At this year's NFL meetings in March, resolution proposal G-2 passed with very little publicity, no interest from fans or reporters, and hardly any discussion among the clubs voting on it.
G-2. By Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Las Vegas, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Washington; to permit clubs to prepare kicking footballs ("K-Balls") before game day, similar to the process permitted for game footballs.
But on Tuesday, unprompted by any reporter, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio called out this previously anonymous resolution. Fangio had watched on Sunday as Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin tied for the second-longest field goal in NFL history (and the longest outdoor field goal) when he made a 65-yarder against Philadelphia.
"You know what you guys have missed? Not just you but everybody is, we gave up a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal," Fangio said in a news conference. "These kicking balls that changed this year, have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular. It's almost like they need an asterisk era, like it was the live ball era, or the asterisk for those home runs that [Barry] Bonds or [Sammy] Sosa or [Mark] McGwire were hitting. The way they have changed the ball, the NFL has drastically changed the field goals."
Fangio is correct that a small change in preparing the K-ball has made a big difference for kickers' weekly processes across the NFL, but several special teams coaches told ESPN that they think Fangio's comments are an exaggeration. The data doesn't support his argument that kicking has entered into the equivalent of a steroid era.
Through four weeks of the 2025 NFL season, kickers have made 56 of 76 50-plus-yard field goal attempts (73.7%) which is lower than 2024's percentage and attempts through four games (61 of 81 attempts, 75.3%). The 2022 season set the mark for the highest percentage of 50-plus-yard makes with at least 50 attempts in four weeks -- 41 of 53 for 77.4%.
"There's really nothing to see here," said one special teams coordinator who requested anonymity because he was not authorized by his club to talk. "There may be a little extra distance on the ball. I mean, could you argue that maybe there are a couple, 3, 4 yards extra on every ball? But the odds of making the kick haven't changed one bit, so I don't think it's going to change your game analytics that much."
The way Fangio initiated the conversation might lead one to suspect the NFL had juiced the balls and kickers corked their cleats, but if NFL kicking has entered into a new era in 2025, it's a much more practical one.
In 1999, the NFL placed restrictions on how teams could prepare kicker balls at a time when a narrative had formed that teams were manipulating the K-balls to gain an advantage -- and to add distance on kickoffs to produce touchbacks (which were then at the 20-yard line).
There were tales of teams cooking footballs in ovens, steaming them in saunas, tumbling them in dryers, filling them with helium, whatever they could do to make them softer and fatter, which allows the football to travel farther. So the NFL changed the process to stipulate that football manufacturer Wilson shipped the K-balls straight to the officiating crew's hotel, allowing officials to transport the fresh-out-of-the-box footballs to the stadium on the day of the game. Teams were limited to 60 minutes to prepare their three K-balls, using only water, towels, brushes and tacky sponges. Meanwhile the other game balls, the Q-balls, (quarterback balls), could be worked up all week and used in practice.
"We were in a mad scramble, and for what reason?" asked the special teams coordinator. "Three brand new balls out of a box, and the equipment guys would be scrambling to get these balls done for the officials [to inspect] prior to the game. The guy would be sweating -- it was a workout."
The coordinator's story exemplifies why this process was "prehistoric." During a game after 1999, his specialists told him there was a problem with the K-balls; they were terrible. The coach did some investigating and found out that the opponent's K-balls had essentially never been touched since they came out of the box, because the opponent's equipment staffer injured his back in the process of partially breaking in just one of the three footballs.
So from 1999 to 2024, a kicker's field goal range could differ from the week of practice to game day, because the game footballs were not consistent with what the kickers were using in practice. Because of the rush to prepare the footballs pregame and allow time for the officiating crew to inspect them, the special teams coach said kickers sometimes didn't even see the football until they kicked it off.
