Legendary kicker Adam Vinatieri reveals the coldest game he’s ever had to kick in, and what it was like running on and off the frozen field.
There aren’t many kickers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the case for Adam Vinatieri is perhaps one of the easiest a voter will ever have to make.
Throughout his career with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, Vinatieri was the author of some of the game’s most iconic moments. His leg was the one that powered the engine of the Patriots Dynasty, kicking the game-winner in the first of the team’s six Super Bowls it would go on to win over the next two decades. He also kicked a game-winner against the Carolina Panthers two years later in the Super Bowl before coming over to the Colts to help Peyton Manning win a title in 2006.
Perhaps his most iconic kick, though, came in the 2001 AFC Divisional Round when he made a field goal in ice cold weather and in a blanket of snow to power the Patriots past the Raiders in the infamous Tuck Rule game.
It’s that image that will be among the first shown in his Hall of Fame highlight reel, but it’s not the coldest kick he’s ever had to make.
Vinatieri told Stacking The Box that a playoff game against the Titans in 2004 was one of the coldest he’s ever had to kick in.
“The coldest game I played in was the divisional round against Tennessee. They came to Foxborough and it was a wind chill of seventeen or eighteen below,” Vinatieri said. “It was miserably cold.”
“Everybody is sitting on the hot seats, and we’ve got parkas on. You flip that off quick, kick a ball into the net, get onto the field, and then run back,” Vinatieri said. “They’re holding the parka open for you when you get back.”
Of course, the argument for the coldest kick he’s ever had to make has nothing to do with the weather in which the game was played. His ability to come in and produce clutch moments is just one of the many things that should land Vinatieri in Canton one day.
He also has the unique distinction of linking two hated rivals together with how nice of a guy he is. While Colts fans and Patriots fans won’t be caught agreeing on much, the only common ground they can stand on is the fact they neither has anything but warm things and happy memories of their time with Vinatieri.
Adam Vinatieri spoke on behalf of DiGiorno Pizza.