Adam Vinatieri Announces Retirement

Hendu for Kutch

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Remarkable. He made his pro debut when I was still in high school and I'm 42 now. Brady and Chara are the only things keeping me young at this point. Hard to believe he was a Colt longer than he was a Patriot.
 

Mooch

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Everyone remembers the kick against the Raiders and the two Super Bowl winners but for me, AV's best kick was the 46 yarder against the Titans in the Divisional round in Foxboro. Coldest I've ever been at a game (2 degrees, -12 windchill). Watching the kickers and punters during warmup, the ball would just die off of the foot. Nobody was able to get one longer than 25-30 yards in the air pre-game. When AV lined up for that kick, I was wondering if the Titans would try to return it because I was sure it would come up way short.

Nope.
 

bigq

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Jul 15, 2005
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Hell of a kicker and a pretty good athlete to boot. His run down and tackle of Herschel Walker is one of my favorite all time Patriots' highlights.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WooPp3UVCp8


I also loved his touchdown pass on a fake FG try against the Rams but I can't find a video highlight (maybe it was a 2 point conversion, I can't remember).

The leather pants he wore on Letterman after Super Bowl 36 still crack me up.

41451

Thanks for the memories and enjoy Canton. You deserve it, Adam.
 

snowmanny

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Dec 8, 2005
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Heinz field opened in 2001. I am pretty sure that his 44-yarder in the AFCCG later that year (To make the score 24-17 in the 4th) was at the time the longest successful kick into the windier open end of the stadium. One of you will verify or debunk.

He had a good run that year.
 

Hoya81

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Feb 3, 2010
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Hell of a kicker and a pretty good athlete to boot. His run down and tackle of Herschel Walker is one of my favorite all time Patriots' highlights.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WooPp3UVCp8


I also loved his touchdown pass on a fake FG try against the Rams but I can't find a video highlight (maybe it was a 2 point conversion, I can't remember).

The leather pants he wore on Letterman after Super Bowl 36 still crack me up.

View attachment 41451

Thanks for the memories and enjoy Canton. You deserve it, Adam.
TD pass is at about 2:30 in this clip
View: https://youtu.be/TJt2koUqhuU
 

loshjott

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Dec 30, 2004
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October 10, 1999: AV misses game winner vs. KC for 16-14 loss.
December 26, 1999: AV misses two game winners vs Bills, at the end of regulation and in OT. Bills win.

If he makes those kicks the Pats don't finish 8-8 in 1999 and instead 10-6. Kraft doesn't fire Petey and the rest is alternate history.
 

cornwalls@6

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Apr 23, 2010
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The kick against the Rams will always be remembered as the moment Loserville ended, and this incredible run of success we've enjoyed with all of the local teams began. And it has a special place for me, as the time I heard my late mom, who was watching with all of us at a big family/friends party, let out a resounding "HOLY SHIT, HE MADE IT!!". Completely out of character for her. We still have a good chuckle over it. For that, and many other big moments, he always drinks for free around these parts. Thanks, and congrats on a stellar career Adam.
 

Dummy Hoy

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October 10, 1999: AV misses game winner vs. KC for 16-14 loss.
December 26, 1999: AV misses two game winners vs Bills, at the end of regulation and in OT. Bills win.

If he makes those kicks the Pats don't finish 8-8 in 1999 and instead 10-6. Kraft doesn't fire Petey and the rest is alternate history.
excellent long con from Vinatieri
 

Mooch

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Jul 15, 2005
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Everyone remembers the kick against the Raiders and the two Super Bowl winners but for me, AV's best kick was the 46 yarder against the Titans in the Divisional round in Foxboro. Coldest I've ever been at a game (2 degrees, -12 windchill). Watching the kickers and punters during warmup, the ball would just die off of the foot. Nobody was able to get one longer than 25-30 yards in the air pre-game. When AV lined up for that kick, I was wondering if the Titans would try to return it because I was sure it would come up way short.

