Is Longtime Kicker Adam Vinatieri Ready To Call It A Career In The NFL?

Good kickers in the NFL are usually invisible until they get hurt or they retire.

This story pertains to an example of the latter, a future Hall of Fame kicker who may have been the very best in all of football since he entered the league back in 1996.

That player is Adam Vinatieri, a kicker whose career can only be described with one word - great.

Vinatieri is closing in on 50 (that's hard to believe) and will reach that mark in about a year and a half. He's really never discussed whether he wants to play till he's 50, after he's 50, or walk away just before he hits 50.

He's the NFL’s all-time leading scorer, and is still ready for one possible go-around in the 2021 season. He is a free agent, but he would likely catch on somewhere once camps open.

The problem that Vinatieri is going to have is his knee, which he admits hasn't bounced back like he'd hoped.

A return to the NFL isn’t possible if his knee doesn't start to respond.

Right now, he's taking it day by day, and he continues to hope that his knee turns the corner enough for him to kick again.

“Like I said, I’m continuing to do stuff to try and get there. It’s just not … there might be a time to officially do that here in the near future.”

Vinatieri hasn’t kicked in an NFL game since December of 2019.

Vinatieri has played in five total Super Bowls, four with the Patriots and one with the Colts, winning four.