Belichick Talking About Adam Vinatieri Makes Me Swoon
Bill Belichick in his conference call today about Adam Vinatieri’s kick in the Snow Bowl:
“I would say it was by far the greatest kick I have ever seen. The conditions were very difficult. There were probably three to four inches of snow on the ground. It was a soft snow that kind of didn’t go away. I mean, there was no way to get around it. The magnitude of the kick was significant. It’s got to be the greatest kick of all time, certainly that I’ve seen.
“Adam is a great player. He was a great player here and has been a great player for the Colts, great person. He works hard. He certainly doesn’t fit the classic profile for a kicker. He is more of a football player. He’s physically and mentally tough. When he was here, he trained and worked out with all the players. There was no special program for him as a kicker or anything like that. He embraced that. He had a great relationship with his teammates because of the way he worked, how competitive and mentally and physically tough he was and how he was willing to help out in other areas of the team – scout team and things like that. Whatever the team needed he was always great about that.
“He was a clutch, dependable player in his role. So, you can’t ask for much more than that. He has had a fabulous career. Certainly, in my opinion, the greatest kicker in the game. Not just for his longevity and production but again, the magnitude of some of the kicks that he made and the difficulty – particularly the one that you mentioned. But there were many besides that – the kick in the Super Bowl and the kick in the Carolina Super Bowl.
“So, I mean there were just big games after big games that we couldn’t – back in 2001, it seemed like every game came down to the last possession or the last kick. Every point was critical. Those games we won in 2001 and 2003 – especially in the early part of the year in 2003 – were all close games and tough ones. Adam came through for us with some enormous kicks.
“Congratulations to him and to the great career that he has and honestly it doesn’t seem like there is much sign of him slowing down. The ball continues to go right in the middle of the uprights. It never curves. It doesn’t hook. It just goes straight down the middle. So he just has an unbelievable level of consistency.”
Whoa, Belichick and Vinatieri. Get a room you two.
On second thought, don’t. Stay right where you are doing what you’re doing. Because I sit here all night witnessing this. The best there’s ever been paying homage to the best there’s ever been. Game recognizing clutch, dependable, enduring game.
Just to flesh out what Belichick said about how clutch Vinatieri was in those two seasons he referenced and to save you from looking it up, in 2001 the only reason the Pats were hosting the Raiders in the Snow Bowl (which I think everyone outside of New England calls “The Tuck Rule Game” in that way people in the Deep South call The Civil War “The War of Northern Agression) and a bye week in the playoffs was they went 11-5. If they’d gone 10-6 they would’ve had to host the Jets in the Wild Card then fly out to Oakland. Hell, they might have even lost a tiebreaker to the Jets and faced three playoff road games. Regardless, here’s just a sample of what Vinatieri did that year:
–Kicked a game winner in overtime against San Diego
–Kicked a game winner in overtime against Buffalo
–Made a go-ahead kick with 6 and a half minutes against the Jets to win by a point
–Made that 45-yarder through what wordsmith Gil Santos called “a maelstrom” to tie the Snow Bowl with :27 to play
–Made the overtime kick to win the Snow Bowl
–Kicked the 48 yarder as time expired to win the Super Bowl
In 2003 he:
–Scored all the Patriots points in a win at Cleveland
–Kicked a game winner in overtime against Houston
–Kicked a 46-yard game winner with 4 minutes to play against Tennessee in the playoffs, a game so cold the water bottle my cousin bought froze in his hand and the ball must’ve felt like he was kicking a depleted uranium warhead
–Went 5 for 5 in the AFC championship game to beat the Colts 24-14
–(Stop me if you heard this before) Kicked the 41 yarder as time expired to win the Super Bowl
Yeah, that’s all. Nothing to be too impressed about. And as much as it should pain me to say it, but doesn’t, he’s made a billion kicks in big situations for Indy as well. But we’ll not speak of the 2006 AFC title game here. And of all the Belichick’s there are, there’s none that gets my panties dropping like when he’s waxing nostalgic about some great player from his past he owes his success to. When he gets all gushy like that it makes me like your girlfriend watching Julia Roberts tell Hugh Grant she loves him in Notting Hill. Which is outside my cultural radar but I think that’s a thing. Anyway, if she bites her lower lip, tips her head and goes “Ohhhh …” then it’s spot on because that’s me.
God promises none of us a tomorrow so for all we know this could very well be the last time New England will get to pay tribute to Vinatieri until he’s putting on the red jacket five years after he finally retires with every kicking record ever created. Including the only one that really counts: Clutch Championship-Winning Kicks Made, Most. Not bad for a guy who almost got cut by the Patriots as a rookie but helped take them to Super Bowl instead. In frigging 1996. The head coach just set the tone for the reception he deserves. And the crowd better not disappoint.