The New England Patriots dominated football from the turn of the century to the end of the 2010s.
Legendary head coach-quarterback duo Bill Belichick and Tom Brady were central to the team’s six Super Bowl victories, but had it not been for Adam Vinatieri the Patriots dynasty might never have been.
Vinatieri, a kicker, joined the Pats as an undrafted free agent in 1996, where he played for 10 seasons and won three Super Bowls.
During his decade-long stint in Foxborough, Vinatieri established himself as one of the clutchest kickers in NFL history.
In fact, the three most important field goals in Patriots history were all kicked by Vinatieri within a frenetic two-week span in early 2002.
The first came in the 2001 AFC Divisional Round during a blizzard against the Oakland Raiders in the final game at Foxboro Stadium.
The Raiders held a narrow 13-10 lead with just under two minutes to go when Raider Charles Woodson stripped Brady before Oakland teammate Greg Biekert recovered the ball.
The Raiders were all but in the AFC Championship game, but that was before head referee Walt Coleman changed the course of NFL history with his call.
After replay review, Coleman enacted the ‘Tuck Rule,’ a rule that was eventually abolished in 2013.
Per the NFL rulebook, the Tuck Rule stated, “When [an offensive] player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body.
“Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble.”
It was determined that Brady was trying to tuck the ball back into his body, thus overturning the call and making it an incompletion.
The legendary Patriot quarterback would retain possession and drive the length of the field for Vinatieri to kick a 45-yard field goal in the snow, tying the game at 13 and sending it into overtime.
From there, Vinatieri would kick a 23-yard field goal to win what became known as the ‘Tuck Rule Game’ for Brady and the Patriots.
In Super Bowl XXXVI later that season, Vinatieri kicked a 48-yard field goal on the final play of the game to give the Patriots their first Super Bowl victory, a 20–17 upset win over the ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ St. Louis Rams, who were 14-point favorites coming into the game at the Superdome in New Orleans
Vinatieri had quite literally kick-started the Patriots dynasty, and was a key contributor in subsequent Super Bowl victories at the end of the 2003 and 2004 NFL seasons.
He eventually joined the Indianapolis Colts, kicking three field goals in Super Bowl XLI to win his fourth world championship ring.
However, he very much remains a Patriots legend, having been named to the New England Patriots All-1990s Team, New England Patriots All-2000s Team, New England Patriots 50th Anniversary Team, and New England Patriots All-Dynasty Team.
Vinatieri’s Patriots legacy continues to live on to this day.
In Boston’s TD Garden, some 30 miles from the kicker’s old stomping ground in Foxborough, Vinatieri’s contributions to the Patriots are forever enshrined in the arena’s museum.
Specifically, his old boots, which he used to kick those three legacy-defining field goals in early 2002, are encased among the rare memorabilia paying homage to the Patriots dynasty.
However, there’s something oddly curious about Vinatieri’s old shoes.
The right shoe (his kicking foot) is visibly smaller, purposefully giving him a tighter fit so that he could generate more power with his kicks.
Not only is it smaller, it’s also a soccer cleat, which are traditionally lighted and thinner than NFL cleats, and help create more power between the ball and the foot with better contact between them.
Most NFL kickers will now wear a much longer, sharper cleat on their non-kicking foot in order to better “plant” the foot and minimize the chance of slippage, especially in rainy or snowy conditions.
It’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly this nifty cleats trick became commonplace in the NFL.
But Vinatieri was certainly one of its early practitioners, and now the practice is rife among kickers in the modern NFL.
Vinatieri is a legend in more ways than one.
But it’s safe to say that without his ingenuity, accuracy, nerve, and huge kicking leg, Brady’s Patriots legacy would be looked upon very differently to what it is now.
talkSPORT were treated to a VIP tour of TD Garden by Meet Boston ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where a total of seven matches will be played at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium.
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