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Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Few positions in sports face more pressure and consequence than an NFL kicker.

Kickers have one task and either do it or don't. The kicker who does often goes unnoticed unless it falls under a game-deciding situation. He gets thanked for a moment, and everyone returns to looking at the gaudy stats by quarterbacks and premium positions. Or he doesn't and happens to play one of the more replaceable positions in sports.

He's not a punter, but on the positional hierarchy list, the two aren't far apart.

Few situations, though, can match that of a historic kick. They're few and far between and can happen at random, with distance the great definer of the feat. Granted, more of these over the years have occurred in Denver thanks to the thinner air at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, but it's still impressive.

These kicks seem to coalesce into a perfect moment of importance and distance, the situation calling for an act of desperation flirting with the record books. It's not a steadfast rule applying to every kick that follows, but it does manage to span generations.

Here are the 10 longest field goals in NFL history—for now.