Field goal range

Field goal range is the part of the field in American football where there is a good chance that a field goal attempt will be successful.

A field goal is normally 17 yards (7 yards in Canadian football) longer than the distance of the line of scrimmage to the goal line, as it includes the end zone (10 yards) and 7 yards to where the holder places the ball. In Canadian football, the goal posts are on the goal lines, in front of the end zones. Therefore, if the line of scrimmage is at the 30, the field goal would be 47 yards (in American football) or 37 yards (in Canadian football).

The exact field goal range varies for each team, depending on the ability of the team's placekicker. While some weaker placekickers may have trouble kicking field goals longer than 30 yards (making field goals from beyond the 23 difficult), others may consistently make 50-yarders, making it practical to kick from beyond the 33. For most NFL kickers, the 35-yard line is typically the limit of their field goal range. Weather conditions, particularly wind, also have a significant impact on field goal range; kicking with the wind at the kicker's back significantly increases field goal range, while kicking against the wind or with a stiff crosswind will greatly reduce the kicker's effective range, while generally there is no advantage beyond assured targeting of a kick if a game is being played indoors. Altitude also affects kicking range; both the longest punt in NFL history and three of the longest field goals in NFL history took place in Denver, Colorado, which is more than 4,000 feet (1,200 m) higher in elevation than the next-highest NFL city (the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona). From the 1970s through the 1990s, artificial turf improved a kicker's field goal range by having less friction during the kick; one of the reasons Scott Norwood missed the game-winning kick in Super Bowl XXV was that he kicked on artificial turf in Buffalo and struggled with longer field goals on natural grass throughout his career, and Super Bowl XXV was played on a grass surface. (Modern artificial turf, which has similar depth and characteristics to natural grass, does not have an appreciable effect on kicking range.)

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