Paul McCallum

Paul McCallum (born January 7, 1970) is a professional Canadian football player currently playing as a placekicker and punter for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He holds CFL records for longest field goal made at 62 yards, most consecutive field goals made at 30 successful attempts, and highest field goal kicking accuracy in a single season at 94.34%. He is currently the oldest active player in the CFL, having played in 19 seasons over the course of his career. McCallum is also the last active player to have played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, with that franchise folding in 1996.

Junior career
McCallum played junior football with the Surrey Rams of the Canadian Junior Football League.

Professional career
Following his junior stint with the Rams, McCallum travelled to Scotland to play professional soccer in the Scottish Third Division (his cousin, Brian O'Neill, is also a professional soccer player).

In 1993 he returned to Canada and signed as a free agent with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. After being released, he had numerous short stints with the Ottawa Rough Riders, BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders through until 1996, when he departed for Scotland again. This time he was hired as the punter/placekicker for the Scottish Claymores of the World League, and was with the team when they won World Bowl '96.

He then returned to Canada to play for the Roughriders again, and in the 1997 season he was their starting placekicker and punter for all 18 games. He played for Saskatchewan from 1997–2004, and additionally was the Las Vegas Outlaws' kicker during the XFL's only season in 2001. In the XFL he wore a jersey reading "CFL Reject".

, McCallum holds the record for the longest field goal kicked in the CFL. He booted a wind-aided 62 yard field goal against the Edmonton Eskimos on October 27, 2001 in a 12-3 victory at Taylor Field.

In the 2004 CFL playoffs McCallum missed a crucial 18 yard field goal in an overtime game against the BC Lions. The Roughriders went on to lose the game, and outraged fans vandalized McCallum's northwest Regina home with eggs, dumped manure on his neighbour's property, and uttered death threats to his family. The incident made national news, and the football club and Regina's mayor Pat Fiacco both denounced the vandalism as an "isolated incident" of "hooliganism". On the comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Shaun Majumder (playing a Roughriders GM) apologized for calling McCallum "a bum who could be outkicked by a goat missing a leg".

On February 23, 2006, he signed a two year contract with the BC Lions after declining to take a 30% paycut from the Roughriders.

He tied the record for most field goals in a Grey Cup when he kicked six in six attempts in the 94th Grey Cup on November 19, 2006. He was awarded the Dick Suderman Trophy as the Grey Cup's most valuable Canadian for his efforts.

In 2010, McCallum set a number of career marks. Continuing from the 14 consecutive field goals he made at the end of the 2009 season, McCallum connected on 10 straight to start the season, finishing just short of Dave Ridgway's CFL record of 28 straight field goals. Throughout the season he was flirting with Lui Passaglia's record for most accurate season (90.9%), and finished with a career best 88.2% completion percentage. He also finished the regular season with a career high 46 successful field goals. Because of his standout season, McCallum was named the Lions' nominee for Most Outstanding Player, the first ever kicker in Lions' history, and Most Outstanding Canadian.

On October 8, 2011 at BC Place in Vancouver, Paul set the record, with 30, for the most all-time consecutive field goals made in the CFL, breaking the previous mark of 28 held by Dave Ridgway.