Adam Vinatieri's clutch kick in the snow goes up against Mike Milbury beating a Rangers fan with a shoe in the second round of Boston's Greatest Sports Moment tournament.
Doing anything outside when it's snowing is difficult. It's even harder to play football in the snow. Kicking a 45-yard field goal in the snow? Forget about it, right? Well, not if you're Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri made kicking in the snow look easy in a 2002 AFC divisional playoff game against the Oakland Raiders in New England. During a game that would later be referred to as the "Snow Bowl," or the "Tuck Rule Game," Vinatieri kicked a 45-yard field goal to tie the game 13-13 with under a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. The game eventually went to overtime, and Vinatieri again saved the Pats with his leg, kicking a 23-yard field goal to win the game. The Patriots would go on to win their first Super Bowl in franchise history later that postseason.
This candidate for Boston's Greatest Sports Moment could also be a candidate for Boston's Strangest Sports Moment. Bruins defenseman and Massachusetts native Mike Milbury made Bruins fans proud and Rangers fans angry on Dec. 23, 1979, in a game at Madison Square Garden. After a fight broke out between Boston's Al Secord and New York's Ulf Nilsson, Rangers fan John Kaptain did the unthinkable and smacked the Bruins' Stan Jonathan with a rolled-up program. The Bruins then took the fight into the stands, and Kaptain got a taste of his own medicine, as Milbury proceeded to beat him with his own shoe. The altercation will not be part of any NHL marketing seminar on how to create a family-friendly game experience, but the incident defined the no-nonsense, lunch-pail attitude of the Big Bad Bruins of the 1970s and '80s.
Which is a greater Boston sports moment?
« 2. Fisk waves ball fair vs. 7. Damon's slam | 4. Pedro's '99 relief vs. 12. Pats' SB team intro »
Share your thoughts about Boston's Greatest Sports Moment on Twitter at @NESN. Include #BGSM in your tweet.
