Friday is the deadline for the New England Patriots to get a deal done with kicker Adam Vinatieri, and according to a quote by Vinatieri in the Orlando Sentinal on Thursday it almost sounds like the veteran has already come to grips with leaving the only team he's known during his time in the NFL.
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Vinatieri also told the Sentinal that he is happy to be facing unrestricted free agency for the first time after being hit with the team's franchise tag twice. Had New England tagged him again this year he would have made $3.01 million next season.
Bill Belichick recently said that the team didn't frachise Vinatieri again this year because they didn't feel it "was the right thing to do." He also admitted that should Vinatieri reach free agency they would cross that bridge when they finally came to it, and he's now one day away from that reality. Fans may have a tough time speaking of Vinatieri in the past tense, however he already seems to be. Unfortunately that doesn't make his chances of staying in Foxboro sound very promising.
This is an archived article originally published on
March 2, 2006.
Content reflects the editorial context of its original publication date.
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