NFC All-Stars @ AFC All-Stars

The Last Doink of the Goal-Line Era

With the NFC leading 10–9 in the third quarter, Falcons kicker Nick Mike-Mayer attempted a 45-yard field goal. The kick struck the upright and crossbar before bouncing back into the field of play. No good. It would be the last ever missed field goal or extra point with the goalposts on the goal line.

NFC head coach Tom Landry: “That ball that hit the upright and crossbar sure made a big difference didn’t it?”

As if the uprights wanted a final word outside the box score, Mike-Mayer made his next field goal attempt cleanly to put the NFC back ahead 13–12, then nailed the crossbar on the following kickoff for a touchback. On the ensuing drive, the AFC advanced to the NFC 36-yard line. With 25 seconds left in the game, kicker Garo Yepremian cleanly made the game-winning kick, cementing Mike-Mayer's kick as the last doink of the era.

John Madden, who had coached opposite Landry in the 1974 Pro Bowl, would go on to famously coin the term doink 12 years later while calling the 1985 NFC Divisional playoffs.

Starting with the 1974 season, goalposts moved to the back of the end zone, making field goals harder and doinks slightly less likely. This Pro Bowl is the last game outside Off the Upright's explicit tracking scope. No video of this kick has been located; it is documented via the official NFL game book and contemporary newspaper accounts.

Is this the oldest doink in the NFL?

Definitely not. Goalposts have been part of football since the 1920s, and kickers have been hitting them for just as long. The NFL has never tracked doinks as a stat category, so there's no official record of which kick first struck iron. What makes this doink significant isn't that it was the first, but that it was the last of its kind. Every doink before this one happened with the goalposts on the goal line. Every doink after happened with them 10 yards further back. This is the dividing line.