Pats from the Past, Episode 44: Adam Vinatieri

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, it's time now for another episode of Packs from
the Past podcast Matt Smith.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Along with a halt rollo. We're pleased to be joined
by well, soon to be I don't know when year
re hired. I can't remember, so I don't I can't
do math. Looks he looks pretty good.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
But former Patriots kicker and soon to be Hall of
Fame kicker. We all hope Adam Vanitary. Adam, thank you
so much for coming here and joining us.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
Yeah, what a what an introduction.

Speaker 6 (00:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, let's tell fans what you're up to these days.
What are you?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
What is Adam Vanitary doing to keep himself busy these days?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, because you just retired, like last week, right, a couple.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
Of years now, I've been really enjoying some family life.
It's when you're when you're fifty now and just not
too long retired, you get you get to do a
lot of fun stuff. So been coaching both of my
sons in football and baseball, and and just really just
just kind of embracing the the opportunities of doing some
stuff that I never had the opportunity to do before.

(01:02):
So get into the honeydew list, get into stuff that
I've put off for years, and kind of just chipping
away at some things that I wanted to do a
lot of traveling. Have a ranch out in Missouri, so
I'd do a bunch of hunting and fishing and traveling
and doing some of that stuff. So just enjoying some
free time, and it's nice. It took me a long
time to reprogram my mind into the not get up

(01:25):
in the morning, get you a cup of coffee on
the way to work, and doing all the you know,
it really took me about two or three years to
decompress from football schedule and be able to watch the
news and drinking cup of coffee at a slower pace.
I guess so's it's kind of been a fun, fun
transition for me.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I think Patriot fans and football fans alike back in
February when the Super Bowl was around, they saw the
fan duel commercials and they said, well, who's this per
That's not Adam Van Terry. That's not the guy I remember.
So I think people a lot of people were going, wow,
look at and we'll talk about more of this later,
but you've sort of you informed yourself from the skinny

(02:01):
kicker that was chasing herschel walker down. You look like
you could be in a bodybuilding competition if you wanted
to tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
I don't know about that, but yeah, I've had a
lot of free time to stay in shape. My oldest
son is twenty years old trying to get into a
little bit of this influencing stuff. So he's kind of
been pushing me, helping me with diet. And you know, boy,
I tell you what, it's one of these things I
am holding on for dear life. He's shooting this away
and so he doesn't have me yet, but he's not

(02:30):
not far off. So I'm I think he helps me.
It's probably that competitive nature too that you have in football,
and it's fun kind of just doing some stuff that
way too. And and you know, I've always said like
people are like, you know, why why do you want
to do this? And the tongue in cheek answer is, hey,
you know what, when I get out of the shower,

(02:50):
I want to look better naked than I do with
my clothes off. And then it sounds silly and it's
not really, but at the end of the day, you know,
you know, at some point I'm going to continue to
keep getting older, and I just I just want to
feel good. I want to I want to keep my
body in shape. I want to be able to do
a bunch of stuff. And and looking in the mirror
and being proud of the hard work that you continue

(03:11):
to do is important to me.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, you should, shouldn't he look? He should be very
proud of how he looks in the mirror.

Speaker 6 (03:16):
Are you saying that you we're not proud of how
we look.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
No, I didn't say that, but that's what.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Whatever, So with.

Speaker 7 (03:23):
The I'm interested to coaching the kids too, And you
mentioned they're little old.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
How did you get a little bit.

Speaker 6 (03:30):
Of a coaching bug? Did you like that?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well?

Speaker 5 (03:33):
You know, yeah, well, well, and that's the fun thing. Well,
and that's the fun thing. High school plays on Friday nights,
and you know, you're always kind of one of these
you know, you go to a game, but and you
want to be part of it, but you're always thinking
about your own football stuff, and and you know you're
traveling on the weekend and and you miss out on
some of the stuff.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
So when they were young, I coached him in some.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
Soccer and stuff in the off season in the summertime
when you had some time. But but I really enjoyed
trying to help young and impressionable kids, you know, teach
them football, teach them, teach them all the right stuff,
you know, like how to take pride in your job.
And you're playing for the insignia on your head and
the nave on your back, and you know, so it's

(04:15):
not about just you, it's about your team and trying
to instill some morals that I've learned from Hall of
Fame coaches, some of the greatest people that I've been around.
A good goosebumps thinking about it, just because it's like,
it's fun to be able to share some experiences and
what you've learned through twenty four years of playing in.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
The National Football League. There's lots of lessons.

