end line, leaving little room to receive the snap and kick. There was another feature unfamiliar to modern viewers: the goalposts stood on the goal line, just to his right.

“I just hit it well,” O’Neal recalled in that interview. He estimated that the ball traveled about 75 yards in the air. “It went over the returner’s head and when it hit the ground it just took off like a groundball.”

The Jets’ account places the ball’s arrival at Denver’s 33-yard line, where it glanced off the outstretched hands of rookie returner Bill Thompson. It then bounced and rolled toward the goal line, stopping at the 1, where it was downed. The stadium announced the record immediately.

That was only the second game of O’Neal’s professional career. His remarkable punt did not deliver a victory: Denver won 21–19.

Why the record is 98 yards—not the distance from his foot

An official punt statistic is not a measurement of hang time, airborne distance or the full journey from the punter’s foot.

The NFL’s Guide for Statisticians measures punts from the line of scrimmage, rather than from the spot where the punter kicks. The endpoint depends on what happens next: where the kick’s impetus ends, where it goes out of bounds or where it is downed. Bounces and rolls can therefore count toward the recorded distance.

For O’Neal, the statistical journey began at the Jets’ 1 and ended at the Broncos’ 1: 98 yards. His position deep in the end zone explains why the ball actually traveled farther than the credited distance. His recollection of roughly 75 airborne yards explains why the record should not be described as a 98-yard flight.

A punt also belongs to a different record category from a scoring kick. For that distinction, see longest kick in NFL history: field goal or punt?.

An AFL play in the NFL record book

There is an important league detail: the Jets and Broncos were still American Football League teams in September 1969.

The merger agreement had been announced in 1966, but the leagues maintained separate schedules through 1969. Play as one NFL with two conferences began in 1970, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s chronology. The NFL confirms that AFL records were incorporated when the merger was completed. O’Neal’s punt is thus an AFL achievement recognized in the NFL’s historical records—not a post-merger play.

O’Neal went on to play for the Jets through 1972 and the Saints in 1973, then became a dentist in Bryan, Texas. In the Jets’ retrospective, he said some patients noticed the football memorabilia in his office without realizing their dentist held the record. Across 337 career punts, that second-game kick remained the one people remembered.