Before January 5, 1986, there were no doinks: Kickers mis-hit chip shots and shanked attempts off the goal posts, but no single word existed for it. The cruel part is that a doink requires competence - you have to be good enough to get the ball there, accurate enough to hit the upright at all. The absurdity needed a word. Thankfully, Eric Schubert provided the occasion and John Madden provided one.: "He has to kick it a little inside, he just kicks it straight up the thing. Hits the upright. Doink. Bounce right out. Sometimes if those things bounce right, they can hit the upright and bounce in."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the NFL moved the Saints' home opener to their opponent's stadium in East Rutherford. It was a game where the score felt secondary to the tragedy back in Louisiana. John Carney’s missed 29-yarder remains a quiet, somber footnote to a season where the Saints were a team without a home.

Sometimes, talented players get unceremonious endings: Tom Brady's last pass as a Pat was a pick 6; both Aaron Rodger's and Brett Favre's last passes as Packers were interceptions. Former Packer Mason Crosby's final attempt in the NFL was a missed doink - in the closing moments of the 2023 season, Crosby clanged the upright one last time before calling it a career.