Still hitting his mark

He holds the record for the longest successful field goal attempt in the Canadian Football League and is also known for a missed field goal.

It has been an interesting career for Paul McCallum, and it's becoming even more intriguing for the B.C. Lions' punter/kicker.

The 41-year-old McCallum, who is the oldest active player in the CFL and is playing in his 19th season, has nailed 31 of 34 field goal attempts this year, a success rate of 94.1 percent. It is the best of his career. This is the fourth consecutive season he has improved on his previous season's success rate.

"The position I play is more mental than its physical," McCallum told sportsnet.ca. "With age everybody becomes more mentally strong, I guess, when you've been doing it for as long as I have."

Heading into Friday's home game against Saskatchewan at B.C. Place, which will re-open following a year and a half of renovations, McCallum has a streak of 24 successful field goal attempts, matching a streak he had last year at one point. He is only four back of the CFL record held by Saskatchewan Roughrider great Dave Ridgway, who was nicknamed Robokicker.

Interest in McCallum nearing Ridgway's mark has started to percolate, just as it did last year. McCallum has said it would mean something to him if he finished the rest of the year without missing an attempt. That would be scary good, but the way he is kicking this year anything is possible.

McCallum's consistency has played a major role for the Lions, who started out the season 0-5 but are currently on a five-game win streak and with a 6-6 record overall. You can point to the emergence of young quarterback Travis Lulay, the addition of receiver Arland Bruce and the vast improvement of the defence as contributing factors in the Lions' turnaround. But well before the Lions began putting the sum of all of its parts together, McCallum provided steady kicking.

"I just look within that I can do this job regardless of what other people think," he said. "If I had worried what other people thought of my ability I would have been done (long ago). I feel strong. I can still kick 50-plus yard field goals. As long as contributing and competing at a high level, why would I not keep playing? I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so why would I stop? I'm going to take it one year at a time."

McCallum opened the season making four of five attempts, his lone miss a 47-yarder. In retrospect, McCallum feels he should have made it. In the next game, he made two of three attempts, the miss coming on a 57-yarder that was the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. He was kicking into a breeze and the ball came up short and wide.

"I had my doubts, but I was told 'go out and give it a shot,' so I did. I tried as hard as I could but it didn't work out."

McCallum said in perfect conditions he could probably nail a 57-yard attempt. Given that the Lions play four of their final six games indoors at home, anything is possible. In recent pre-game warmups in perfect conditions at Empire Stadium, where the Lions played while B.C. Place was being renovated, McCallum said he was successful on 56-yard attempts.

"Indoors, a perfect day, I'm comfortable with 55," he said.

McCallum's career has been marked by a CFL-record 62-yarder he nailed in a game in 2001 and a missed 18-yard attempt in overtime in the 2004 Western Final. It disappointed Roughrider fans, some of whom uttered death threats to his family and threw eggs at his house and threw manure on a neighbour's driveway, the combination of which became a nationwide story.

That seems like so long ago.

He has been getting his kicks since then in a positive way.

The best may yet to come.

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.