Andersen with the Saints
September 26, 2004: The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 27-22 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis. For the Vikings, Morten Andersen kicked field goals from 42 and 24 yards, and missed one from 46. He went 3-for-3 on points after touchdowns.
He was 44 years old. That's unusual for an NFL player, but less so for placekickers. It was also the 341st game of his career, breaking the record of 340, set by quarterback and kicker George Blanda from 1949 to 1976. Andersen would raise the record to 382. As of the start of the 2022 season, it still stands. He also holds the record of consecutive games played with a score, 360.
Born in 1960 in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, he visited America as an exchange student in 1977, and tried out as a placekicker for Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, making the team. That school also produced NFL players Asmar Bilal, Tandon Doss, Chris Evans, MarQueis Gray, Corey Harris, Dawand Jones, Esezi Otomewo and Reese Taylor; NBA player and coach Randy Wittman; and Olympic Gold Medal-winning soccer player Lauren Holiday.
Andersen kicked at Michigan State University, and for the New Orleans Saints from 1982 to 1994, the Atlanta Falcons from 1995 to 2000, the New York Giants in 2001, the Kansas City Chiefs in 2002 and 2003, the Vikings in 2004, and the Falcons again in 2006 and 2007. He appeared in Super Bowl XXXIII with the Falcons, played in 7 Pro Bowls, and was elected to MSU's Athletics Hall of Fame, the Saints' Ring of Honor, the NFL's 1980s and 1990s All-Decades Teams. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
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September 26, 2004 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:
* The New York Giants beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-10 at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Arizona Cardinals, 6-3 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins, 13-3 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Tennessee Titans, 15-12 at The Coliseum (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.
* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-9 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Detroit Lions, 30-13 at Ford Field in Detroit.
* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Green Bay Packers, 45-31 at the RCA Dome (formerly the Hoosier Dome) in Indianapolis.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the St. Louis Rams, 28-25 at the Edward Jones Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.
* The Houston Texans beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-21 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-13 at Invesco Field at Mile High (now Empower Field at Mile High) in Denver.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 30-20 at the McAfee Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known).
* The Seattle Seahawks beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 34-0 at Qwest Field (as Lumen Field was then known) in Seattle.
* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat their arch-rivals, the Washington Redskins, 21-18 at at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington
suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* And the New York Jets, the Buffalo Bills, the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots had a bye week.
