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The NFL’s oldest player is going to try to break the league’s career scoring record.
If Adam Vinatieri gets his way Youth Martinas Rankin 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.
Vinatieri is the last active player from NFL Europe, and he has been around long enough to remind reporters he once tackled Herschel Walker.
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 http://www.bearsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-roquan-smith-jersey , 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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Cast aside once in Philadelphia, Nick Foles delivered the city its first Super Bowl title.
He outdueled the great Tom Brady to do it.
”Being a part of this and being drafted to Philadelphia, and being fortunate enough to come back and be a part of this team, to be a piece of this puzzle, I mean, it’s been a long time coming and I know there’s going to be a lot of celebrating tonight,” Foles said.
Foles, who took over when Carson Wentz injured his right knee in mid-December, matched Brady, the five-time champion and three-time MVP, big play for big play Sunday in leading the Eagles past the New England Patriots 41-33 .
After an unusually slow start, Brady led the favored Patriots to scores on five of six possessions, and Foles kept right on coming http://www.bearsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-anthony-miller-jersey , executing coach Doug Pederson’s aggressive calls.
”I wasn’t worrying about the scoreboard, I wasn’t worrying about the time, I was just playing ball,” Foles said. ”I think sometimes you start worrying about that too much, it starts creeping in your brain. I was just playing, whatever play Doug called, I was just going to go out there and rip it.”
After watching Brady put the Patriots ahead 33-32 with 9:22 left, Foles drove the Eagles 75 yards in 14 plays, hitting tight end Zach Ertz from 11 yards on third-and-7 for the go-ahead TD with 2:21 left.
That drive lasted a tick more than seven minutes and kept Brady cooling his cleats on the sideline while allowing the Eagles’ exhausted defenders to catch their collective breath in a game that featured 1,151 total yards, the most in any NFL game in the Super Bowl era.
That meant the world when Brady got the ball back and Brandon Graham swept in and jarred the ball loose for the game’s lone sack. Derek Barnett smothered it at the 31 with just over two minutes remaining, and Jake Elliott’s 46-yard field goal, the longest in a Super Bowl by a rookie, made it an eight-point cushion.
It also gave Brady just a minute to work his magic.
He started at his 9 with 58 seconds remaining and drove the Patriots to midfield before time ran out on New England as a desperation pass fell in the end zone.
Foles searched out Brady, but never did find him in all the chaos and confetti.
”I didn’t get to see Tom. I was looking for Tom. It got pretty crazy really fast,” Foles said. ”I mean, he’s one of the greatest of all time. He’s been unbelievable. He was unbelievable tonight. I can’t say enough about him.”
Brady threw for more yards – a playoff career-high 505 to Foles’ 373 – but Foles matched Brady’s three touchdown tosses and even caught another .
He hauled in tight end Trey Burton’s toss from the 1 that gave Philadelphia a 22-12 halftime edge and made him the first player in Super Bowl history to be on both ends of a touchdown pass in the same game.
Brady nearly beat him to it.
Although wide open, the ambling Brady couldn’t quite haul in receiver Danny Amendola’s high pass for what would have been a nifty over-the-shoulder reception which might have gone all 35 yards for the score.
That brought to mind Gisele Bundchen’s famous dig after one of Brady’s two losses to Eli Manning and the Giants in the Super Bowl http://www.texansauthorizedshops.com/authentic-justin-reid-jersey , when his supermodel wife responded to hecklers by complaining about the Patriots’ many dropped passes that day.
”You’ve to catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball,” she fumed. ”My husband cannot … throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.”
Nor could he haul in Amendola’s throw early in the second quarter with New England trailing 9-3.
Foles had never caught a pass in the NFL before his TD grab.
His only interception was a fluke, but it did help Brady and the Patriots staunch an early stumble to stay in it until the very end.
Foles was 28 of 43 and wasn’t sacked. Brady was 28 of 48, and while he didn’t throw any interceptions, his only sack was a doozy.
A third-round pick by former Eagles coach Andy Reid in 2012, Foles had tremendous success as a starter under Chip Kelly his sophomore season. He threw 29 TDs and two picks in 11 starts, including playoffs in 2013. Foles posted a passer rating of 119.2, third-highest in league history. He tied an NFL record with seven TD passes in a game at Oakland in November 2013 and won an offensive MVP award at a Pro Bowl.
But Foles was traded to St. Louis for Sam Bradford in March 2015. He lost his starting job to Case Keenum and asked for his release after Jared Goff was drafted No. 1 overall when the Rams relocated to Los Angeles. Foles even considered hanging up his cleats before Reid persuaded him to go to Kansas City to be Alex Smith’s backup.
”As people we deal with struggles and that was a moment in my life where I thought about it, I prayed about it,” Foles said of quitting. ”And I’m grateful that I made a decision to come back and play.”
So is Philadelphia, where Foles returned after one season with the Chiefs, signing a two-year, $12 million deal to provide insurance behind Wentz.
Now he’s a folk hero for a franchise that had gone 0 for 2 in Super Bowls, and for a legion of fans who were rooting for anybody other than the Patriots.
”Just to be in this moment,” Foles said, shaking his head. ”Unbelievable.”
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