The NFL’s oldest player is going to try to break the league’s career scoring record.
If Adam Vinatieri gets his way Julian Love Jersey , it might not be the only record to fall.
On Thursday, the 45-year-old kicker signed a one-year deal to stay with the Indianapolis Colts – a deal he insists may not be his last.
Financial details were not immediately available, though the deal is believed to be in the neighborhood of last season’s $3 million salary. Vinatieri also noted during a conference call that he will receive a $250,000 bonus if he makes 88 percent of his field goal attempts next season after missing barely missing out on a bonus for making 90 percent in 2017.
But money isn’t the reason Vinatieri returned. He is playing well, wants to win and needs 58 points to surpass Morten Andersen as the league’s top scorer.
”I know 57, 58 points away is definitely within reach this year if I stay healthy and all that,” said Vinatieri, who has scored 2,487 points. ”I really wanted to break that record wearing a Colts helmet where I’ve played the majority of the years in my career now.”
Vinatieri made his intentions clear late last year that he wanted to play a 24th pro season and his preference was to stay in Indianapolis, where he has developed deep roots since joining the Colts as a free agent in 2006.
General manager Chris Ballard quickly let Vinatieri know the team wanted him back. The combination made Indy’s first major offseason move pretty simple.
”This process was substantially easier than it was maybe a couple years ago,” Vinatieri said. ”I know when Chris and I had conversations after the season I expressed to him how if everything was moving in the right direction and everything was going to get taken care of, how much I would like to be here and continue my career here. He expressed to me that he also wanted me to keep playing here. So the process was pretty easy.”
Vinatieri acknowledged hiring Frank Reich as the new coach also helped persuade him to come back.
Reich takes over a team that went 4-12 in 2017 and played without Andrew Luck the entire season. The quarterback is still rehabbing from surgery he had on his throwing shoulder 13 months ago.
The good news is Reich knows he can count on the best clutch kicker in league history.
Vinatieri earned his reputation by making two Super Bowl-winning kicks with the New England Patriots.
But his legacy runs much deeper. He won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, a fourth championship with the Colts after the 2006 season and nearly added a fifth despite finishing the 2009 season on injured reserve.
Patriot fans also remember Vinatieri for making two field goals in a driving snowstorm – one to force the overtime, the other to win it – in the infamous ”Tuck Rule” playoff game that helped New England win its first Super Bowl title. He rekindled those images in December when he made a long extra point to help force overtime in a blizzard at Buffalo.
But the Colts are more concerned with productivity than records and so far, they’ve seen no indication Vinatieri is slowing down.
”Adam is one the best players in NFL history and we are excited to keep him in Indianapolis,” Ballard said in a statement. ”He continues to play at a high level and his experience and production are valuable assets for our team. Adam is the consummate pro and a key leader in our locker room.”
He needs nine field goals to pass Gary Anderson for second all-time and 36 to break Andersen’s career record of 565.
If he sticks around a few more years, as he suggested he might, Vinatieri won’t just be chasing Anderson and Andersen.
He also would be within striking distance of surpassing George Blanda as the oldest player to ever play in the NFL at 48 years, 109 days. Vinatieri would break the mark if he plays in the 2021 season opener.
”Less concerned about that one,” Vinatieri said, chuckling. ”I guess I’ll take these one year at a time and see where it ends up. I would anticipate if I can stay healthy and be productive, I can anticipate catching up to Morten midseason or thereabout, and I guess at the end of the year I’d be 46. I’m not putting anything out of reach.”
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Philadelphia’s first Super Bowl parade provided catharsis Thursday for hundreds of thousands of Eagles fans, deliriously joyful after decades without a title and relishing the national spotlight on a team that few outside the city thought could win it all.
Fans clad in Eagles green jammed the streets from dawn near the stadium to an afternoon rally at the city’s famed ”Rocky” steps, lining up 20 deep in spots to catch a glimpse of the champs. The Eagles rode in open-top double decker buses to the art museum that Sylvester Stallone made famous for a rally nearly 60 years in the making.
