The Los Angeles Chargers secured an important victory in the race for the play-offs in the US American football league NFL with a 34:27 win over the Denver Broncos – and in doing so, created a historic moment. At the end of the first half, Cameron Dicker scored with a so-called “fair-catch kick”.

He became the first player in the NFL to score with a fair catch kick since 1976. The Chargers had nine fair catch attempts go awry, while the Chargers have had just seven of 27 fair catch attempts go wrong in NFL history. The first fair catch kick was made by legendary Green Bay Packers coach Curly Lambeau in 1921.

“This is my favorite rule,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. ‘We’re trying to get something like this in every game now.’ The Los Angeles Chargers were given the rare opportunity because wide receiver Derius Davis was fouled on a fair catch and the remaining time expired during the play.

Dicker then kicked from 57 yards – a record distance for a fair-catch free kick in the NFL. “That was a pretty cool moment,” said Dicker. It was the 27th recorded fair-catch free kick in the history of the football league during the regular season and postseason – and the seventh successful one.

The last time a team took a fair-catch free kick was in 2019, when Joey Slye of the Carolina Panthers took one. Fair catches are rarely taken because they are usually taken outside field-goal range.