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Adam Vinatieri was benched as a kicker in college, played in Europe, and ended up being one of the greatest kickers in the history of the NFL. Ted Johnson shares his perspective on his teammate’s rise to Patriots hero.
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00:00That right there is somebody that I think is one of the top five most important Patriots of all time.
00:07I don't know if you gentlemen agree with me, but rightfully so,
00:10he is getting inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend,
00:15along with Luke Keekly, Larry Fitzgerald, Roger Craig, and Drew Brees.
00:19That's a good class. That's a good one.
00:21That's a great class.
00:22I think it's an amazing class.
00:25Absolutely.
00:25Although you're never going to get a speech as good as Ray Lewis's,
00:28where he just started yelling, 5-15-75, numbers, numbers, numbers.
00:32The man's head exploded on stage in front of all of us.
00:36But this Vinatieri induction has gotten very interesting, hasn't it, Ted?
00:41Well, it is interesting if you – different angles.
00:46I mean, if you want to look at it from the Patriots' angle,
00:47they put out on their Twitter feed congratulating him, which is cool.
00:52But I feel like they should be more involved.
00:55I don't think he should have ever left here, to be honest with you.
00:58You know, Adam –
00:59He didn't want to leave, right?
01:00He didn't want to leave.
01:00No, he basically – we had him on the show last year basically suggesting that,
01:06you know, there's a story there, and he'd love to tell it someday.
01:10I don't think he ever will because that's just around in his style.
01:12But he was hurt that the Patriots – because if you ever listen to Bill Belichick,
01:17let's talk about that 2001 team that won the Super Bowl,
01:20that Adam Vinatieri was our best player.
01:22And so the best player on your 0-1 team, you wanted to lowball and not pay,
01:28you know, what was commensurate for what he brought to the team.
01:31So that's just – it's head-scratching kind of how it all ended.
01:34It's disappointing when you consider Adam Vinatieri's legend started with the Patriots.
01:40And so the fact that the Patriots really won't have a presence at the Hall of Fame induction
01:45when he's inducted this Sunday is a little bit disheartening.
01:49But there's a great article in The Athletic about Adam's career.
01:54I just want to give some of the highlights of it, which a lot of people probably don't know
01:57and I found to be fascinating.
02:00And I'll try and hit some of the highlights for people.
02:02But Adam came in in 1996.
02:04I'll never forget.
02:06It was my second year in the league.
02:07And I just remember he had a very heated competition with Matt Barr,
02:12who was a 17-year NFL vet at that time.
02:14Bill Parcells loved Matt Barr.
02:16He had been his kicker at the Giants.
02:18And Adam was coming in from NFL Europe.
02:21He played for the – was it the Admirals, the Amsterdam Admirals, okay?
02:27And he had only been one year in the NFL Europe when he competed against Matt Barr in 1996,
02:33his rookie year in the NFL, to get a job.
02:35He was a kicker at South Dakota State before he went to Amsterdam, Division II school,
02:42where he was a 33% field goal kicker.
02:45He made 33% of his field goals.
02:49Yes.
02:49He lost his job his senior year to a defensive lineman, Jim Remy,
02:53who basically what they call it was the toe bashing technique, you know,
02:56where you just go straight on.
02:57Oh, yeah, the straight on, blew the toe groves on.
02:58Yep.
02:58Yeah, that was the guy he lost his job to, all right?
03:01So I found that to be fascinating.
03:04So he lost his job his senior year.
03:07And so he goes to NFL Europe, but he goes – he consults with a coach who was a guy
03:14who,
03:15by the name of Doug Blevins, who was in a wheelchair, who had cerebral palsy,
03:19who was, I guess, Adam – credits him for turning his career around.
03:24He went and worked with Coach Blevins.
03:27And Coach Blevins urged him to go play for the Amsterdam Admirals.
03:30He goes there.
03:31There was only two teams that were interested after his first stint with the Amsterdam Admirals
03:35that were interested in him.
03:36The two teams, New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.
03:40The Patriots made him an offer to come in and compete in camp.
03:43So he goes in there.
03:44Adam says that he basically just thought, you know, I'm just going to play in the NFL for a few
03:48years,
03:48get a little money in my pocket, and then go start my, you know, my real career.
03:52And I'll never forget, it was – this is a true story.
03:55Bill Parcells in that training camp, his rookie year when he was competing against Matt Barr,
03:58made it hard on him.
04:00I mean, he had the whole team watching Adam kick field goals.
04:05He would have put stand so his shadow would be where he was kicking the ball.
