New England Patriots legend Adam Vinatieri’s bust was officially unveiled in Canton on Saturday as only the third kicker in pro football history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Yet the awkward push and pull between Vinatieri’s two teams, the Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, was impossible to ignore as soon as Vinatieri was announced on stage.
Vinatieri chose Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon to introduce him at the ceremony. But the key figures of the Patriots dynasty — Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and Robert Kraft — weren’t in attendance for his speech.
That’s not all that surprising for Patriots fans, considering Vinatieri’s messy split from the Patriots in 2006. He spent an incredible 14 years with the Colts and won another Super Bowl.
But for how clutch, dependable, and memorable his 10 years in Foxboro were, watching the Patriots being more of a footnote in Vinatieri’s historic career was a bitter pill to swallow.
“I love both organizations, I’ve got so many memories and so many great friends on both sides,” Vinatieri said of his decision to be enshrined as a Colt. “Living in Indy, what the Irsay family meant to me, Jim just meant the world bringing me into that organization, and Carlie I’m so excited watching her taking over her dad’s legacy.”
The Patriots became an afterthought in one of their greatest player's biggest moments
Patriots fans should be reminiscing about the kick — Vinatieri’s legendary 45-yard field goal in a blizzard to help New England stun the Raiders in their 2001 Divisional Round playoff game. If there was a singular play that literally kicked off the Patriots dynasty, that was it.
“The kick in the snow, if you were there, you were on that field, to be able to think that could somehow be done,” Patriots coach and former teammate Mike Vrabel said this week. “I struggled to run on that field that day, and he was able to make the kick that he made.”
Instead, the internet exploded Saturday with clips of Vinatieri roasting both Belichick and Brady for not being in attendance.
"I thought it was because training camp had already started," Vinatieri said about Belichick's absence, "but in truth it's because he is judging his girlfriend's cheerleading competition."
While all in good fun — Vinatieri also went after Peyton Manning and Pat McAfee during a speech that was perfect for an NFL kicker — it’s hard not to cringe over the personal nature of the Belichick comment.
Vinatieri never wanted to leave New England following the 2005 season. But he did want a respectable contract that would make him the NFL’s highest-paid kicker. At the time, that deal fell roughly in the range of $2.5 million per season. Belichick famously passed at that number (along with the franchise tag) and allowed arguably the greatest kicker of all time to bolt to a fierce AFC rival.
At this point, fans are well aware of how ridiculous that contract “standoff” turned out to be. The Patriots had already won three Super Bowls, with Vinatieri playing a key role. The NFL’s salary cap is mostly a ruse. New England could and should have done right by Vinatieri and paid him at true market value.
But that wasn’t how the Patriots did business, and 20 years later, not much has changed.
Belichick should have been the one to introduce Vinatieri and shake his hand on stage in Canton. That he ended up being the butt of a joke falls squarely on him and the Patriots organization.
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