Adam Vinatieri, 4-Time Super Bowl Champion

Back on Radio Row inside the Convention Center and how joining us is a Super Bowl legend for multiple teams, right? The Colts. That's the second one.

The main one is the New England Patriots where he did win a few championships. You may have heard, kicked two pretty important kicks and then also you could even say four important kicks if you go back to the snowball game and that's the great Adam Vinatieri. Adam, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks for having me on. Now, I kind of want to say, Adam, Pro Football Hall of Famer, right?

Adam Vinatieri, but the Hall of Fame for some reason gives like no love to special teams players. Now, you're not eligible yet, right? Are you officially retired? Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. You never know. Well, I'm not coming back.

I know some guys do a little bit. I tried after my season-ending surgery in 2019. I thought, well, I'm going to make a comeback and it wasn't in the cards, so I am officially retired.

I have been for a few years, yeah. Okay, so based off that, when you're eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I think you should be first ballot. Well, I appreciate it.

I wish you had a vote. Yeah, well, I don't. Got a lot of old guys that watch the game forever that they make all these cases for people that I'm like, we're missing the obvious ones. Like, Sean Alexander joined us yesterday and Sean, we've had Sean on a bunch. Guys had a hundred touchdowns. Right.

He should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but because he didn't play long enough, he doesn't get in. Yeah, I tell you, it's a very difficult thing. Like, people don't understand how hard it is. Like, you see, they're putting the final guys in tonight, right? So, but everybody that's in the last cut, deservably, rightfully so.

I mean, they all, I mean, they're there for a reason. They probably have all put up stats that ultimately deserves to be in the hall, but there's just not that many guys that get to make it. So, there's really, really good athletes, great football players that potentially could and should be Hall of Famers that don't make it because they just don't put a lot of them in. If someone hit you up and said, why should I advocate for you to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, what would you say?

Well, I guess my argument would be, 24 years of doing something at the highest level, I don't care what position you do. All-time leading scorer, four Super Bowls, a couple game winners in Super Bowls. I mean, I'm obviously, you know, talking myself up right now, but I think, I think there's guys that deserve it. You know, there's Ray guys in the, is the only punter in right now.

I think, you know, it's a position, you know, specialist. Well, Devin Hester's in right now, right? And they go, does he deserve to be in?

Like, you know, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or something. And I go, he changes the games. I mean, when you're so fearful that you don't want to kick a ball to him because you know he can single-handedly beat you, then I think that that deserves real, you know, real consideration, I guess. So, for a guy like myself, I think I contributed to my team's success. I hopefully think that. And some of my teammates and coaches and stuff, you know, say nice things about me at times. I'm super excited for it. I mean, it's a dream come true and a huge honor.

So, if it happens, great, you know. I'll say two other special teams guys that I believe should be in. Obviously, of course, you look at Steve Tasker. When you said special teams guys, I said Steve Tasker, first thing that came to my mind. You've got to start with Steve because, like, being younger, I'll get on the radio and I'll say, when Matthew Slater retires, Matthew should be in the Hall of Fame. And I always preface it by saying, I know we're going to get calls about Steve Tasker.

For sure. Steve Tasker absolutely should be in the Hall of Fame. I hope those guys should get him one day. Slater, like, Steve, I was, you know, he was finishing his career when I was starting and I played against Slater a bunch of times. And, yeah, you're mentioning two guys that when you start getting game plan stuff ready, you're playing the Patriots or you're playing the Bills or you're playing whoever, and you go, all right, we have to play against, you know, this guy. You change your game plan for him. You double team this guy or you do certain things to try to not let him wreck the game against you. When you're doing that, I mean, that's a special kind of guy. I mean, that's not, what do they do to the best receiver in the league? Well, they do double coverage on him or they put a safety over the top or they do whatever to try to take him out of the game.

What's the, I mean, there's no real difference other than maybe the special teams guy might not be on the field quite as many plays, but they can either wreck or make a game for you too. Tester. Yeah, absolutely. My God. Look how he opened this, you know, look how he opened the Super Bowl. And you know what we did? After that happened, our coach came up to me and said, we're not kicking him the ball the rest of the game. Do not let him get the ball in his hand. I always think too, one of the great side stories because of you, you robbed Ricky pro of two Super Bowls. I know Ricky goes back to the Rams and then the Panthers where he makes the, the, what thought to be the touchdown catcher was going to continue the game for them. And you go boot the field goal. So Tom leads him down the field, but then you guys want together in Indianapolis, right? Yep. Yep. It was awesome. We, we had a lot of conversations. He's like, man, all is forgiven. Don Davis played for the Rams and then he came to the Patriots and got a Super Bowl with us as well. So he's like, man, you can't beat him.