04:09He wanted to make it very, very tough on Adam.
04:12And what a lot of people will not remember, but Adam started his career in 1996.
04:17We started that season 0-2.
04:20Adam's career started – he missed five of his first eight field goals in his rookie season in 1996.
04:27And we played the Jacksonville Jaguars week four, all right?
04:32It was an overtime game.
04:34We won.
04:35And before Adam goes out to kick the ball, he basically tells Adam,
04:42if you miss this kick, don't come back to the locker room.
04:45Jeez.
04:46That is the story about Adam and that kick.
04:52Parcells is quoted as saying basically the kicking job before that Jacksonville game was week to week.
04:58So, he was obviously very, very close.
05:00If he doesn't make that kick – so, he kicks the game-winning field goal in that fourth game of
05:05the season,
05:06his rookie season after going five of eight, the first eight kicks.
05:09If he misses that kick, he's probably cut, and it's a whole different career.
05:13That one kick – we all think about the snow kicks and the other kicks,
05:17but the first kick, game-winning kick he ever had, he had 28 game-winning field goal kicks in his
05:22career.
05:2228.
05:23The first one he had was in that Jacksonville game.
05:25And if he doesn't make it, he probably never becomes the kicker that he becomes,
05:29which is a fascinating story.
05:31So, I just wanted to give a little bit of background to Adams.
05:35He's a fascinating person.
05:36He's a – one of the more – I don't know, just tough-minded players I've ever played with.
05:42Jimmy – our old strength coach, Jimmy Parker would – Johnny, excuse me,
05:50Johnny Parker would say, Adams, not a field goal kicker.
05:54He's a football player.
05:56You know, and he really was.
05:57One of the best players I've ever seen, Herschel Walker.
06:00We were playing the Dallas Cowboys in 1996.
06:02Herschel Walker breaks free, and he is on the – I'm not kidding you.
06:06Nobody is even close to him.
06:09He should have scored a touchdown.
06:10Adam catches him on the four-yard line.
06:12Our defense keeps him out of the end zone.
06:14And they beat us 12-6.
06:16They kick four field goals and beat us 12-6.
06:18And then we go on to not lose a game the rest of the year until the Super Bowl
06:22against the Green Bay Packers.
06:24But Adam tackling Herschel Walker was one of the greatest plays I've ever seen.
06:29He's an unbelievable golfer.
06:31He's an unbelievable shooter.
06:33He – his skeet shooting.
06:34He has – he's just a guy of many, many talents.
06:39One of my favorites.
06:39He's also jacked now.
06:40The guy's like totally jacked now.
06:42Yep, yep.
06:42But that's – but that's – you know, his career was hanging by a thread there
06:46to start.
06:47And if he doesn't make that kick in that Jacksonville game –
06:50Did he have the Ferrari by then?
06:51Because Vrabel was talking about that at the practice today.
06:54He did not.
06:54Well, we have the audio.
06:55Here's Vrabel saying some nice things about Adam Vinatieri.
06:58Let's let that roll.
06:59My favorite story is he showed up one offseason with a yellow Lamborghini
07:02or Ferrari or something, and we crushed him.
07:04And I think he took it back and then got a normal color.
07:09But the kick in the snow meant if you were there or you were on that field
07:12to be able to think that that, you know, could somehow be done.
07:17And I struggled to run on that field that day.
07:20And he was able to make the kick that he made.
07:23And it was always just – anytime we got into those situations,
07:26we knew if we could just get it to the 35-yard line that we were going to win
07:32the football game.
07:32And so for him to be able to do that in the biggest moments was a pleasure to –
07:38you know, he trained hard.
07:40He had a routine.
07:41Engaged with – you know, it wasn't off – you know, it wasn't the lonely kicker.
07:45It wasn't by himself.
07:46Like, he was, you know, part of the football team.
07:49Yeah, he ran sprints with us.
07:51He involved with us.
07:52He lived with us.
07:53He did not – like most kickers, you just never see him around.
07:56Now, he was very much a part of the team.
08:00That's awesome because you're right.
08:01You don't hear about that a lot.
08:02And, you know, I started off this break saying that, you know,
08:05Adam Vinatieri, you know, a top five Patriot of all time in my opinion.
08:08But as I've been sitting here, I've been trying to think of anybody
08:12other than Tom Brady that you could definitively put above Adam Vinatieri.
08:18Like, I know that, like, John Hanna obviously is always mentioned
08:21as one of the greats.
08:22You know, I'm sure if you want to have that argument there.
