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Back in November when the NFL announced the 25 modern-era semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, here's what I wrote about legendary New England Patriots/Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, who I picked as one of my six selections for the Hall of Fame Class of 2025:
Sure, only two players who have played placekicker exclusively have made the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that number is about to grow by one. Nobody has played in more combined regular season and postseason games than Adam Vinatieri. Nobody has scored more points. Unofficially, nobody has made more clutch kicks, and no kicker is more worthy of being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Along with Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud, Vinatieri was named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary Team, so there shouldn't be much debate as to whether Vinatieri is going to be heading to Canton this summer.
Well, imagine my embarrassment when earlier this week Adam Vinatieri — and four of my other six selections as well — missed out on the Hall of Fame. Vinatieri's snub was met not only with near universal disapproval but also confusion, considering how as I pointed out a little over two and a half months ago, he was named one of the NFL's 100 greatest players less than five years ago. Shoot, he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame's All-Decade Team in the 2000's, so it's not as if this voting bloc doesn't understand his contributions.
Now I could sit here and say that I don't understand why Vinatieri's snub happened, but the fact of the matter is, I do know why it happened. It happened because for whatever reason, the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee has woefully underappreciated the contributions and Hall of Fame credentials of special teams players. And prior to Vinatieri's snub during this recent voting cycle, it was already perfectly clear that this was the case when it took Devin Hester until his 3rd year on the ballot to make the cut.
Over the summer, when I ranked the ten greatest Chicago Bears players ever, in my section on Hester, I wrote the following:
There should be a general rule of them that comes with Hall of Fame qualification that states, ‘If you're the best player in the history of the NFL at the position you played, you're in,' and that means Hester should've been in on his first attempt, because there is no better, more dynamic, or more feared return man in the history of pro football than Devin Hester.
Unfortunately, the Pro Football Hall of Fame didn't take my suggestion into account over the last seven months, because if they had, we wouldn't be in this mess where the defining kicker of the last quarter-century of professional football missed out on making the Hall of Fame.
Now if I wanted to play devil's advocate here and argue against Adam Vinatieri's Hall of Fame case, I would point to the fact that Vinatieri was only named an All-Pro three times in his 24 year NFL career, or that he didn't have the biggest leg — his career long is only 57 yards — or that he had more seasons in which he hit under 80 percent of his field goals (eight seasons) than he did seasons with a field goal percentage of 90 percent or better (five seasons).
To anyone making those arguments, I'd respond that you're focusing on the numbers that don't matter as much, and more importantly, the kicks that aren't as memorable.
Clutch kicks alone should've sealed Adam Vinatieri's Hall of Fame case
Perhaps even more problematic to Adam Vinatieri's Hall of Fame case than the selection committee's disregard for special teams players is that there is no official criteria for how the Hall of Fame is expected to consider the iconic moments that make up the beautiful tapestry that is the history of the game of professional football.
Here's what I mean by that… shouldn't it count for something that Adam Vinatieri had made some of the most iconic field goals in the 100-plus year history of pro football? Why doesn't it matter that the right leg of Vinatieri was not once, but twice responsible for the game-winning field goal in a Super Bowl, or that it was the very same leg that delivered in blizzard-like conditions, once to kick start the Patriots dynasty in the Tuck Rule Game, and then once again, nearly 17 years later, in snowy Buffalo, hitting on a 43-yard PAT that very few kickers ever would've been able to hit?
lol this is crazy pic.twitter.com/5x6ernRBcZ
— Ian Valentino (@NFLDraftStudy) December 10, 2017
In reality, those clutch kicks unfortunately only count for either 3 points or 1 point, but when you add all of Vinatieri's kicks up, it comes to 2,673 points, the most in NFL history. And again, I wonder why wasn't that enough to get Vinatieri in the Hall?