Nope.
Here's video of the kick. Berman was right: It was like kicking a boulder that day:

View: https://youtu.be/3jFyxwVQsGE?t=167
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
Remarkable. He made his pro debut when I was still in high school and I'm 42 now. Brady and Chara are the only things keeping me young at this point. Hard to believe he was a Colt longer than he was a Patriot.
We stopped in at Staples on Rt 1 in Danvers for something or other, and some rook from the Pats was there meeting and greeting, with next to no one else in the store. At least, no one was stopping to talk or take a picture or get an autograph.

Was it really THAT long ago.....?
 

jacklamabe65

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For old-timers like me, you have no idea how bad it was. Thus, when consequential legends such as Adam Vinatieri retire, it's an emotional moment.

For the uninformed, I attended nearly every Boston/New England Patriots game from 1964 until ventured off to college in the autumn of 1973. For nine seasons, I saw the Pats play in four different venues in four different communities within the confines of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Some might say I was a glutton for punishment, given the perpetually wacky state of the Patriots in those days. Perhaps I enjoyed a healthy dose of tragicomedy with my football.

When I started attending their home games as a nine-year-old, the Boston Patriots were prominent members of the American Football League, a league that was often called "rinky-dink" by most scribes. By the time I was a senior in high school, the New England Patriots were part of the AFC East, a conference within the greater National Football League.

Change in professional sports came faster in those days.

As a child, I attended home games at Fenway as the guest of my father. By the time I was 15, I was, according to longtime Patriots beat writer Ron Hobson of The Quincy Patriot Ledger, the youngest season-ticket-holder in all of the professional sports. In 1970, after my father had given up his own season tickets because he could no longer be subjected to the pathos that had come to define the team, I secured a job at the Wellesley (MA) Supermarket so that I could pay my own way as a Pats season-ticket holder. Ultimately, I would spend 60 dollars yearly out of my $1.60 an hour job in order to follow what could only be depicted as disorganized insanity.

Legendary Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough, the most acclaimed chronicler of the franchise in its 60-years-plus-history, once famously called those seasons that I bore witness as “The Goofy Years.”

Indeed, they were. In fact, that may have been an understatement.

In the first five seasons of my Patriots adventure, Dad would usually drive us to their games in the Back Bay. Occasionally, however, we would take the MBTA from Woodland to Fenway Park. The local transportation authority never had extra subway cars for the team when they played at the Fens. At the time, the Pats were deemed too inconsequential by most Bay Staters. In reality, the New York Giants were the region’s number one football team for more than two decades. From 1952 until the end of the 1969 season, every Giants contest was televised live on Channel 5, WHDH Boston. Most football fans I knew growing up in the Boston area referred to the Giants as "us."

Not me.

Of course, when we finally sat in our seats in Section 12 at Fenway Park, my father would invariably recite from Shakespeare's Henry V, “We few; we happy few…”

Temporary bleachers covered the left-field wall at Fenway Park during the football season - room for about 5,000 fans. The left end zone stretched from short left field to the Red Sox batter’s circle. The other end zone was situated between mid-center-field to the right-field corner, 15 yards beyond the legendary Pesky Pole.

When I began following the Patriots, nearly one-third of the team was either from BC, BU, Holy Cross, or Northeastern. To save expenses for the then financially challenged Patriots, those local colleges and even high schools in the area would alternate their marching bands for the halftime entertainment. Not surprisingly, Harvard invariably found an excuse not to have its own celebrated band perform for the people at Fenway. As Dad explained before one game, “Harvard probably doesn't accept payment in green stamps."

This was our legacy. We had been a national punch line for more than two decades - the proverbial joke. And then Adam made that kick and set us on a road to greatness. The beer will always be on me, Adam.
 

