Contents
- The Short Answer
- The Play: How the 69-Yard Kick Happened
- Final Score: A Missed PAT, a Missed 43-Yarder, and a One-Point Loss
- Why 69 Yards Won't Show Up in the NFL Record Book
- The Comparison Nobody's Running: Every Long Kick, Ranked by Distance
- Butker's Résumé: The Super Bowl LVIII Record
- Recent Form Check: The Rams Game on August 15
- The Catch: What "Doesn't Count" Actually Means
- FAQ
- What's Still Unclear
Harrison Butker’s field goal traveled 69 yards through the Arrowhead uprights with 3 seconds left in the second quarter of a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It won’t show up in the NFL record book — the league doesn’t count preseason kicks as official — and the Chiefs lost anyway, 16-15.
The Short Answer
Yes, the kick was real, and yes, it went in. Butker’s attempt cleared the crossbar with room to spare, and officials signaled it good. At 69 yards, it would be the longest field goal in NFL history if it had happened in a regular-season or playoff game. It didn’t; preseason stats don’t count toward records, full stop.
That single fact is the whole story for most readers searching this. Everything below fills in the details: the game situation, the score, the record-book math, and where 69 yards actually ranks once you count every kick — preseason included — not just the official ones.
The Play: How the 69-Yard Kick Happened
The kick came at the end of the first half, with the clock reading 0:03. Butker’s unit came onto the field, and he drove the ball through from 69 yards out. Multiple outlets, including Yahoo Sports and NFL.com, described the kick as clearing the bar comfortably rather than barely sneaking over.
Butker wasn’t done after that. He also made a 45-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal elsewhere in the game — 3 makes in one preseason outing, one of them a career long.
The game itself was Week 2 of the 2026 NFL preseason.
Final Score: A Missed PAT, a Missed 43-Yarder, and a One-Point Loss
Most headlines about the 69-yard kick never mention what happened next.
- Final score: Buccaneers 16, Chiefs 15
- Butker’s makes: 45 yards, 58 yards, 69 yards
- Butker’s misses: an extra point after Emmett Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown, and a 43-yard field goal attempt
- Margin of defeat: 1 point
Two of Butker’s misses came after the highlight-reel kick, and both were shorter attempts he’d normally be expected to make. A missed extra point and a missed 43-yarder, in a game decided by a single point, matter more to the Chiefs’ preseason ledger than the 69-yard kick does. None of it affects a playoff seed — it’s preseason. But if you’re tracking Butker’s actual night rather than just the viral clip, the full line is 3 makes, 2 misses, and a loss.
Why 69 Yards Won’t Show Up in the NFL Record Book
The NFL doesn’t count preseason statistics as official records, and field goals are no exception. Butker’s 69-yard kick, real as it was, lands in the same bucket as any other exhibition-game number — notable, not official.
The current official NFL record for longest field goal, in a game that counts, belongs to Cam Little of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He hit a 68-yard field goal on November 2, 2025, against the Las Vegas Raiders, in a game the Jaguars won 30-29 in overtime. That kick broke the previous official record of 66 yards, set by Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens on September 26, 2021.
So the record book, as of this writing, reads 68 yards, not 69. Butker’s kick is longer than the official record by a full yard, and it still won’t replace it.
The Comparison Nobody’s Running: Every Long Kick, Ranked by Distance
The eight articles reviewed for this piece each treated Butker’s kick as a standalone headline. None set it against the other long kicks from recent years, official or not. That comparison is the context a reader actually needs.
| Rank | Distance | Kicker | Game type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69 yards | Harrison Butker (Chiefs) | Preseason, unofficial | August 22, 2026 |
| 2 | 68 yards | Cam Little (Jaguars) | Regular season, official NFL record | November 2, 2025 |
| 3 | 66 yards | Justin Tucker (Ravens) | Regular season, former official record | September 26, 2021 |
One thing stands out once the full list is in front of you: Butker’s 69 yards is also a franchise mark. Outlets covering the game called it the longest field goal in Arrowhead Stadium history and the longest in Chiefs franchise history, regardless of whether it counts league-wide.
So the ranking is Butker at 69 unofficially, then Little’s official 68-yarder, then Tucker’s former official 66-yard record. 3 different distances, 3 different kickers, one asterisk: the longest kick on this list, Butker’s, is the one that doesn’t count.
Butker’s Résumé: The Super Bowl LVIII Record
Butker isn’t new to long-distance record talk. On February 12, 2024, in Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers, he made a 57-yard field goal that stands as the longest field goal in Super Bowl history.
Moody’s record didn’t last long. About 30 minutes earlier in the same game, Jake Moody of the 49ers had kicked a 55-yard field goal — itself a new Super Bowl best at the time — and Butker’s 57-yarder erased it within the same night.
The kick had a second effect. With an additional field goal later in the fourth quarter of that Super Bowl, Butker moved past a three-way tie with Adam Vinatieri and Stephen Gostkowski to become the outright leader in career Super Bowl field goals made. One kick, two records, in a single game.
Recent Form Check: The Rams Game on August 15
If you’re wondering whether the 69-yard kick was a fluke or part of a pattern, the game a week earlier is the relevant data point.
