Jags' Cam Little sends another jersey to Canton but keep his cleats and the record-setting ball

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little is sending a second jersey to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Little opted to keep the ball he used and the cleats he wore while making the longest field goal in NFL history, a 68-yarder at the end of the first half that propelled the Jags to a 30-29 victory at Las Vegas last Sunday.

The Hall of Fame requested at least one of the items to display in Canton, Ohio. But Little declined to part with the record-setting ball or the new cleats he recently worked into shape.

“I just started wearing those cleats last week, so I’m not giving them the cleats,” Little said Wednesday. “And I wanted to keep the ball. I think the ball is special. I think that’s the coolest part about it.”

It will be Little’s second game jersey in Canton; he previously sent the No. 39 he wore while kicking a 70-yarder in a preseason game against Pittsburgh in early August. He kept that ball, too, but still needs to do something with it.

“No joke,” he said. “I haven’t even hung it up or done anything with it. It’s literally sitting in the pantry. So I got to hang those.”

He nearly lost the ball used to set the record against the Raiders.

The 68-yarder was his first kick of the game. He liked the feel of the ball so much that he convinced punter Logan Cooke and long snapper Ross Matiscik to keep it in the game instead of tucking it away in an equipment trunk.

When the Jaguars scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Little kicked the extra point over the net and into the stands at Allegiant Stadium. A fan initially refused to throw it back, so the Jaguars had to get security involved to swap a regular ball for the record-setting one.

“I think they gave him another just random quarterback ball,” Little said. “He probably thought it was some special ball, but it was just random.”

Little has no illusions about how long his record might stand. It almost got matched the next night. The second-year pro from Arkansas was playing video games at home when one of his teammates called to tell him Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey was lining up for a 68-yarder against Arizona.

“I was like, ‘There goes my record,’” Little said. “I had full confidence in the guy. He’s a stud. … I thought I was going to have to tie the record with someone less than 24 hours later.”

But Aubrey missed it wide left, keeping Little’s record intact for at least another week. Baltimore’s Justin Tucker set the previous mark of 66 yards in 2021.

“I try to take it in a little bit because I don’t think I’ve really realized what I did,” Little said. “I think it’s a good thing that I’m trying to move on from it so fast because there are so many big games that we have coming up, and the biggest opportunity is the next opportunity.

“But I think there’s a lot of guys around the league that can kick that ball.”

Not many are doing it as well as Little right now, even though he had missed three of his previous four kicks heading into Las Vegas. Nonetheless, special teams coach Heath Farwell said Little started walking onto the field for the record-breaker before coach Liam Coen even gave him the green light.

And when the ball started toward the uprights, Cooke raised him arms to signify it was good. A second later, Coen, defensive end Josh Hines-Allen, linebacker Devin Lloyd and others started running onto the field to celebrate.

“They love him to death,” Farwell said. "A lot of times, when you have specialists, they can be weird at times. He’s one of the most popular guys on this team. From a specialist perspective, that’s not super normal. We’re fortunate here. We have three good ones.

“Everybody loves Cam. They love his personality. They love his focus. When it comes to his craft, they know he puts more time (in) than anybody.”

And will soon have two jerseys in the Hall of Fame to prove it.

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