Ralphwiggum

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After the 2nd Lombardi I got invited to a VIP event where Adam was speaking, with a chance to meet him. A buddy and I went, Geno MC'd the ceremony. Adam was great, totally personable, told great stories, everything you would want. After he was done people lined up to shake hands with him, my buddy and I hung back at the bar because the line was long. We sat at the bar and had a few drinks as the crowd dissipated. It was way past when it was supposed to end when the line of people were finally done, and we figured he'd be tired and out of there, but instead he motioned to us to come over to where he was. We went over and he said "what's the matter, you didn't want to meet me?" We laughed, shook hands with him, and then he let us try on his Super Bowl ring while we chit-chatted with him and had our picture taken (which I still have in my office). Fucking fantastic evening.

Anyway, thanks for the clutch kicks Adam. Here's hoping Canton is your next stop.
 

8slim

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There is a framed, autographed picture of Vinatieri's kick that won Super Bowl 38 on the wall 10 feet from where I write this. Autographs are not really my thing, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get his. He had several of the most clutch moments in sports history. All-timer, certain Hall of Famer.
 

E5 Yaz

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The leather pants he wore on Letterman after Super Bowl 36 still crack me up.

View attachment 41451

Thanks for the memories and enjoy Canton. You deserve it, Adam.
Is that the appearance when he kicked off the roof, trying to get it to another roof where Trump was standing?
 

BusRaker

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Aug 11, 2006
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Hell of a kicker and a pretty good athlete to boot. His run down and tackle of Herschel Walker is one of my favorite all time Patriots' highlights.
My favorite Pats highlight, thus my signature
 

j44thor

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Aug 1, 2006
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Watching the clip of the incredible kick to tie OAK, had no idea he had missed 4 of his last 5 kicks. Talk about a legacy maker.
If he misses the kick no one faults him but he is probably facing a camp challenge and on a relatively short leash going into 2002 after ending the year missing 5 of 6 and going 7/13 from 40-49.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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There is a framed, autographed picture of Vinatieri's kick that won Super Bowl 38 on the wall 10 feet from where I write this. Autographs are not really my thing, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get his. He had several of the most clutch moments in sports history. All-timer, certain Hall of Famer.
i’ve got the snow bowl kick autographed and hanging behind my home desk
 

GrandSlamPozo

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May 16, 2017
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Watching the clip of the incredible kick to tie OAK, had no idea he had missed 4 of his last 5 kicks. Talk about a legacy maker.
If he misses the kick no one faults him but he is probably facing a camp challenge and on a relatively short leash going into 2002 after ending the year missing 5 of 6 and going 7/13 from 40-49.
I think the graphic was supposed to say he missed 4 of his last 5 from outside of 45 yards or something. Vinatieri was 7 for 7 on FGs in the last three games of the regular season that year and made his only attempt against the Raiders before the 46 yarder..

EDIT - It was 4 misses out of 5 from 40+
 
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tims4wins

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Everyone remembers the kick against the Raiders and the two Super Bowl winners but for me, AV's best kick was the 46 yarder against the Titans in the Divisional round in Foxboro. Coldest I've ever been at a game (2 degrees, -12 windchill). Watching the kickers and punters during warmup, the ball would just die off of the foot. Nobody was able to get one longer than 25-30 yards in the air pre-game. When AV lined up for that kick, I was wondering if the Titans would try to return it because I was sure it would come up way short.

Nope.
October 10, 1999: AV misses game winner vs. KC for 16-14 loss.
December 26, 1999: AV misses two game winners vs Bills, at the end of regulation and in OT. Bills win.

If he makes those kicks the Pats don't finish 8-8 in 1999 and instead 10-6. Kraft doesn't fire Petey and the rest is alternate history.
Here's video of the kick. Berman was right: It was like kicking a boulder that day:

View: https://youtu.be/3jFyxwVQsGE?t=167
I was at that game too. That kick was a miracle.

I’ve made the same point about 1999 before here. Crazy how the butterfly effect works.
 

