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CANTON, Ohio – Adam Vinatieri has a lot to be proud of as he looks back on an award-winning, Super Bowl-laden NFL career that spanned nearly a quarter century.
Three first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections. The league’s all-time leader in career points (2,673), field goals made (599) and attempted (715), consecutive field goals made (44) and 100-plus-point seasons (21). Four Super Bowl victories. Twenty-nine game-winning kicks – including clinching his first two Super Bowl victories. The claim – one might argue – to Hall of Fame-caliber careers earned in his 10-year stint in New England and the 14 seasons he spent with the Colts.
Vinatieri’s most prized achievement, though, is what made it all possible.
“I think, maybe even more than any individual moment, the longevity part is the thing I’m most proud of, because it’s so difficult to keep yourself at a high level for such a long time,” said Vinatieri, who will become the 387th member inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday after he was selected as part of this year’s five-player class in his second eligible season. “If you play football, it’s not a matter of if, but when and how often you’re going to have an injury or go through stuff. We don’t make a lot of tackles or this or that, but we’ve have numerous surgeries like everybody else over the years from wear and tear.
“And that longevity part is the one thing I’m most proud of. It’s one thing to get into the NFL, but it’s another thing to perform well enough to stay there for a long time. At our position, you better be 80% (accuracy) every single year, or they’re going to look to replace you. You can’t even have a bad year – or even one bad game – or they’re thinking, ‘Man, should we do something else?’”
Vinatieri learned that a decade into his career, after a rocky start in the NFL as an undrafted free agent who hailed from Division II South Dakota State and NFL Europe. Initially added to Bill Parcells’ Patriots training camp roster in 1996 to push incumbent Matt Bahr, Vinatieri won the job and, as a rookie, missed four of his first seven field goal attempts and an extra-point during a 1-2 start in New England. Following two more misses – an early extra-point with a 44-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter – in just his fourth NFL game, Vinatieri, in all likelihood, found himself on the edge of being cut. An early 15-point lead evaporated – no thanks to Vinatieri’s mishaps – and the Jaguars would push the game into overtime.
The Patriots’ kicker trotted out and would sneak a 40-yarder just inside the uprights. His job – and perhaps his Hall of Fame career – saved.
“When you look up ‘clutch’ in the dictionary, it should have your picture,” Tom Brady, Vinatieri’s quarterback in New England for the team’s three Super Bowl victories in 2001, 2003 and 2004, wrote on Instagram wishing his longtime kicker a happy retirement. “Honored to have played with the (greatest of all-time).”
Vinatieri would transform into one of the most consistent and reliable legs in the league – highlighted by his Super Bowl-winning kick Feb. 3, 2002, to propel the Patriots over the Greatest Show on Turf Rams, 20-17, as the clock struck zero. Those moments – followed next by his Super Bowl-winner two years later to give New England a three-point lead, 32-29, with four seconds left to cap a chaotic fourth quarter – are what Vinatieri lived for, he said.
“I wanted the game to come down to (me). I trusted that I knew I was going to work hard, and I hoped the game would be dictated on my play,” Vinatieri said. “I heard Kobe Bryant once talk about ‘I trust me because I know the effort I’ve put in to get to this point.’ And in my mind, I just always wanted to be around the ball or be one of the reasons we were successful, or why we lost because I didn’t play well enough.
“(Legendary Colts offensive lineman Jeff Saturday) once said in training camp, ‘Man, I wish I was a kicker … except for on Sundays,' because he didn’t want that. But you have to embrace that at this position. You have to say, ‘I know there’s going to be numerous games that come down to my foot, win or lose, and I made most of them. I didn’t make all of them, but that’s one of those things you couldn’t shy away from.”
And yet, after three Super Bowl wins – two off his trusty foot – to go with two first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl seasons and two regular seasons leading the league in field goal percentage in the span of four years, the Patriots were lukewarm on extending Vinatieri’s stay in New England. After a decade in the league, he was embarking on his first time in free agency, and the Patriots offer was underwhelming at best.
And then Hall of Fame Colts general manager Bill Polian – who will hand Vinatieri his gold jacket on Friday – rang.
“I knew I was still young enough to play a long time, and I thought I’d done enough that (the Patriots) would want to keep me around for a long time, but the contract wasn’t really there,” the kicker said. “And the Colts did everything right.