Center Jason Kelce gave voice to every frustrated Philly fan with a remarkable, impassioned and profane speech that had him defending the general manager, the coach and a litany of players who supposedly weren’t smart enough Quinnen Williams Jersey , big enough or talented enough to win a championship.
”We were a bunch of underdogs,” shouted Kelce, channeling Rocky himself. ”Bottom line is we wanted it more!”
And so did football-crazed Philly – desperately.
Until Sunday’s 41-33 victory over the favored New England Patriots, the Eagles remained the only team in their division without a Super Bowl title – an ongoing humiliation that gave Philly an inferiority complex and made Eagles fans an easy target for fans of other teams, especially the rival Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.
”This Super Bowl championship is for you,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told the vast crowd. ”You are the most passionate and deserving sports fans on the planet. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
Added Super Bowl MVP quarterback Nick Foles: ”We finally did it. We’re Super Bowl champs!”
The parade began at the Eagles’ stadium complex and slowly made its way up Broad Street past the cheering throngs. Carrying the Lombardi Trophy, coach Doug Pederson walked part of the route – allowing fans to touch the gleaming hardware – while Lurie held a sign saying ”THANK YOU FANS” as he stood next to the team’s three quarterbacks: Foles, injured starter Carson Wentz and third-stringer Nate Sudfeld.
Dan Tarvin, 29, was pumped after getting to high-five Pederson and GM Howie Roseman, who was instrumental in putting together a squad expected to compete for championships for years to come.
”They are more than heroes. They’re legends. They’re immortal in this city, forever,” Tarvin said.
”This is the greatest day!” Carter said. ”Besides God, my kids and my wife, it’s Eagles. That’s all there is. My family and then Eagles, and this is the greatest day of my life, ever.”
Schools, museums, courts, government offices and even the Philadelphia Zoo were shut down so the city could fete an underdog Eagles team that few outside Philadelphia thought had a prayer of beating the mighty Patriots led by superstar quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
Organizers prepared for as many as 2 million people, though city officials didn’t release a crowd estimate.
Terry Gallen, a fan from Glen Mills, in the Philadelphia suburbs, said he ”broke down like a baby and cried” when the Eagles won the Super Bowl.
”It means everything,” Gallen said. ”We’re loving it.”
At the rally Chuma Edoga Jersey , Lurie, Pederson and a slew of players all took the microphone and dedicated Sunday’s victory to the fans.
But it was the crowd-pleasing Kelce who best channeled the gruff but ultimately good-hearted ”attytood” for which Philadelphians are famous.
Wearing an outlandishly sequined Mummers getup – a nod to Philadelphia’s raucous New Year’s Day parade – Kelce declared that ”no one wanted us. No analyst liked to see us win the Super Bowl. And nobody likes our fans.”
He then led the crowd in a jolly – and filthy – chant set to the tune of ”My Darling Clementine”: ”No one likes us, no one likes us, no one likes us, we don’t care!” The big-bearded lineman uttered at least two profanities that made it onto live TV, recalling Chase Utley’s similarly profane speech at the Phillies’ World Series parade 10 years ago.
Police investigated at least two stabbings on parade day, including one man stabbed inside a mall just off the route. No details about his condition were released. A second man was taken to a hospital with a stab wound, and police said they were trying to piece together what happened. City officials said they wouldn’t have arrest numbers until Friday.
The parade was overwhelmingly peaceful, though, giving fans an emotional release after decades of disappointment.
For lots of fans, the parade was a reminder of the Phillies’ victory lap after a 28-year World Series title drought.
For others, it took on spiritual shades of the pope’s visit in 2015.
”It is like a religion,” said Kevin Fry, 37 http://www.newyorkjetsteamonline.com/trevon-wesco-jersey , of Prospect Park in suburban Philadelphia, a press operator at the Inquirer and Daily News who helped print 700,000 copies of the Super Bowl edition that proclaimed ”At Last!”
And for Natasha Curley, 31, a janitor from Trenton, New Jersey, the Super Bowl title means that rival fans can stop their yapping – at least till next season.
”This stops all the hate,” Curley said. ”They got nothing to say now.”
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Associated Press reporter Kristen De Groot in Philadelphia and Michael Rubinkam
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12.06.2019 08:50
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