The NFL record-breaker who never planned to play the sport

At just 22 years old, Cam Little’s shirt is already on display in the NFL’s Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

The reason? A moment in Las Vegas, in a game against the Raiders, in week nine of the 2025 NFL season.

Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Little was called upon just before half-time to convert a field goal from 68 yards out – two yards further than the NFL record set by Justin Tucker in 2021.

The kick was good. In just his second season as a professional in the league, Little had made history.

“I had no plans on playing football. I was a soccer player through and through,” Little tells BBC Sport.

“I got invited to a football practice by one of my buddies. Most of the time at my high school, the kicker was just a guy who was good at kicking a soccer ball and they would just have him go over there for a practice a week and he would go play the game.

Eventually, Little would play in junior varsity football games as a punter, before jumping up to varsity level.

It’s here where his story as an NFL kicker almost ended before it started… again.

“I get to punt my first punt in the game,” Little explains. “They snap it over my head and I get smacked. And so, two days after that, I’m like: ‘I’m good. I’m done with football.’

“I told my dad I wanted to quit, told my coach, I was like: ‘This isn’t for me. I’m going to keep playing soccer. I don’t really want to play football.’

Little spent the next season studying video of NFL kickers such as Tucker, the previous record holder, before playing for Arkansas in college and then being drafted by the Jaguars in the sixth round in 2024.

“It all happened so fast,” he says. “Good opportunity after good opportunity started hitting me. I put myself in the right positions at the right time, took advantage of them when I needed to, and here we are today.

“Going from someone that didn’t even think he was going to play professional sports, maybe not even college sports, to breaking a record that I never thought was ever going to get broken after Justin Tucker hit the 66. I mean, that’s mental to think about.

In the final week of the regular season, the Jags secured the division title for the third time in 26 years. They beat the Tennessee Titans 41-7 to pip the Houston Texans to the AFC South top spot.

During that game, Little scored the first 67-yard field goal in the NFL. He now has the two longest field goals in league history.

Last season, they won just four games and brought in a new head coach in Liam Coen as well as former player Tony Boselli as executive vice-president of football operations.

Under their guidance, they won 13 games and head into the play-offs on a eight-game winning streak.

“Something that coach Coen’s harped on is just going 1-0 every week,” says Little.

“Everyone’s on the same page as far as captains on the team, guys that are leaders on the team, and front office and head coach and coaching staff.

“When you combine those three levels of front office, coaching staff, and captains on the team and leaders on the team, that forms to success.

The Jaguars will now face the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card round on Sunday at 18:00 GMT.

For Little, it is another special moment in his career.