You got to join them kind of thing. But, but it's funny. You're, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's amazing how paths cross and Ricky's an awesome dude. I love the guy and he's such a great player.

And, and, you know, for us to play together on that team and get one together was, was, was special. So you're in a unique position, you know, me being a Patriot fan. I hate the Colts.

They are my least favorite team in the league. Now on this show. So over there, hot take Kiki is the biggest cult sycophant you'll you'll ever meet, right?

Do you consider yourself more of a Patriot or a cult? I don't know. I know. And I'm going to get the Colts answer.

I'm going to give you, um, I don't know if it's a politically correct answer, but this is the thing. I literally feel like I played two full careers. I really did. I mean, 10 years in new England, 14 years in the, with the Colts. I mean, most guys don't get to play a fraction of either of that. Right.

You know, four or five years. I played two careers with two different teams. Um, yeah, obviously when I was with new England, we built, I was on the team that built a dynasty. Right. So, so some of my best, well, we all contributed in our own way.

I feel like I did my part a little bit as well. And, and some of those guys are still my diehard friend slash brothers. I mean, I, I have conversations. I have relationships with a lot of these guys still to this day, 20 years later.

Right. And, and, but, and I cannot deny the fact like, I'm an indie. I still live there.

I still go to the, to the, to the, um, facilities and talk to the guys and stuff like that. So, you know, is, is my relationship with, with Bruce key and, and, uh, William McGinnis and variable and those that any different than my relationship with Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne and those guys. No.

So I, it's really, it's hard for me when people sit there and go, ah, man, in my eyes, you're a Patriot. Okay. I understand why.

Absolutely. I don't deny that. I, that was some of the greatest years of my life, but I try to block out those years.

I knew I'd never get, I was at a Patriot Colts game, Thursday night football. This is a few years ago. How any Patriot fan, when they say your name, booze you. Yeah. They need to be punched in the face. Well, it's funny because some of the people, um, you can see the, the conflict in the crowd because somebody will be talking some trash. Yeah. You suck Vinny. And then his buddy, right. He's like, man, shut up.

You know, he does suck. I think so it's, it's entertaining. And that's just the passion level of Patriot fans. And that's why I loved them so much because they would be the first ones to boo the piss out of you. If you're not doing a good job, but they're the ones that they're the first ones that are gonna, that are gonna say, you know, you, you're, we love you. We love you to death kind of thing. So I think at the end of the day, um, I'm okay with that.

I'm, I'm okay. You know, the first time I played there after I moved to Indy, they standing ovation when I came out, they booed the piss out of me for 60 minutes straight. And then they gave me a standing ovation when I left again. I go respect.

I told a hundred percent. I dig that. I like that.

There's nothing wrong with that. What's your favorite kick of all time? The one I'm the most proud of by far is the, the game tying snowball kick the 45 yarder and the blizzard in the divisional round. I mean, there's nothing like kicking a game winning Superbowl to end the game. I dreamt about that as a kid, I got to live that twice in my career. I mean, there's nothing like that for sure. But if you ask me, give me one kick that you're the most proud of.

It's gotta be the one in the game. Tell me what you're doing today with DiGiorno. Yeah, they, DiGiorno is awesome. They have a program going. If you go on to DiGiorno doinks.com and register, sign up.

If there is a kick in the Superbowl field goal or a PAT that doinks off the crossbar or the upright. I know, I know they're giving free pizza out to anybody that signs up and registers. So awesome. I sit there and I go, I want them to doink it. So everybody gets pizza, but I want them to doink it and it goes in still. So everybody's happy.

Or you have a kicker, have a little bit of a bad performance, like what you did up against Houston early and with the cherry on top of the Sunday and no one forgets that that works too. Now that works too. Yeah, absolutely.

So it's a great program. I'm a huge pizza guy, Italian guy, you know, and what's better than DiGiorno pizza, you know, pull it out of the oven or pull it out of the freezer, throw it in the oven and you don't have to call in, you know, delivery and they're laid and they're not there. Come on, get you some pizza. Who wins the game?

Whoo. Two best teams in football right now. I mean, there's two teams that from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, they're the best teams in football. You know, you could say Buffalo was in there. You could say since he was in there, you could say the 49ers and all that stuff. But I really think that the two best teams in football are playing in this game, which is awesome.

It's the way it should be. Nick Sirianni was in India a couple years ago. I love the guy. I love to see him win one.

I still think if I'm a betting man, I think Kansas City edges him out though. Adam Vinatieri, thanks so much for doing this. We appreciate it. My pleasure.

Thanks for having me. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl is on Odyssey and Westwood One brings it to you streaming live for free Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl is on Odyssey and Westwood One brings it to you streaming live for free Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Even Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that, though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day to day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said, if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said, after you got through 100 applies, you'd want to quit the business and never never be seen again. It's just you just learn to deal with it.

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