Sunday, September 8, 1996. Rich Stadium, Buffalo, NY.

Rookie kicker Adam Vinatieri, in his second-ever NFL game, misses three kicks — including an extra point. The New England Patriots, the team that signed Vinatieri as an undrafted free agent just a few months prior, lose 17-10. Vinatieri thinks he might get cut. He knows his job in the NFL is not guaranteed unless he can turn it around and prove himself.

Thursday, February 5, 2026. San Francisco, Calif.

30 years later, a 53-year-old Vinatieri — after playing in the NFL for 24 seasons and becoming the league's all-time leading scorer — becomes a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility.

Safe to say he turned it around.

Vinatieri still remembers that afternoon in Buffalo, recalling the rain, wind and other impactful elements that made Vinatieri call any kicker or punter that signed with the Bills a "glutton for punishment."

"I remember coach (Bill) Parcells — I literally looked at our sideline and it looked like his head was going to explode and he's screaming at me and I really wanted to walk to the other sideline at that point," Vinatieri recalled. "But that week, the following week, I remember him saying to the media, 'Our kicker is week-to-week.' Which, I know what that means. That means if you have one more bad game, you're never going to be heard of ever again. And as a rookie without having years of experience, it's not like another team is going to give you another opportunity, probably."

The pressure was on, and it was full-force. And just two weeks later, Vinatieri made five-of-six field goal attempts against the Jacksonville Jaguars, including a game-winning 40-yard field goal in overtime. That was all the young kicker needed.

"It was kind of like — I wouldn't say smooth sailing, it's never smooth sailing, you always have to continue to work and continue to do your job," Vinatieri explained. "But at that point, it was almost — the switch got flipped and the rest of the season really took off well. And then I think at that point, I think I just built a lot of confidence knowing you can have a bad game, everybody has a bad game, we're all human, but turn around and refocus in and get that monkey off your back and get back out there and start helping your team win games, not hurting your team."

It didn't take long for Vinatieri to make waves nationally, as he would kick the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXXVI to lead the Patriots to their first ever Super Bowl victory and then do the same thing two years later in Super Bowl XXXVIII. In doing so, he became the first player ever to be the deciding factor in two Super Bowl games.

"At that point, a lot of the analysts (and) reporter people started being like, you know, this is big stuff, this is unprecedented things that you're accomplishing at this point," Vinatieri said. "And at that point, I felt like I've only been in the league for 8-10 years, my book's not even halfway written yet. So I felt like I just needed to keep stacking. And it wasn't ever about that, it was always about trying to help my team win games every year."

And in his first year with the Colts in 2006, Vinatieri connected on 14 field goals to help the Colts win their their first Super Bowl since moving to Indianapolis — including making three field goals against the Patriots to win the AFC Championship.

Vinatieri remained with the Colts through 2019 before announcing his retirement, ending his career as a four-time Super Bowl Champion and the owner of a litany of NFL records which he still holds to this day. Widely regarded as the greatest kicker in NFL history, Vinatieri is the NFL's all-time leader in field goal attempts (715), field goals made (599) and points scored (2,763). He was a three-time AP All Pro and Pro Bowler (2002, 2004, 2014) and his ability to hit crucial kicks time and time again under pressure on the biggest stage made him an invaluable member of all the teams he was a part of, especially those four Super Bowl teams. Vinatieri was also named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2000s first team and the NFL 100 All-Time Team.

The general consensus for a great deal of people in and around the NFL was that Vinatieri was a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer, and when he was not selected for the Class of 2025 in his first year of eligibility, many were surprised.

"He should have gotten in," Pro Football Hall of Fame selector Mike Chappell said in December. "Talk about clean resumes, it's that one. It's 24 years. Most points regular season, most points postseason, the two Super Bowl kicks with the kicks that he won...For one player to have that many defining plays, and if this is any other player at any other position, he would have gotten in and it would have been almost unanimous. But there is that kicker — that special teams stigma to this...with Vinatieri, I just didn't understand it."

Vinatieri himself, though, never really thought it about all that much.

"You can sit there and think and worry and dream about (it) and all that stuff, you know, it'll take its course the way it does," Vinatieri said in December. "I've been very very blessed to play a long time and be with some amazing coaches and some amazing players and all that stuff, so I've got a hope that at some point I'll make it, like we all hope, but if it happens this year I'll be super excited about it.

"It's just one of those things that it's just acknowledgement of a pretty good career, a really good career at the end, and honestly the only thing I can say about that is yeah I made a bunch of kicks, but the guys in front of me and the guys around me are the reason why I was on the field to start with. So it's a huge honor and it's a huge honor for my teammates as well, because I couldn't do it without them."

Vinatieri now becomes just the third kicker to be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, alongside Jan Stenerud (inducted 1991) and Morten Andersen (inducted 2017).

"Everyone agrees that he's the greatest kicker, the greatest clutch kicker," Chappell said. "If you have one kick in the big game in his prime...if you had that one kick, you'd be going with Vinatieri."