Fisks Of Fury

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There is a framed, autographed picture of Vinatieri's kick that won Super Bowl 38 on the wall 10 feet from where I write this. Autographs are not really my thing, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get his. He had several of the most clutch moments in sports history. All-timer, certain Hall of Famer.
Same here. It's hanging below the chunk of Foxboro stadium aluminum bench I got after they tore the old place down (seat "6" from some rom up in the upper deck). And tucked into the corner of the photo are the tickets that my at-the-time-future wife and I used to attend that game.
 

j44thor

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I think the graphic was supposed to say he missed 4 of his last 5 from outside of 45 yards or something. Vinatieri was 7 for 7 on FGs in the last three games of the regular season that year and made his only attempt against the Raiders before the 46 yarder..

EDIT - It was 4 misses out of 5 from 40+
Thanks for clarifying, was hard enough finding his playoff stats, didn't go through the game by game but that makes a lot more sense.
Still missing 4 of last 5 from 40+ isn't a great look either, at the time...
 

bigq

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Jul 15, 2005
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Is that the appearance when he kicked off the roof, trying to get it to another roof where Trump was standing?
Yep. I forgot who he was kicking to until your reminder.

edit - if I recall correctly none of the kicks made it to the other building. Not sure if he changed his pants for that part of the show. Kicking in the leather pants would have been difficult I think.
 
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lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
18,096
If Adam is not a first ballot HoF’er, it will confirm the entire process as being a complete joke.

What will be interesting is that he and Edelman will both be eligible for the Pats HoF the same year. Wonder if they will waive the one/year rule.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Mar 5, 2007
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He joined the Pats more than 25 years ago. That's crazy.

Patriots royalty. Thanks for the memories.

I did some math: If a player scored 2 TDs a game for 13 years (17 games/season), he still would be 21 shy of AV's point total.
 
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Adirondack jack

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Aug 24, 2008
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A kicker running down Herschel Fucking Walker on the open field? Basically the equivalent of slamming Andre The Giant. Impressive career, someone contact the engraver in Canton.
 

Marceline

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For old-timers like me, you have no idea how bad it was. Thus, when consequential legends such as Adam Vinatieri retire, it's an emotional moment.

For the uninformed, I attended nearly every Boston/New England Patriots game from 1964 until ventured off to college in the autumn of 1973. For nine seasons, I saw the Pats play in four different venues in four different communities within the confines of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Some might say I was a glutton for punishment, given the perpetually wacky state of the Patriots in those days. Perhaps I enjoyed a healthy dose of tragicomedy with my football.

When I started attending their home games as a nine-year-old, the Boston Patriots were prominent members of the American Football League, a league that was often called "rinky-dink" by most scribes. By the time I was a senior in high school, the New England Patriots were part of the AFC East, a conference within the greater National Football League.

Change in professional sports came faster in those days.

As a child, I attended home games at Fenway as the guest of my father. By the time I was 15, I was, according to longtime Patriots beat writer Ron Hobson of The Quincy Patriot Ledger, the youngest season-ticket-holder in all of the professional sports. In 1970, after my father had given up his own season tickets because he could no longer be subjected to the pathos that had come to define the team, I secured a job at the Wellesley (MA) Supermarket so that I could pay my own way as a Pats season-ticket holder. Ultimately, I would spend 60 dollars yearly out of my $1.60 an hour job in order to follow what could only be depicted as disorganized insanity.

Legendary Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough, the most acclaimed chronicler of the franchise in its 60-years-plus-history, once famously called those seasons that I bore witness as “The Goofy Years.”

Indeed, they were. In fact, that may have been an understatement.

In the first five seasons of my Patriots adventure, Dad would usually drive us to their games in the Back Bay. Occasionally, however, we would take the MBTA from Woodland to Fenway Park. The local transportation authority never had extra subway cars for the team when they played at the Fens. At the time, the Pats were deemed too inconsequential by most Bay Staters. In reality, the New York Giants were the region’s number one football team for more than two decades. From 1952 until the end of the 1969 season, every Giants contest was televised live on Channel 5, WHDH Boston. Most football fans I knew growing up in the Boston area referred to the Giants as "us."

Not me.