Speaker 5 (04:36):
To be learned, and teaching them football the x's and
o's is one thing, but teaching them how to be
accountable and how to help your team win, and hey,
this stuff is important.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
You know.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
In high school there's so many things. There's so many
things that are pulling them in different directions. If it's
school girls, parties, this that, and all that stuff, and
you're like, hey, you know, you get one shot at this,
you know, you might have X amount of years and
teaching them.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Hey listen, not many guys get to play in college.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
Not many guys even even a lot less get to
play in the in the pros. So for some of you,
this might be your last year if you're a senior
in high school, like, let's go out with a bang,
you know, let's do the best we can. And we've
had some success. Their teams have been to some of
the state championships and stuff.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
So it's I get that competitive side.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
I'm not on the field. It's more stressful for me
not being able to contribute on the field, you know,
trying to teach these kids that way.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
But but I enjoy it.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
And then my younger son is only is going into
eighth grade. He's the he's he's a wild man. He's
the redheaded crazy kid. Where he got the color, I
don't know, but but it's just so much fun teaching
those young kids and watching them grow and mature and
all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
So I love it.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
I I you know, it's not not getting paid to
do it, and it's not why you do it. It's
it's for the love of the game, and it truly
is and.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
And I think it's a ton of fun.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
It's awesome that you're able to do that with your kids.
And this one is a little bit different and probably
not a name of familiar to Patriot fans. Lets's they
really did a deep dive into your career at him,
But it's kind of similar like Doug Blevins, Like he
didn't have to help you, and I don't know how
instrumental he was in your career and maybe to help
set the stage before you do. Here's a guy who

(06:17):
is teaching a future Hall of Fame kicker how to kick.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Who's doing it from a wheelchair. How instrumental was he
in your career at him?

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Yeah, So my senior year in college, I would say
that people would say that he was raw. He had
good leg strength and power, but he was still raw.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
I didn't never got really any real coaching other than
what I learned on my own. You know, out kick
a ball and figure it out on your own. There's
not that many kicking coaches out there, and even as
many as there is, I think there's half of them
that actually know what they're talking about.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Right.

Speaker 5 (06:49):
So I met Brian Hansen, who was a guy that
was from South Dakota that was the punter for the Jets,
who had known Doug and working out with him. He said, hey,
go go goach this guy out.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
You know, he's passionate about it. He's pretty smart.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
Went out and worked out with Doug and he said,
you should move out here and work with me. And
so I moved to Abingdon, Virginia, got a job waiting
tables and helping the high school team out there, just
so I had a place to work out and kick
and all that stuff. And Doug and I worked for
a year, and I, you know, obviously hindsight, you know,
had an opportunity to play for the Amsterdam Admirals, which

(07:24):
was the NFL European League, and Doug was helping with
that league as well, and it kind of springboarded me
to the Patriots and the rest is history.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
You know, it's pretty pretty neat.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
But having along the way, I mean, there's so many,
you know, there's so many people that helped along the way.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
Obviously, have a great family and parents who who.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
Took care of me and gave me what I needed
and taught me their true life lessons.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
But coaches and you know, friends and people, you know.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
I mean, there's a million people that you can thank
for the success that you have. And I'm not just
talking to me. Anybody in life you could probably look
at that way too. But Doug was definitely helped helped
me develop my skills to the level that I needed
to get to and then from there.

Speaker 6 (08:09):
So what was that experience?

Speaker 7 (08:10):
Like, you get to meet Doug and you find out
he's got a little bit of a different circumstances, Matt said,
you know, not a guy that you would expect to
be a kicking expert in the situation that he was in.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
When we first thought he had cerebral palsy.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
I get to the airport, don't know that he's in
a wheelchair, gets wheeled up to me.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
Hey, Ada'm great to meet.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
You, you know, crippled hand and all this, and I
thought I was getting punked. Honestly, I was like looking around,
like this has got to be a joke, right, But
we later that day we went out onto the field
and he was he was a kicking coach and in
a wheelchair with a linebacker mentality right like he was.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
He was always fired up, always.

Speaker 5 (08:47):
Had a great attitude, always wanted a go go, go,
go go, And so I knew within minutes that he
not only knew what he was talking about, but I
knew right away that we were going to have a
good relationship, you know, moving forward. So spent the week
with him, and he said, you know what, I think
you got what it takes, but you need some fine tuning.
And he said, you know, how bad do you want it?

(09:07):
I said more than anything. He said, pack up, you know,
give a two week notice, pack up your stuff and
come out here. Get a job. We'll work together for
as long as it takes. So gave my two week
notice and he expected me there like three days later.
I drove through the night, got there and less than
a day and you know, his wife goes to check
the newspaper or whatever and sees that my truck is parked.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
You know, I'm sleeping in my truck.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
I didn't want to wake anybody up when I got
there at three o'clock in the morning. But yeah, you know,
he told the stories like man, when when I saw that,
I knew you were committed. So together we did some
great things.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
What was the.

Speaker 6 (09:40):
Experience like in Europe?

Speaker 7 (09:42):
You know, Patriots are obviously going to be heading to
Germany this year, but Amsterdam different kind of league.

Speaker 6 (09:49):
You know what am I getting myself into here?

