Adam Vinatieri, the Greatest Kicker in History and the NFL's All Time Leading Scorer, Announces His Retirement

Nancy Kerrigan. Getty Images.

It's rare that you ever get to unequivocally say someone was the best there has ever been at what they do. The differences of opinion on who was better than whom in any field of endeavor is raw material that has built an infinite number of arguments down through the ages. Between scholars, philosophers, theologians, historians, generals, admirals, artists, musicians, statisticians, barflys and sports radio hacks alike. 

But sometimes there is no debate. Where the numbers and the moments and the longevity all belong to one individual. Where you can't deny their greatness because of what era they belonged to or come up with some arcane advanced analysis to argue against them. This is one such case. 

Adam Vinatieri is, by any way you want to measure it, the greatest kicker in NFL history. Hard stop. End of discussion. And today he announced he's delivered his last kick in a career that began, not surprisingly, in a Super Bowl season. The first of six in his career. At that rookie year was … 1996. 

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It's a bold statement to say of Vinatieri's not one but TWO last second, game winning field goals to win Super Bowls, that neither of them were the best kick of his career. That honor will always go to the kick through a blizzard - which Patriots radio play-by-play legend Gil Santos referred to as "a maelstrom" - to tie the Snow Bowl. (And just by way of clarification, "Snow Bowl" is the proper term in New England. The rest of the country still calls it "The Tuck Rule Game," in the way that old Southerners used to call the Civil War "The War of Northern Aggression.") 

With 0:27 left. On a field that had all the traction of a luge track. Through a crosswind. In the middle of a shaken snow globe. When his team had to have it or their championship run was over. He drilled it. From 45 frigging yards. That's why it rates above the 48-yarder he hit in the Superdome to beat the Rams two weeks later or the 40-yard chip shot he nailed to beat the Panthers three years later. So iconic was that kick, that you can watch it on a continuous loop in a simulated snow storm at the Patriots Hall of Fame. 

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Fun fact, just as an aside: I met a guy who was working on the chain gang for that game. And he said when the Tuck Rule was invoked, turning a fumble into an incomplete pass, the officials left it where it was recovered, New England ball. This guy's crew correctly pointed out it should be moved to the original line of scrimmage, five yards closer to the Oakland end zone. Vinatieri's kick was good by about 2-3 yards. I said to him, "Dude. You're Forrest Gump." 

For a lot of athletes, that one alone would have been enough to make a career. Vinatieri kept it up. Through the aforementioned Rams game:

… which was the first of his four rings. He kept it up over 24 seasons with two franchises. Through his relentless assault on Morten Andersen's points record. And through so many postseason field goals that the supercut of all of them - that the NFL video police will never let me post here - takes over 8 minutes to watch.

Right now, the only pure kickers in the Hall of Fame are Andersen and Jan Stenerud. They're about to have company. And if Adam Vinatieri is not a first ballot Patriots Hall of Famer, then the building ought to just be padlocked for good. Because there he goes, the best there ever was in this kicking game.