New England Patriots Legends: Kicker Adam Vinatieri

Continuing with our ‘Legends’ series, we take a look at a former New England Patriots kicker that’s actually still active in the NFL.

The oldest player in the NFL is Adam Vinatieri, and he’s still kicking the hell out of the ball for the Colts. Before he became a legend in Indy though, he blazed his path with the New England Patriots.

A product of Yankton, South Dakota, Adam Vinatieri is the greatest kicker to ever play in the National Football League. He actually went undrafted in 1996 out of South Dakota State and played a season for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe. Thankfully for Patriots fans, he was signed in 1996 as an undrafted free agent. Vinatieri won the starting job and was playing in the Super Bowl in his rookie season. Unfortunately, New England didn’t win that game against the Packers, but it was the start of a long, tremendous career for the kicker.

From 1996 to 2005, Adam Vinatieri was a lock on the Patriots roster, and he became one of the most dependable and accurate kickers of all-time. Of course, his legend began to truly grow in 2001 though.

In the Divisional Round of the 2001 playoffs against the Oakland Raiders, Vinatieri began his journey towards immortality. With snow swirling around and a few inches already built up on the field, he nailed a 45-yard field goal to send the game to overtime. A 23-yarder from Vinatieri won the game, and the Patriots remained alive in the playoffs. In Super Bowl XXXVI against the St. Louis Rams, New England came out on top thanks to a last second 48-yard field goal from Adam Vinatieri.

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Two seasons later, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl once again. The game wasn’t going Vinatieri’s way as he missed a field goal and had one attempt blocked. He came up clutch once again though when it mattered most with a make from 41-yards to beat the Panthers 32-29. 2004 may have been an even better year for the GOAT though. In a game against the Rams in the regular season, Vinatieri scored 16 points as he hit 4 field goals and 4 extra points. He also threw the only pass of his career in that game, and it went for a 4-yard touchdown to Troy Brown on a fake field goal. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl in that season as well, and Vinatieri had a field goal and 3 extra points made.

In 10 seasons with the Patriots, Vinatieri accounted for 1,158 points. At the time of his departure, he was the franchises leading scorer. He went 263 of 321(81.9%) on field goals and 367 of 374 (98.1%) on extre points for the Patriots.

In 2006, Adam Vinatieri joined the Indianapolis Colts, and somehow is even better. With Indy he has hit 87.2% of his field goals and 98.2% of his extra points. He is the only player in NFL history to score more than 1,000 points with two different franchises. As of week 10 in the 2017 NFL season, Vinatieri has 2,447 points scored. That’s the second most in NFL history behind only Morten Andersen’s 2,544. That record is sure to be broken at some point next season.

Next: The top 5 Patriots QBs of all-time

The New England Patriots have not issued any player his #4 since he left after the 2005 season, and it seems like that number may one day be retired in Gillette Stadium. That day will likely come when Vinatieri retires from the NFL, but even at age 45 no one seems to know when that may be. He is still one of the most consistent kickers in the league, and he is showing no signs of slowing down. Adam Vinatieri is the GOAT of all kickers, all-time, and I’m extremely grateful that his NFL chance had the chance to start in New England.

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