There's balls, and then there's balls. Part II

On November 8, 1970, a guy named Tom Dempsey trotted out onto the field at Tulane Stadium. This was where the New Orleans Saints played their games before the Superdome was built, and Dempsey was their place-kicker. As it happened, he was going to attempt a 63 yard field goal, some 7 yards longer than had ever been accomplished in the NFL at that time. He only had half a foot on his kicking leg and kicked "straight away", as opposed to the soccer style kickers we see today. He made it to beat the Detroit Lions. I watched it on a black and white TV with rabbit ears and, given the Lions, somehow I wasn't surprised.
.
That record stood for 28 years. On October 25, 1998, Jason Elam, of the Denver Broncos, matched it. Since the original, 40 years ago, nobody has kicked a longer one in the NFL.

Back in Dempsey's time, the same football was used for the whole game, on every play. Running plays, pass plays, punts, field goal attempts, kick-offs -- it didn't matter. Same ball. Somewhere along the line, that changed. "Kicking balls" came into existence. This is common knowledge. Don't believe me? The next time you watch an NFL game, pay close attention when a punting or field goal situation arises. The ball that was used on the last play gets tossed out and a "different" ball comes into play. Further, check out the kickers when they're teeing it up for a kick-off. They squeeze the ball. There's a reason for this. They can tell the difference and they're making sure they have a "kicking ball".

Also, let's not forget the advent of soccer style kickers. In the old days, there were a few of them around, like Jan Stenerud and Garo Yupremian, but they were the exception. Nowadays every place kicker does it soccer style. Why? Because they can kick it farther and they're more accurate.

Remember, in Dempsey's day, kick-offs came from the 50 yard line. As the kickers got stronger and constantly boomed them out of the end zone, kick-offs were moved back to the 40. Then the 35. Then the 30, where it is today.

So given much stronger kickers over the years, and even "kicker balls", how is it that nobody has kicked a longer field goal than a guy with half a foot did 40 years ago?

If you can answer that, go to the head of the class, because I have no idea.