There’s been a lot of chatter surrounding the New England Patriots and their Hall of Fame snubs in the buildup to Super Bowl LX. However, as Mike Vrabel recently noted, the Pats still may not get shutout, as legendary kicker Adam Vinatieri could still get elected on Thursday night.
With both former head coach Bill Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft eligible to be inducted into the Hall this year, the expectation was that one, if not both, of them would be granted entry into the exclusive club. Instead, neither guy got the required number of votes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Vinatieri could still gain entry, though. While he spent just 10 seasons of his 24-year career with the Patriots, Vinatieri is most well-known for his legendary field goals during the early days of New England’s dynasty. With Vinatieri set to find out his fate on Thursday night, Vrabel sent him some kind words before the 2025 NFL Honors.
“You always knew that when he kicked, they were gonna go in,” Vrabel said of Vinatieri. “That was just kind of what we always thought and knew … Everybody means a lot to the team. During those years that I was here, Adam was certainly one of those players that meant a lot to the football team and to our success.”
Vinatieri earned three Pro Bowl and All-Pro First Team selections throughout his career, but more importantly, he won four Super Bowls during his time in the league. Three of those came with New England, and in the first two, he hit game-winning field goals as time expired.
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Simply put, nobody has the same resume of hitting legendary kicks that Vinatieri has. After seeing Belichick and Kraft get snubbed from the Hall of Fame, though, it’s clear that anything can happen with this voting process, and fans will be eager to find out whether or not Vinatieri received enough votes to earn his spot in the Hall.
