Adam Vinatieri’s time with the Patriots carries a lot of memorable moments, but maybe none more memorable than Super Bowl XXXVI when New England battled it out with the then-St. Louis Rams.
The game came down to the wire, and Vinatieri was the one who helped lift the team to its first Super Bowl victory with his game-winning field goal.
Vinatieri recalled the excitement he felt after the win, and how he watched his teammates on the sideline before he sent the 48-yarder through the posts as time expired Thursday on WEEI’s “Mut & Callahan.”
“I remember watching all the guys on the sideline holding hands, kneeling, praying, watching,” he said, as transcribed by WEEI.com, “and then you know, the sheer excitement after it went through and we won, that was unreal.”
The 46-year-old added that being underdogs for nearly the entire season made the moment that much better.
“We were the underdog all season long. We were underdogs even at home against Oakland early, then we go to Pittsburgh,” Vinatieri said. “We were underdogs the whole season. I think we enjoyed that. I think Bill ended up showing a bunch of that stuff. Any locker room posts up stuff like, ‘Hey, they’re saying this and this and this.'”
The role of being the underdog is something the Patriots have faced for plenty of the 2018 campaign. They were underdogs against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game and have overcome plenty of talking heads believing Tom Brady and Co. were on the downfall.
But New England, once again, proved the haters wrong as it gets set to take on the now-Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in Atlanta.