08:25But, honestly, is there anybody else that you could say definitively
08:29is a more important Patriot other than Tom Brady than Adam Vinatieri?
08:34I can't.
08:34I don't think so.
08:35Nope, I cannot.
08:36Because there's only three from that team that are in, right?
08:38I had Seymour and Ty Law in the Hall of Fame.
08:41And now Vinatieri in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
08:43Absolutely.
08:43Well, that should be awesome.
08:45Real quick, one more thing.
08:46I just, you know, put a little more context.
08:49After those field goal kicks, you know, in the snow,
08:51they kind of made Adam, Adam.
08:53It says in this article that the legend was born.
08:55He became the most dependable clutch kicker in the game.
08:58And tired of the Patriots' lowball contract offers,
09:00he was headed to Green Bay as a free agent in 2006 until coach,
09:04until Colts coach Tony Dungy saw the news trickle across the TV
09:07in his office.
09:08And he says to Bill Polian,
09:10shouldn't we be contacting him?
09:11And he goes, yeah, we should.
09:13And then the agent for Adam Vinatieri basically calls him and says,
09:17what do you think about going on a plane in a dome with Peyton Manning?
09:19He goes, make it happen.
09:20And that was him going to the Colts, man.
09:23And you know what?
09:25Like, people who played under Jim Irsay loved Jim Irsay.
09:29I mean, obviously, he was a funny, eccentric guy, you know,
09:32collecting guitars and he wanted to talk about Dylan and the dead
09:35if he came over to his place.
09:36But legitimately, like, I mean, Adam Vinatieri this whole week
09:40has been talking about how much he loves the Patriots,
09:43but he said that living in Indy, what the Irsay family meant to him,
09:47Jim just meant the world bringing me into that organization,
09:49and Carly, his daughter, is the one who's going to be inducting him.
09:53So, I mean, it's like that is a – I would have to say before he passed,
09:57wouldn't you say that he was one of the most loved owners by the people
10:00who played underneath him in the NFL?
10:02They absolutely loved him.
10:04And then one last thing, just to highlight Adam's – what he did on the field.
10:08He finished as the NFL's all-time leading scorer with 2,673 points.
10:13He's the all-time leader in field goals made at 655 between the regular season
10:18and playoffs.
10:18And then he's also the all-time leader in consecutive makes at 44.
10:22Jeez, man.
10:23Adam Vinatieri, 23-year veteran.
10:25Just an unbelievable player and deserves –
10:28Deserves a statue?
10:29I think he does.
10:30By the Gronk?
10:31Yep.
10:31By the Bill statue?
10:32I think he deserves a statue.
10:33I really do.
10:34By the Ted statue?
10:35Yeah, man.
10:37As I said, we just made it to a definitive ruling that he is the number two
10:43most important Patriot in Patriot history.
10:46And I feel fine standing by that.
10:48As I said, I've spent this whole break trying to figure out if there's anyone
10:51you could absolutely put ahead of him.
10:53And right now –
10:54The only pushback is, as a 774 texter says, he's a kicker, bro.
10:58Legendary, but he's a kicker.
11:00It is tough to get past that when you're comparing him to some of the great
11:03players on the field for most of the game.
11:05So just remember that when we put a coach in, you know, for a Hall of Fame.
11:08Really?
11:09A coach?
11:09A guy that doesn't even go on the field?
11:11Now you're changing the subject.
11:12No, no.
11:13Ted's exactly right.
11:14Yep.
11:14He's exactly right.
11:15Now, if you were saying he's a special teams guy, we may have a conversation
11:19because there's a lot of talk about Slater getting in.
11:21I love Slater, but that's a – now that's a debate.
11:24Kicker, dude, that guy singularly – like, wins you games.
11:27If you could point at someone in their actions and say,
11:29this gentleman won us games, Adam Vinatieri, man,
11:33it doesn't get much better than that.
11:34I've got to finish this last paragraph off.
11:38It's very interesting.
11:39This is how the article ends about Adam.
11:42This will put it in perspective about kind of what his relationship is with the
11:45Patriots.
11:46It says, how does one put it all in perspective?
11:48How rare is it for a player to last a decade with one team
11:51and then 14 more with another?
11:53Consider the scene from the summer of 2016.
11:55Vinatieri is vacationing with his family back in Boston.
11:58A group of Patriot fans stop him.
11:59They wanted an autograph from the kicker who helped them win three Super Bowls
12:02in the early 2000s.
12:04Vinatieri's son was confused.
12:06He looks up at his dad and says, wait a minute,
12:08you used to play for the Patriots?
12:09I'm going to be like, OK,
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