“Polian said, ’We want you here. We’ll do whatever it takes to get you here.’ And that was a huge honor. I knew they were a great team, and when he called, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave a great organization just to go anywhere. It had to be the right place, and it was. I have absolutely no regrets on the wonderful 14 years I played there, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. It was truly magical getting there and winning the Super Bowl in my first year there and helping be a small part of getting them over the hurdle and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. That was amazing.”
Vinatieri would return to another Super Bowl – his fifth appearance with the Colts in 2010, and though he would never again reach the mountain top, his Hall of Fame career would continue at an incredible clip for another decade after that final Super Bowl appearance, including three campaigns with field goal percentages at .900 or above and eight of his final 10 seasons with success rates of at least 85%. In 2014 at age 42 and 43, Vinatieri would lead all NFL kickers in field goal percentage with his best career mark (.968%) with a 30-for-31 campaign on field goals and his fifth-consecutive season of a perfect mark on extra points.
Somewhere along the way, Vinatieri zeroed in on something that early in his career he never thought possible. The soon-to-be third kicker in Pro Football Hall of Fame history said Thursday he remembers an otherwise innocuous game early in his career where he shared the field with fellow Hall of Famer Morten Andersen, who held the league’s all-time scoring record for years that appeared it may never be touched until Vinatieri came along.
Vinatieri said he never set out with a goal to challenge the record but as his career approached two decades, his proximity lit a fire that helped propel him to the twilight of his career.
“I never really thought about (the Hall of Fame) too much when I was playing. I always kinda had blinders on,” he said. “But maybe after a couple of the game-winning Super Bowls, you start to hear people talk about, ‘Hey, you’ve done some great things,’ or you hear a guy like (legendary ESPN voice Chris Berman) say, ‘Man, you’re gonna get in.’ I guess in the back of your mind, you hope that’s maybe a possibility. But each year, I felt like I needed to put a new chapter in my book.
“But once we finally got to the end of my career, I thought, ‘Hey, Mort’s record is out there a few years away, if I can stay healthy…’ You’re always wanting more championships, but at that point, it was like, ‘Maybe I can catch him.’ I think that was the one time (I thought about the Hall of Fame). And then once I kicked that chip-shot field goal in Oakland and surpassed his all-time scoring record, at that point, I thought there was a real good chance. But never did I take it for granted or thought it was a sure thing.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: From undrafted longshot to Hall of Fame legend: Adam Vinatieri’s story of longevity and clutch
Continue reading...
Three first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections. The league’s all-time leader in career points (2,673), field goals made (599) and attempted (715), consecutive field goals made (44) and 100-plus-point seasons (21). Four Super Bowl victories. Twenty-nine game-winning kicks – including clinching his first two Super Bowl victories. The claim – one might argue – to Hall of Fame-caliber careers earned in his 10-year stint in New England and the 14 seasons he spent with the Colts.
Vinatieri’s most prized achievement, though, is what made it all possible.
“I think, maybe even more than any individual moment, the longevity part is the thing I’m most proud of, because it’s so difficult to keep yourself at a high level for such a long time,” said Vinatieri, who will become the 387th member inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday after he was selected as part of this year’s five-player class in his second eligible season. “If you play football, it’s not a matter of if, but when and how often you’re going to have an injury or go through stuff. We don’t make a lot of tackles or this or that, but we’ve have numerous surgeries like everybody else over the years from wear and tear.
“And that longevity part is the one thing I’m most proud of. It’s one thing to get into the NFL, but it’s another thing to perform well enough to stay there for a long time. At our position, you better be 80% (accuracy) every single year, or they’re going to look to replace you. You can’t even have a bad year – or even one bad game – or they’re thinking, ‘Man, should we do something else?’”
Vinatieri learned that a decade into his career, after a rocky start in the NFL as an undrafted free agent who hailed from Division II South Dakota State and NFL Europe. Initially added to Bill Parcells’ Patriots training camp roster in 1996 to push incumbent Matt Bahr, Vinatieri won the job and, as a rookie, missed four of his first seven field goal attempts and an extra-point during a 1-2 start in New England. Following two more misses – an early extra-point with a 44-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter – in just his fourth NFL game, Vinatieri, in all likelihood, found himself on the edge of being cut. An early 15-point lead evaporated – no thanks to Vinatieri’s mishaps – and the Jaguars would push the game into overtime.
The Patriots’ kicker trotted out and would sneak a 40-yarder just inside the uprights. His job – and perhaps his Hall of Fame career – saved.
