Gostkowski Sets the Mark For Future Players to Reach in New England
Replacing an elite player is never easy. It's even safe to say that it's probably a little tougher when you're an NFL kicker, especially considering all the responsibilities that go along with it.
After all, they're the guys who are in the spotlight more so than many other positions and have the most pressure on them to perform essentially kick-to-kick. It's not like other positions where even a quarterback can have a series of bad throws. If a quarterback misses five or six straight passes, they generally have an opportunity to battle through it and bounce back. If a kicker misses five or six straight kicks, they're usually looking for work.
When Stephen Gostkowski arrived in New England he was replacing an incredibly consistent player in Adam Vinatieri, who had already made enough clutch kicks to endear him to a fan base that had seen him come through in so many key situations. Those were some big shoes to fill, and after battling his way into the league as an undrafted free agent in 1996, the former standout from South Dakota unseated a well-known kicker for the Patriots at the time in Matt Bahr, who was also a yet another consistent kicker for then head coach Bill Parcells.
Vinatieri was with New England for a decade, amassing 1158 career points as the Patriots' all time leading scorer before leaving via free agency in 2006 and signing in Indianapolis. It was a good move for Vinatieri, who moved to a team where he could kick indoors and it likely helped extend his career, as he's still there today at the age of 41.
Losing Vinatieri meant the Patriots needed someone to replace him, and the team selected Stephen Gostkowski in the fourth round of the NFL draft with the 118th overall pick. At the time it was hard to imagine someone taking over the kicking duties and performing any where near the level of Vinatieri, yet here he is all these years later and he's now eclipsed Vinatieri as the all-time leading franchise scorer with 1,160 points following his 35-yard field goal in the third quarter of Sunday's win over Miami.
 Gostkowski is now the Patriots all-time leading scorer. (USA TODAY Images) |
A lot of coaches in the league generally don't have the luxury of having two guys who played so well for so long, and Bill Belichick acknowledged after the game Sunday how fortunate he is to have Gostkowski on his roster.
“Steve’s done a great job for us," said Belichick. "We all know that this area of the country and this division’s certainly not the easiest to kick in. He does a very good job of handling the conditions, he’s got a good leg so he’s got range on kickoffs and long field goals, with good height on the ball. Good team player, always there to support his teammates, everybody in the locker room likes him, he has a good rapport with everybody.
"You’re right, I’ve been really lucky. Adam [Vinatieri], Steve, Shayne [Graham] came in here, didn’t miss a kick the half a year that he kicked or whatever it was. Since I’ve been here they’ve all done a great job, but Steve, those are big shoes to follow there with Adam and he’s never blinked. He’s always kicked with a lot of confidence, a lot of poise, a lot of focus. He’s kicked with a lot of different holders, different snappers, not the easiest conditions, but he does his job. He’s very focused, and he’s been a really dependable player for us. I love having him on the team. He’s a great asset to this football team both on and off the field, the locker room and productively when we need him, of course.”
Gostkowski told ESPN Boston following Sunday's win that his family was on hand to see him achieve the milestone, and that they don't generally come to many games. Fortunately they picked a good one to be at on Sunday.
“It was cool. It was a special game for me,” Gostkowski said. “It is my son’s birthday tomorrow. The whole family is in town. Just a coincidence of something like that happening at home with a lot of people in town. It was cool because my family doesn’t come to many games, just happened to come to this one and made it a little more special.
“I looked over [at my family] after they announced it and my family was really excited and they were jumping up and down.”
It's an incredible achievement and Gostkowski has certainly been a valuable player since he's been here. At the age of just 30-years old he likely still has plenty of football left in front of him, which is good news for Patriots fans who will hopefully see him continue to add to his franchise point total in the years ahead. It's amazing when you consider the fact that all the talk centered around how he'd be able to fill Vinatieri's shoes when he got here and live up to those expectations. Now he'll someday be the player mentioned each time the Patriots bring in someone else when his days of kicking here come to an end.
For now the recognition is something he said he appreciates, and he also said he'll be more excited about what he's done once his career is over.
“Something like that doesn’t really set it,” Gostkowski said. “I’ve said this before, any accomplishment that I make will be something that I will look back on when I’m done playing and be excited about and probably brag to my kids and grandkids about.”
Hopefully for the team's sake, that won't be for a long time.
