Kicker Adam Vinatieri, the NFL’s all-time scoring leader, announced Wednesday on the “Pat McAfee Show” that he is retiring after 24 seasons.
“By Friday, if paperwork goes in, you heard it here first,” Vinatieri told McAfee, his friend and former teammate with the Indianapolis Colts.
Vinatieri, 48, a three-time Pro Bowl selection and a first-team All-Pro pick three times, scored 2,673 points for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis, where he played his final 14 seasons.
He made 29 game-winning kicks in his career, with three of them coming with the Patriots from 1996 to 2005. He made a game winner in blizzard-like conditions against Oakland in the 2001 AFC playoffs and made game-winning field goals in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII. No kicker has more Super Bowl rings than Vinatieri’s four — three with the Patriots and one with the Colts.
Former Colts teammate Reggie Wayne was among those to pay tribute to Vinatieri on social media, tweeting “it was a pleasure to sit back and watch #greatness for many years.”
People use the term G.O.A.T. loosely these days. But @adamvinatieri is truly a 🐐. Congrats on your retirement bro. It was a pleasure to sit back and watch #greatness for many years. #Automatic #colts @Colts pic.twitter.com/5Ql8K0pG0s
— Reggie Wayne (@ReggieWayne_17) May 26, 2021
Vinatieri didn’t play last season after a disappointing 2019 season. He was placed on injured reserve in December 2019 after a season-long knee injury that started in training camp. The Colts stuck with Vinatieri even though he made a career-low 68% of his field goal attempts. He missed a total of 14 kicks: eight field goals and six extra points, and two of his misses cost the team victories against the Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers. He also had three kicks blocked in 2019, including one that was returned 63 yards for a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans in Week 13.
Vinatieri told ESPN shortly after going on injured reserve in 2019 that he wouldn’t have waited so long to have left knee surgery if he had to do it all over again.