On August 15, 2026, against the Los Angeles Rams, Butker went 3-for-3 on field goals: one from 59 yards, and two from under 40 yards. No misses that night.
Coverage after the Rams game — notably a Yahoo Sports piece on his performance that day — framed it as Butker looking like himself again, and floated that he’d been working back from an injury. The specific injury, what it was and when it happened, isn’t confirmed in the reporting reviewed here. Treat that part as industry chatter, not a confirmed fact, until a team or player statement says otherwise.
2 games, 2 long makes over 59 yards, zero misses in the first and 3 misses total (extra point plus one field goal) in the second. That’s the actual form line, not just the highlight distance.
The Catch: What “Doesn’t Count” Actually Means
“Unofficial” gets flattened in headlines. Here’s what it actually covers:
- The kick happened. Nobody disputes that Butker made a 69-yard field goal.
- Team and stadium history count it: Arrowhead’s record and the Chiefs’ franchise record both reflect the 69-yard kick, per game coverage.
- The NFL’s all-time record book doesn’t count it — that distinction is reserved for regular-season and playoff games.
- The final score carried no playoff stakes either way — preseason games don’t affect seeding, and the Chiefs lost by 1 point regardless.
- Reporting on the exact date is inconsistent. CBS Sports references Saturday, August 22; other coverage timestamps the story August 23, which is likely a time-zone artifact of when each outlet published rather than a real dispute about game day. We’re flagging the discrepancy rather than picking a side.
- One outlet’s headline, from Fox Sports, printed “68-Yard” while its own article body said 69 yards — almost certainly a typo, but a reminder to check the body text, not just headlines, on stats like this.
FAQ
Is Harrison Butker’s 69-yard field goal an NFL record? No. It happened in a preseason game, and the NFL doesn’t count preseason stats as official records. The current official record is 68 yards, set by Cam Little in a regular-season game.
Who holds the actual NFL record for longest field goal? Cam Little of the Jacksonville Jaguars, at 68 yards, kicked November 2, 2025, against the Las Vegas Raiders. He broke Justin Tucker’s 66-yard record from September 26, 2021.
Did the Chiefs win the game where Butker kicked 69 yards? No. The Buccaneers won 16-15. Butker missed a 43-yard field goal and an extra point later in the same game.
What is Harrison Butker’s longest field goal in a game that counts? Based on the sourcing here, his most notable officially-recognized long kick is the 57-yard field goal in Super Bowl LVIII on February 12, 2024, which is a Super Bowl record — Super Bowls are playoff games and do count toward records.
What’s Still Unclear
Four loose threads remain. The exact date of the Bucs game is reported as both August 22 and August 23 depending on the outlet, and the actual local kickoff date isn’t confirmed here. The nature and timing of Butker’s earlier injury, referenced only in passing around the Rams game, isn’t specified anywhere verifiable. A claim floating around that only three kickers in NFL history have ever hit 69 yards or more wasn’t traceable to a confirmed source, so it’s left out here entirely. A separate claim that Cam Little hit a 70-yard field goal in the 2025 preseason also isn’t backed by any source reviewed for this piece, so it’s excluded from the distance comparison above rather than reported as fact. If official confirmation surfaces on any of this, it would change the footnotes, not the core numbers above.
Sources
- Yahoo Sports — “Harrison Butker makes a 69-yard FG on final play of first half,” published August 23, 2026
- NFL.com — “Can’t-Miss Play: 69-yard field goal! Harrison Butker goes long distance vs. Bucs,” August 22–23, 2026
- Yahoo Sports — “Harrison Butker Proved He’s Still Kansas City’s Kicker With Performance vs. Rams Today,” August 15, 2026
- CBS Sports — “Chiefs’ Harrison Butker drills historical 69-yard field goal, but it won’t count in the NFL record book,” August 22–23, 2026
- Yahoo Sports — “Chiefs’ Harrison Butker kicks 69-yard field goal, later misses PAT in KC’s 1-point preseason loss vs. Bucs,” August 23, 2026
- Fox Sports — “Chiefs’ Harrison Butker Nails 68-Yard Field Goal Against Buccaneers” (headline discrepancy noted above), August 22–23, 2026
- ESPN — “Jaguars’ Cam Little sets NFL record with 68-yard field goal,” November 2–3, 2025
- CBS Sports — “Chiefs’ Harrison Butker smashes longest field goal in Super Bowl history, breaks two records with one kick,” February 12, 2024
Image credits
- Goal Post by compujeramey, licensed under BY (via Openverse)
- Beyond the Gridiron: Army Reserve engages fans, cadets, community in Florida Classic by US Army Reserve, licensed under BY (via Openverse)
- Serbia 1 Slovenia 1 by Jeff Attaway, licensed under BY (via Openverse)
- Field goal attempt by JohnSeb, licensed under BY (via Openverse)
- Warren G. Harding High School, Warren, Ohio – ‘Classic Facade’ by Jack W. Pearce, licensed under BY-SA (via Openverse)
- Low clouds over the English Channel by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, licensed under BY (via Openverse)