Where does Paul McCallum’s season fit in the kicking annals?

It's no secret that 41-year-old B.C. Lions' kicker Paul McCallum had an incredible year. The CFL's oldest player set the CFL's record for field-goal percentage in a single season with a 94.3 per cent mark, hitting an incredible 50 of his 53 attempts. Those weren't all easy ones, either; one of his misses came on a last-ditch 57-yarder against Calgary early in the year, and he more than compensated for that with a 53-yard game-winning kick against the same team down the stretch. He broke Dave Ridgway's record with 30 consecutive field goals and was a key reason for the Lions' turnaround from worst to first. How impressive McCallum's year was becomes even more evident when you compare it against history, though; there's a strong case to be made that he had the greatest season of any CFL kicker and perhaps the best season of any kicker ever.

First, the CFL front. McCallum (seen above kicking a field goal Aug. 5 against Saskatchewan) not only put up the most impressive field-goal percentage of any CFL kicker ever, but he beat the old mark by quite a wide margin. The previous record was 90.9 per cent, set by another Canadian legend kicking for B.C., Lui Passaglia, and it was set in 2000. Passaglia was 46 that season, though, and although his mark was incredibly impressive, it's worth noting that it came with some qualifiers. As Mike Beamish of The Vancouver Sun writes, the distances Passaglia attempted were significantly limited that season by the coaching staff; that wasn't the case this year, as B.C. head coach and general manager Wally Buono had McCallum try several long ones, and he hit most of them. That earned him plenty of praise from Buono, including some lobbying for his selection as the league's outstanding Canadian:

There's a very solid argument to be made that McCallum had the greatest regular season a CFL kicker has ever posted. Other contenders would be Passaglia's 2000 campaign, Dave Ridgway's 1993 campaign (where he hit 90.6 per cent of his field goals and 28 in a row, the record McCallum broke this season) and Damon Duval's 2009 season (the fourth-best single season accuracy of all time, 87.3 per cent), but McCallum's outshines all of those; he not only was accurate, but he hit from long distance and he hit in bulk, leading the league with 203 points. He also did a solid job of punting, averaging 42.1 yards per punt (fifth-best in the league), rarely making mistakes and frequently getting punts off decently despite poor blocking, and he was quite good on kickoffs as well. It would be very difficult to find a CFL kicking season to top McCallum's year.

There are some comparable football seasons that come to mind, though. Four NFL kickers have posted perfect regular seasons on field goals with over 15 attempts: Mike "Idiot Kicker" Vanderjagt in 2003 with the Indianapolis Colts (37/37) (he started in the CFL and would later return to the Toronto Argonauts), Gary Anderson in 1998 with the Minnesota Vikings (35/35), Jeff Wilkins in 2000 with the St. Louis Rams (17/17) and Tony Zendejas in 1991 with the Los Angeles Rams (17/17). There's something to be said for not missing a single field goal in a season.

However, you can make an argument that McCallum's season is better than any of those. He had way more attempts and makes (53 and 50) and he handled punting as well. He also had to worry about missed field goals being returned for touchdowns, something that isn't an issue in the NFL.

You can come to your own conclusions as to how McCallum's season stacks up against those NFL ones. Regardless, it's probably the greatest CFL kicking season ever. It's also definitely in the conversation of the best kicking seasons of all time, and it may just be the top one ever recorded. For a 41-year old who looked to be on his way out of B.C. last offseason, that's pretty incredibly impressive.