The Patriots announced their next induction into the team’s Hall of Fame on Monday:
Not Adam Vinatieri.
It will be someone who isn’t the best clutch kicker of all time.
Someone who didn’t make a kick in the Snow Bowl against the Raiders to keep the Patriots’ first championship run alive.
They will induct someone else, not the guy who:
- Kicked a game-winning field goal with no time left to beat the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.
- Kicked a game-winning field goal with 4 seconds left to beat the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
- Kicked a field goal in the fourth quarter against the Eagles that provided the margin of victory in Super Bowl XXXIX.
If Vinatieri wasn’t one of the most reliable clutch kickers in the history of the sport, the Patriots’ entire stature as a franchise is different.
Bill Belichick’s place in history is different. His respect among fans, his peers and even among his players wouldn’t have been the same if all of his methods didn’t lead to rings. And as well as he coached, that could have been derailed by a missed kick in a big spot.
Tom Brady is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of fall time. Joe Montana and Peyton Manning each have stronger cases in the argument if Brady has fewer rings. And he might have fewer if Vinaitieri was elsewhere.
Julian Edelman was a great player and pretty obviously belongs in the Patriots Hall of Fame. His unique and unlikely success story is the embodiment of how the Patriots like to see themselves as a franchise. A scrappy underdog that overcomes long odds to find greatness.
But he was never named an All-Pro or even went to the Pro Bowl, and he wasn’t better than Vinatieri, who has the most field goals in NFL history.
For all the hand-wringing about how long it took Bill Parcells to get in, Vinatieri being left out is a bigger injustice. When the Patriots were trying to win their first Super Bowl in 1997 against the Packers, Parcells was plotting his move to New England’s arch rival.
Vinatieri left too, but only because the Patriots weren’t willing to commit the same salary cap space to a kicker that the Colts were.
The problem is the process. As of now, a collection of media and former Patriots players, coaches and staffers vote for who goes on the ballot and then fans decide who gets in.
A Hall of Fame committee consisting of mostly media, staff and Patriots alumni gather to nominate players to be the next Hall inductee. A candidate must be four years removed from his playing/coaching career to be eligible for induction. Committee members are permitted time to nominate a candidate of their choice and explain why that player should be considered. At the end of that process, each committee member votes for his/her top three choices with 5 points for the first choice, 3 for the second and 1 for the third. Those finishing in the top three in points are then placed on the final ballot, which is announced and then voted on by fans via www.patriots.com.
A large percentage of fans always vote based on recency and visibility. That’s especially true of an online vote.
Vinatieri is a New England icon, but he’s far less visible in retirement than Edelman. In a baseball hat and street clothes, Vinatieri could walk through Faneuil Hall on a weekend and not be recognized until he pulls out his credit card.
On the other hand, Edelman is on TV, podcasts and commercials for Dunkin’, Hard Seltzer and seemingly any other advertiser who asks. None of that is a bad thing. But it doesn’t make him more worthy of a Patriots red Hall of Fame jacket.
When the Patriots’ Hall was created, it was much harder to conceive of the log jam that would be created by having so many great players so close together. Robert Kraft, of all people, should appreciate it. Canton’s convoluted process, which needs to be updated, is keeping him out.
Still, it’s easy to correct. Robert Kraft can adjust and tweak the Patriots Hall’s process however he wants and there are several ways to do it.
A simple fix could look like this:
As of now, the top three vote-getters from the committee go on the ballot. If the fans vote for the same No. 1 as the committee, then that one guy goes in. If the committee chooses one guy and the fans pick somebody else, then induct them both.
A year from now, Vinatieri won’t get in either. If he doesn’t beat Edelman, he won’t beat Rob Gronkowski, who has way more standing than Edelman.
Vinatieri won’t be the last one to run into this. The greatness of Matthew Slater and David Andrews is harder to quantify in the positions they played, which will make both easier for fans to forget years from now.
This isn’t the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And getting snubbed from a team hall isn’t as devastating. But for the players, getting in matters. It validates what they’ve accomplished. For the Patriots, who don’t have a ring of honor and rarely retire numbers, this is the best post-career recognition they bestow on one of their own.
Vinatieri deserves that. No need to make him wait.