And the compressed timeframe didn't allow clubs to spend equal time conditioning each of their three allowed K-balls, so if the first football was kicked into the stands on a field goal or point-after try, or had to be replaced in bad weather, and Balls 2 and 3 weren't as worked up, it created a disadvantage. The coordinator and another special teams coach told ESPN that the condition of the K-ball is so important that losing the first two could even shrink a team's field goal range within a game.
The allowed materials (water, towel, brush, sponge) remain the same, but this season, NFL kickers are no longer seeing their footballs for the first time minutes before the game. Equipment staff can prepare the K-balls whenever they wish without any time constraints (the same process as the Q-balls), and kickers can practice with the balls they will use in the game and better know how the football will feel coming off their foot on game day.
The officiating crew still inspects and signs off on the balls before the game, confirming they are the correct size and PSI and that there's nothing irregular. No scuffs, marks or weird-looking seams. And the special teams coach said that if an official throws out a team's K-ball because it has been worked up too much, the league can fine the team, ensuring coaches are careful not to go too far in preparation. A league spokesman confirmed that teams are subject to discipline for this practice. Each K-ball can be used in up to three consecutive games.
"The big difference is now the prep of the footballs is already done -- to perfection," a second special teams coordinator, who was also not authorized by his team to speak, said in a text.
The K-ball proposal was the brainchild of Baltimore Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown, a veteran kicking coach who had been seeking momentum to change this process for several years. Brown and the Ravens did not respond to ESPN's request for comment by publication.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said the conversation about changing the K-ball process has been going on for as long as he has been in the job (since 2014). Vincent said that as opposed to the more informal conversations of the past, the difference this year was that seven clubs brought forth a formal proposal.
"When you have a collective group of clubs that said, 'We think this could be good,' that makes all the difference in the world," Vincent said.
The first special teams coordinator said that there was a motivating factor that got the support of multiple clubs. The coordinator said there were several instances last year in which the tracker chip came loose inside the football during the the pregame period to condition the ball and the clubs were "SOL," stuck with kicking with the defective balls because they had no time to prepare any other replacements.
When the chip comes loose inside the football, the coordinator says it affects the feel of the ball and the way it moves when kicked, and this got more teams to seriously question the old process.
"Why are we in this mad rush right to prepare these footballs when the quarterback balls get prepared all week?" the coordinator said.
The vote for the proposal was 31-1 in favor, with the Chicago Bears the lone dissenting vote.
Vincent said there was "zero" conversation about the resolution when it came up for a vote, and that there was no concern among membership that the change to K-ball preparation might disrupt the competitive product and make longer field goals too automatic.
"You take this, with the rule adjustments throughout the years for player protection or playing surfaces, and you should have better and higher percentages of kicks," Vincent said. "And the kickers are getting stronger. They're specialized. So should we be surprised to see 50-plus-yard field goals? No."
But the second special teams coordinator said that the consistency in the K-ball process has helped boost field goal performance. "The ball is flying 5 yards further because the balls are broken in well," he wrote to ESPN in a text message.
Vincent said he is happy with where the league's kicking game is right now, and during the quarterly competition committee meeting this week, the group discussed the excitement that special teams plays, including blocked kicks and an increase in kickoff returns, have created this season.
"After four weeks, I've walked out of here at the Art McNally Gameday Central, like, damn, we had three walk-off field goals today!" Vincent said. "And it's not just walk-off. They're not like they are 30 yards, they are kicking that thing from 50-plus, and they're walking off."
Vincent also said that the competition committee discussed the K-ball preparation change for "10 seconds" on their quarterly call. The NFL's slides from the meeting examine a "potential K-ball effect" and tracked field goal percentages and distances and punt yards from 2021 to 2025, to monitor any impact from the K-ball update.
The slides cite a "continued increase in long Field Goal Attempts, though 2025 looks like 2024" and "no evidence that the punt play was impacted by the K-ball rules change."
"The data speaks for itself," Vincent said. "Something that we will just keep monitoring."