The first game of the 1998 NFL preseason had two stories the box score wouldn't tell you. Seahawks rookie running back Ahman Green scored his first professional touchdown (the start of a career that would land him as Green Bay's all-time leading rusher). And Cowboys kicker Richie Cunningham doinked twice in a single game: a missed extra point in the third quarter, then a 46-yard field goal in the fourth, either of which would have flipped the one-point margin. There's a third oddity, harder to spot: This game wasn't the official 1998 Hall of Fame game, despite what the Cowboys' site may lead you to believe; it was played on July 31st, a day before that year's HoF game.

(Sourced from newspaper archives - no video known to exist.)

It's tempting to write off preseason stats, and history mostly does - exhibition games aren't what the record books remember. There's a cruel irony, then, in how NFL kickers are treated: for a kicker fighting for his job, a handful of those games can be the whole career.

In this early August matchup, Cole Ford was trying to stave off veteran Greg Davis for the starting job, following a shaky 1997 season in which Ford made 13 of 22 field goals. Rookie free agent Phil Dawson was the Raiders' third kicker behind them. On the opening drive, Oakland drove to around the 10-yard line. Ford's chip shot attempt crashed into the upright as the kicker yelled in frustration. Moments before the kick, the broadcast had noted that Ford couldn't afford many mistakes with Davis pushing him for the job. Afterward, analyst Artie Gigantino framed the moment: "you're always remembered by the kicks you miss."

Ford would make a 45-yard kick at the end of the second quarter, but Greg Davis handled every field goal and extra point after this game. That 45-yarder was the last field goal (or extra point) that Ford would ever attempt in the NFL. Both he and Dawson were subsequently waived by the Raiders. Dawson went on to have a long and storied career (and would shape doink history, too).