Of course, when we finally sat in our seats in Section 12 at Fenway Park, my father would invariably recite from Shakespeare's Henry V, “We few; we happy few…”

Temporary bleachers covered the left-field wall at Fenway Park during the football season - room for about 5,000 fans. The left end zone stretched from short left field to the Red Sox batter’s circle. The other end zone was situated between mid-center-field to the right-field corner, 15 yards beyond the legendary Pesky Pole.

When I began following the Patriots, nearly one-third of the team was either from BC, BU, Holy Cross, or Northeastern. To save expenses for the then financially challenged Patriots, those local colleges and even high schools in the area would alternate their marching bands for the halftime entertainment. Not surprisingly, Harvard invariably found an excuse not to have its own celebrated band perform for the people at Fenway. As Dad explained before one game, “Harvard probably doesn't accept payment in green stamps."

This was our legacy. We had been a national punch line for more than two decades - the proverbial joke. And then Adam made that kick and set us on a road to greatness. The beer will always be on me, Adam.
Thanks for sharing this. It really captures the essence of being a sports fan in New England.
 

RIrooter09

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Jul 31, 2008
7,254
October 10, 1999: AV misses game winner vs. KC for 16-14 loss.
December 26, 1999: AV misses two game winners vs Bills, at the end of regulation and in OT. Bills win.

If he makes those kicks the Pats don't finish 8-8 in 1999 and instead 10-6. Kraft doesn't fire Petey and the rest is alternate history.
Damn. I remember seeing the KC missed kick in my friend Justin's kitchen. It's kind of weird knowing exactly where you were on a random Sunday 22 years ago, at age 12.
 

tims4wins

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Damn. I remember seeing the KC missed kick in my friend Justin's kitchen. It's kind of weird knowing exactly where you were on a random Sunday 22 years ago, at age 12.
I was 18, but yes. I was visiting a girl at UVA my freshman year of college. I remember seeing the miss in her dorm room - she had something going on and was out for a bit. I believe it was the same day as the game 4 23-7 beat down of the Tribe but it may have been the 9-3 game 3 win.

Edit: confirmed it was the same day as game 4
 

loshjott

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Damn. I remember seeing the KC missed kick in my friend Justin's kitchen. It's kind of weird knowing exactly where you were on a random Sunday 22 years ago, at age 12.
It was the same weekend as the Sox-Indians ALDS. Sox won 3 straight (of course) Oct. 9-11 and I remember that kick being the only black spot on a glorious sports weekend. I was actually on a camping trip that weekend and in the pre smart phone days did not know Sox had won game 3 on Saturday until coming out of the woods on Sunday and looking at a newspaper at a convenience store.

Edit: missed the post above this, sorry!
 

Hoya81

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Feb 3, 2010
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#4 should be retired now
Most teams around the league have moved away from retiring numbers (the league has been discouraging it in recent years and some don't do it at all as a rule) and toward recognizing players either in a Ring of Honor or team Hall of Fame. The Pats haven't retired one since Bruce Armstrong's #78 in 2000, although #56 has been out of circulation since Tippett retired. My guess is that #4 will be taken out of circulation when AV makes the HoF (and/or once Stidham moves on) and not issued unless AV is on board.

I wouldn't be surprised if Brady's #12 is the last officially retired number by the team.
 

BuellMiller

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Mar 25, 2015
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Damn. I remember seeing the KC missed kick in my friend Justin's kitchen. It's kind of weird knowing exactly where you were on a random Sunday 22 years ago, at age 12.
I looked it up to see if the video was available:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIfh7JznIhk


The play right before the miss was a pretty nice back shoulder catch by Jefferson on the sidelines on a 27 yard heave by Bledsoe (off his back foot), with no Timeouts left for the Patriots. As AV was lining up to kick the FG, the camera caught the Chiefs coach signalling for a Timeout, but wasn't called. (unless it was edited out? but p-ref doesn't indicate a timeout in the pbp).
 

JimD

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Nov 29, 2001
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I don't hold any ill will towards AV or BB for doing it, but it's still a damned shame that left the Patriots when he did (and went to the f****** Colts).