Jan Stenerud (born November 26, 1942, in Fetsund, Norway) is a former football player for the Kansas City Chiefs (1967-1979), Green Bay Packers (1980-1983), and Minnesota Vikings (1984-1985) of the National Football League. Stenerud was one of the first professional football players to be used as a dedicated kicker, due to his excellent "sharpshooting" ball kicking performance. He was one of the first placekickers to use the "soccer style," a technique the Hungarian-born Pete Gogolak had recently introduced in the AFL. He attended Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana and in 1964 kicked a 59-yard field goal, then a college football record, against the rival Montana Grizzlies. After the 1969 season, Stenerud won Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. In that game, Stenerud kicked three field goals, the first one from 48 yards, scoring the first 9 points of the game for his team. His 48-yarder would remain the longest field goal in a Super Bowl until January 1994, when the record was broken by the Buffalo Bills kicker Steve Christie in Super Bowl XXVIII.
Stenerud retired in 1986, after 20 NFL seasons. In his career, he converted 373 out of 558 field goals (66 percent) and 580 out of 601 extra points (96 percent). Overall, Stenerud scored a total of 1,699 points.
Enshrined in 1991, Stenerud is currently the only pure placekicker in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Chiefs have retired jersey number 3 in his honor. In 1994, he was selected on NFL's 75th Anniversary Team
In recent years Stenerud has been involved in a Kansas City firm that is involved in designing stadiums and sports arenas. He also worked as a commentator for Scandinavian TV channel TV3's Super Bowl Sunday coverage in the 1990s, and still maintains strong ties with his native Norway. The street where he grew up, in the town of Fetsund, was renamed in his honor.
