John Kasay (born October 27, 1969 in Athens, Georgia) is a National Football League player. He is currently the placekicker, and longest serving player for the Carolina Panthers. Kasay graduated from the University of Georgia in 1990, and was drafted in the 4th round in 1991 by the Seattle Seahawks. During his tenure, he led the Seahawks in scoring all four years, and left the team with the highest field goal percentage in team history. The Panthers drafted him in the 1995 expansion draft, and as of the beginning of the 2005-06 season he is the only remaining "original Panther" from that 1995 team. To put that into perspective, there are only three kickers who currently play for the same team they played for in 1995: Kasay, Jason Elam (Denver), and Jason Hanson (Detroit). Kasay owns or is tied for virtually every team kicking record, having only missed a handful of games over the years due to injury. In addition, Kasay has a deadlock on the team's all-time scoring lead, and he will not likely be eclipsed any time soon for that record; his nearest challenger still playing for the Panthers is Steve Smith who, at the start of the 2005-06 season, was approximately 750 points behind.
In 1996 Kasay converted a league record 37 field goals, though the record was broken three years later. He was later selected as the NFC kicker in the Pro Bowl.
Super Bowl XXXVIII was bittersweet for Kasay. Although he converted a 50-yard field goal and made both extra points, his final kickoff went out of bounds, incurring an illegal procedure penalty that placed the ball on the 40. This enabled the New England Patriots to drive for the winning field goal.