“When you look up ‘clutch’ in the dictionary, it should have your picture,” Tom Brady, Vinatieri’s quarterback in New England for the team’s three Super Bowl victories in 2001, 2003 and 2004, wrote on Instagram wishing his longtime kicker a happy retirement. “Honored to have played with the (greatest of all-time).”
Vinatieri would transform into one of the most consistent and reliable legs in the league – highlighted by his Super Bowl-winning kick Feb. 3, 2002, to propel the Patriots over the Greatest Show on Turf Rams, 20-17, as the clock struck zero. Those moments – followed next by his Super Bowl-winner two years later to give New England a three-point lead, 32-29, with four seconds left to cap a chaotic fourth quarter – are what Vinatieri lived for, he said.
“I wanted the game to come down to (me). I trusted that I knew I was going to work hard, and I hoped the game would be dictated on my play,” Vinatieri said. “I heard Kobe Bryant once talk about ‘I trust me because I know the effort I’ve put in to get to this point.’ And in my mind, I just always wanted to be around the ball or be one of the reasons we were successful, or why we lost because I didn’t play well enough.
“(Legendary Colts offensive lineman Jeff Saturday) once said in training camp, ‘Man, I wish I was a kicker … except for on Sundays,' because he didn’t want that. But you have to embrace that at this position. You have to say, ‘I know there’s going to be numerous games that come down to my foot, win or lose, and I made most of them. I didn’t make all of them, but that’s one of those things you couldn’t shy away from.”
And yet, after three Super Bowl wins – two off his trusty foot – to go with two first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl seasons and two regular seasons leading the league in field goal percentage in the span of four years, the Patriots were lukewarm on extending Vinatieri’s stay in New England. After a decade in the league, he was embarking on his first time in free agency, and the Patriots offer was underwhelming at best.
And then Hall of Fame Colts general manager Bill Polian – who will hand Vinatieri his gold jacket on Friday – rang.
“I knew I was still young enough to play a long time, and I thought I’d done enough that (the Patriots) would want to keep me around for a long time, but the contract wasn’t really there,” the kicker said. “And the Colts did everything right.
“Polian said, ’We want you here. We’ll do whatever it takes to get you here.’ And that was a huge honor. I knew they were a great team, and when he called, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave a great organization just to go anywhere. It had to be the right place, and it was. I have absolutely no regrets on the wonderful 14 years I played there, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. It was truly magical getting there and winning the Super Bowl in my first year there and helping be a small part of getting them over the hurdle and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. That was amazing.”
Vinatieri would return to another Super Bowl – his fifth appearance with the Colts in 2010, and though he would never again reach the mountain top, his Hall of Fame career would continue at an incredible clip for another decade after that final Super Bowl appearance, including three campaigns with field goal percentages at .900 or above and eight of his final 10 seasons with success rates of at least 85%. In 2014 at age 42 and 43, Vinatieri would lead all NFL kickers in field goal percentage with his best career mark (.968%) with a 30-for-31 campaign on field goals and his fifth-consecutive season of a perfect mark on extra points.
Somewhere along the way, Vinatieri zeroed in on something that early in his career he never thought possible. The soon-to-be third kicker in Pro Football Hall of Fame history said Thursday he remembers an otherwise innocuous game early in his career where he shared the field with fellow Hall of Famer Morten Andersen, who held the league’s all-time scoring record for years that appeared it may never be touched until Vinatieri came along.
Vinatieri said he never set out with a goal to challenge the record but as his career approached two decades, his proximity lit a fire that helped propel him to the twilight of his career.
“I never really thought about (the Hall of Fame) too much when I was playing. I always kinda had blinders on,” he said. “But maybe after a couple of the game-winning Super Bowls, you start to hear people talk about, ‘Hey, you’ve done some great things,’ or you hear a guy like (legendary ESPN voice Chris Berman) say, ‘Man, you’re gonna get in.’ I guess in the back of your mind, you hope that’s maybe a possibility. But each year, I felt like I needed to put a new chapter in my book.
“But once we finally got to the end of my career, I thought, ‘Hey, Mort’s record is out there a few years away, if I can stay healthy…’ You’re always wanting more championships, but at that point, it was like, ‘Maybe I can catch him.’ I think that was the one time (I thought about the Hall of Fame). And then once I kicked that chip-shot field goal in Oakland and surpassed his all-time scoring record, at that point, I thought there was a real good chance. But never did I take it for granted or thought it was a sure thing.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: From undrafted longshot to Hall of Fame legend: Adam Vinatieri’s story of longevity and clutch
Continue reading...
