Jeff Heath does something no NFL player had done in 37 years

Jeff Heath did something Sunday at San Francisco that hadn’t been done on an NFL field in 37 years.

The Dallas Cowboys’ safety was the emergency fill-in for kicker Dan Bailey, who was unavailable for the final three quarters after suffering a groin injury.

Heath made two of three extra-point attempts in the Cowboys’ 40-10 win over the 49ers to become the first non-kicker or punter to make at least two PATs in a game since Houston Oilers linebacker Ted Thompson in 1980.

“That’s the most fun I’ve had playing football in a really long time,” said Heath, who played soccer growing up and received Division I offers out of high school. “We prepare for something like that, but I never really thought I’d have to do it in a game.”

It’s the first time he has kicked in a game at any level since his senior year of high school in 2008.

“I saw Morten Anderson go in the Hall of Fame in Canton, but I don’t know that he has anything on Jeff Heath,” Jason Witten said of the Saints’ legend. “He made it look easy. The kickoff on the opening second half, it’s really hard to put the ball on the 2-yard line on a kickoff in the National Football League and the guy is a really special athlete. Those are big kicks and guys were having a lot of fun with it too. He was pretty excited.”

Heath was most concerned with kickoffs but it didn’t show. He averaged 61.6 yards.

“On the kickoffs, I didn’t know where the ball was going to go, so my guys did really good going down and covering for me,” he said. “ I didn’t really have time to think about it, which was probably a good thing. I just kind of had to go in and kick it.”

Heath’s first PAT hit the upright but went in to give Dallas a 27-3 lead early in the second half.

“You can’t really write it better than that,” he said. “It was cool. I think we’ll all like it if Dan could do that job from here on out, but I’ll just be ready.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Jeff Heath does something no NFL player had done in 37 years."