I am old enough to remember when the Patriots once employed the greatest player in NFL history at his respective position. Yes of course I could be talking about Tom Brady but in this case, I'm referring to Adam Vinatieri who kind of announced his retirement from the NFL this afternoon on the Pat McAfee Show. There have been plenty of great kickers in the NFL but I am pretty certain that nobody will ever have a resume that matches a guy from South Dakota State that went undrafted and once played in NFL Europe before catching on with the Pats. He won four Super Bowls (3 with New England and 1 with Indianapolis that we won't talk about), was a three-time All-Pro and a three-time Pro Bowler.
Much like Brady, Vinatieri's longevity and durability-granted kicker isn't the most physically demanding position in football-are legendary. He didn't play in 2020, but even so he played in 24 seasons in the NFL which is insane. He was 47 years old in 2019 when he last appeared in 12 games for the Colts. He also made kicking a little cooler which is hard to do for such a specialized role that is usually so isolated from teammates except for the long snapper and holder. He was tough (check YouTube for his tackle of Herschel Walker on a kickoff in Adam's rookie season) and he could throw the ball on the rare trick play (like the sweet touchdown pass that he threw to Troy Brown in 2004).
His records are endless: he's the NFL's all-time leading scorer (2673 points), he made the most field goals (599), had the most postseason points (238) and hit the most overtime field goals (12). More than anything though, he was incredibly clutch. His kicks in the blizzard against the Raiders in the 2001 playoffs are some of the greatest plays in any sport that I've ever seen. He had last second game-winning field goals in New England's Super Bowl upset over St. Louis that season followed by two years later, he did basically the same thing in another Super Bowl victory this time against Carolina. Finally, he capped his Patriots career with a field goal and three extra points in their Super Bowl 39 win vs. Philadelphia. All three of those Super Bowls were three-point wins by the Pats which was not a coincidence.
After playing for 10 seasons in New England, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick thought it was time to go with a younger kicker (that sounds loosely familiar) so they drafted Stephen Gostkowski (a fine kicker in his own right who also won 3 Super Bowls with the Pats but no Vinatieri). Adam left in free agency for the Colts where he would play for 14 seasons. In his first season in Indianapolis, they won their lone title under Peyton Manning as they beat the Bears in the Super Bowl (he had 3 field goals and 1 extra point) in the 12-point win. Through it all, Vinatieri never showed any ego and appeared to be the nicest guy in pro sports. He is a lock of the century to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2025-the first year that he's eligible to go in. Not bad for a quiet guy from South Dakota.
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