Is this the end of the line for Adam Vinatieri?
The Indianapolis Colts kicker has been in the NFL for 24 seasons and has quite the impressive résumé which includes winning four Super Bowls, three of those coming while he was a member of the New England Patriots.
But the 46-year-old hasn’t enjoyed the success he’s been used through the first two weeks of the 2019 season. Vinatieri made two of his three field-goal attempts in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers and made just one of two PATs. The struggles continued Sunday against the Tennessee Titans after missing two extra-point attempts.
After Indianapolis’ 19-17 victory over Tennessee, The Athletic’s Stephen Holder had an interesting encounter with the kicker when Vinatieri told him “you’ll hear from me tomorrow.” When Holder replied with “we don’t see you tomorrow,” Vinatieri replied with “Yeah, you will.”
Just grabbed Adam Vinatieri was he headed to the bus. He said “you’ll here from me tomorrow.” I told him we don’t see him tomorrow. And he said, “Yeah, you will.”
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) September 15, 2019
Of course, this could all have been said out of frustration. Maybe Vinatieri just needs to forget about the last two weeks. Or maybe he really is contemplating hanging up the cleats.
If he does indeed retire, Vinatieri certainly has one heck of a career to look back on and be proud of all he’s accomplished.
