Ola Fredrik Andreas Kimrin (born February 29, 1972) is a Swedish former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

placekicker who most recently played for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Background and college

Kimrin kicked for the Limhamn Griffins club team from 1995–1996. He played soccer for the Vintrie IK club team in Sweden from ages 5–20. Kimrin received a scholarship at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

in 1996 and played three seasons for the Miners. He played 23 career games, primarily serving as

kickoff Kickoff or kick-off may refer to * Kick-off (association football) * Kickoff (gridiron football) * ''Kick Off'' (series), a series of computer association football games * ''Kick Off'' (album), a 1985 album by Onyanko Club * ''Kick Off'' (mag ...

specialist, and was five-of-eight on field goal attempts in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. In 1999, he played on the Swedish national team that won bronze at the

1999 IFAF World Championship The 1999 IFAF World Championship was the inaugural IFAF World Championship, an international American football championship run by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). It was played in Palermo, Italy from 24 June to 4 July 199 ...

in Italy, the first ever

IFAF World Championship The IFAF World Championship of American Football (also known as the IFAF World Cup) is an international gridiron competition held every four years and contested by teams representing member nations. The competition is run by the International Fe ...

Professional career

Kimrin played for NFL Europe in 2001 and 2002. In the 2002 season, he led NFL Europe kickers in scoring (57 points) for the Frankfurt Galaxy, converting 12-of-24 field goals (long of 52) and 20-of-22 extra point attempts. He then signed a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

contract with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

and kicked a 65-yard field goal in the final preseason game against Seattle. Had that kick taken place during the regular season, it would have eclipsed the NFL record of 63 yards, at that time shared by

Tom Dempsey Thomas John Dempsey (January 12, 1947April 4, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Oilers and ...

and

Jason Elam Jason Elam (born March 8, 1970) is a former American football placekicker. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 1993 NFL Draft and played 15 seasons with the Broncos and two with the Atlanta Falcons. A three-time Pro Bo ...

. The record also would have survived the later kicks by

Sebastian Janikowski Sebastian Paweł Janikowski (; born March 2, 1978) is a Polish former American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. He played college football at Florida State ...

(63 yards),

David Akers David Roy Akers (; born December 9, 1974) is an American former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He began his career in 1998 with the Washington Redski ...

(63 yards),

Graham Gano Graham Clark Gano (born April 9, 1987) is an American football placekicker for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida State and was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free age ...

(63 yards), and

Matt Prater Matthew Phillip Prater (born August 10, 1984) is an American football placekicker for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Regarded as one of the best long distance kickers in NFL history, he held the NFL record for lon ...

(64 yards on 8 December 2013) to be broken by

Justin Tucker Justin Paul Tucker (born November 21, 1989) is an American football placekicker for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas and was signed by the Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2012 ...

(66 yards, for the record on 26 September 2021). However, being it was a field goal kicked in a pre-season game, Kimrin's 65-yarder did not count as an NFL record. Despite the 65-yard pre-season field goal, Kimrin was released at the conclusion of camp in favor of veteran

. He then competed for a job with the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

in 2003 during training camp but lost out to one-year veteran

Billy Cundiff William Ambrose Cundiff (born March 30, 1980) is a former American football placekicker. He played college football for Drake University, and was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2002. College career Cundiff played for ...

near the end of the preseason. In 2004, he signed as a free agent with the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

prior to training camp and was 4-of-4 on field goals during preseason, but lost the job to veteran

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

. Kimrin was then re-signed by Washington after Hall suffered a

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

injury and played in five

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

games, converting 6-of-10 field goals and all six extra point attempts. He was then released in November. Prior to the NFL season, Kimrin spent the 2004 NFL Europe campaign with the Cologne Centurions, converting 4-of-4 field goal attempts and all 21 extra point attempts, good for 33 points on the season. He was with the Redskins again for some of the 2005 season, then with the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

. Kimrin later signed with the Miami Dolphins, but was released on August 29, 2006 and retired afterward.

Post-NFL career

He is now retired and he spends time with his family but has participated as a coach for the Swedish national team and also played some exhibition games in Europe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimrin, Ola 1972 births Living people American football placekickers Cologne Centurions (NFL Europe) players Dallas Cowboys players Denver Broncos players Frankfurt Galaxy players Miami Dolphins players Sportspeople from Malmö Swedish players of American football Tennessee Titans players UTEP Miners football players Washington Redskins players