Speaker 5 (09:51):
So I loved it. I loved my experience in Europe.
A lot of the guys who got allocated, so it
was kind of one of these most guys got allocated.
I just got drafted by the admirals to go and
play there. The guys that got allocated had probably a
different idea. It's like, oh man, you're demoting me to
the minor leagues and they didn't really want to do that.
For me, it was a stepping stone. I was like,

(10:13):
this might be the best opportunity that I'm going to
have to and.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
It's professional football.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
Now we're not getting paid a ton of money, but
you're getting to see a bunch of different countries. You
have a day off.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
I jumped on the train, went sight Seed on my
day off. I thought it was awesome.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
The level of football was another bump up from what
I was used to at the college level. And I
sat there and I was like, Hey, this is my
opportunity to show these NFL teams what I am about
what I have and so it was great because It
was a truly professional thing. You're not going to class anymore.
You're not worried about grades and all. This this is
about your skill on the football field. And fortunately for me,

(10:51):
it worked out pretty well and did pretty well.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
And you know, the.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
Patriots and the Colts were the two teams that were
really interested in me, and Mike's men was a special
teams coach that I talked to every week when I
was over there, and he said, listen, we've got an
older kicker, Matt Barr. He said, we just signed Tom
Tupez a punter. We don't have a guy that can
kick off, and we need a guy. And they said,
we're going to bring in a couple of rookies. The
best one is going to get a job. That's what

(11:15):
I was told. And I said, well, I'll roll the
dice with that. I'll give them what I got and
and at that, you know, you have to trust the
fact that they're telling you the truth. We get to
training camp, there's myself and a couple Blair Cully and
another rookie there and and it worked out. They ended
up cutting those guys and it was just Matt and
I and we were competing for the job, and and

(11:37):
Bill Parcells after the before the third preseason game, he said,
if I can say this or not, he said, well,
this kind of PG right, he said. He walked up,
you know, before the meetings, and he said, hey, Adam, this.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Is the deal.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Tomorrow. You're gonna take all the kicks. You're gonna take
all the field goals, extra points, kickoffs. He said, see
if you got what it takes, or if you pack
up your ship and go home.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
I said, he said, you are right with that? I said, yes, sir,
had a good game.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
And they cut Matt bar the next day and I
didn't even didn't even know. I walked into the building
the next day feeling pretty good that I kicked pretty
well in the game, and and he called me into
his office and he says, I don't want to hear
anything in the media about you beat out Matt and
this and that. At this point, I still didn't know
Matt wasn't here. I was like okay, And then all
of a sudden, the old Foxborough Stadium, the old dungeon.
We walked downstairs and guys like, hey man, congratulations, good job.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
And I was like holy cow, like like this is now.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
It's becoming real. But even at that point, I'm so naive.
I didn't even I thought I knew what it means.
But you're you're one bad kick from getting kicked out
of here anyway.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Right, And and we'll get to that in a second.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
But I mean, I don't look at that is I mean,
bars A Parcels.

Speaker 6 (12:42):
Guys, that's a Bill.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Guy and so favorite all.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Time kicker, right, And so he's a really good player.
Plus he's really tight with the coach. So not only
do you have to outperform, you've got to like trouble
or triple outperform to beat out his guy. And I
wonder if that was going through your mind as you're
doing this or is it just competition?

Speaker 5 (13:03):
I you know, the way I was told that you're
going to be the kickoff specialist this year, and then
all of a sudden, as can't progressed along, they start
letting me go head to head against Matt. And I think, listen,
all the respect in the world to Matt Barr, great kicker,
did amazing things. As stats speak for himself. I learned
a lot from just watching him. I think it was

(13:23):
one of those perfect storm situations where you know he
was getting older and he didn't quite have the same
leg strength anymore. And I was a young legged guy
and I was I was, you know, and I had
the competitive side and it too. I remember tupa saying, man,
we know if I liked you or not because you
were I don't know if he said arrogant, but I
wasn't backing down.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
I guess is my thing.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
And so so we get into camp and the first
thing that I'd do is I'd know that, hey, outside
of forty five, Matt doesn't have much of a leg,
so I'd warm up. I'd go right outside of fifty
and hit every kick fifty fifty four, fifty six, just
to say I got more right. So that's the difference.
And I don't think that that was I don't know.
Maybe Coach Parcels maybe was like, well, we'll give him

(14:04):
a shot and if he sucks, we'll bring back Matt.
You know. I don't know what the thought was, but
I'm just happy to have the opportunity to show my.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Skills because I don't know if I don't remember if
it was week one or week two and we're talking
ninety six.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Week two in Buffalo, and you missed.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
Three missed the extra point two field goals.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah, so that's the old NFL line. Not for long
were you feeling any of that at that point time?

Speaker 5 (14:28):
For sure, No, I felt that that day, every day before,
and every single day of.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
My career after. Like, I never felt comfortable.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
And not to say that I didn't feel comfortable, because
I was confident later on in my career, my skill
level and all that, but I was always like, hey, listen,
don't ever get complacent. Work your butt off every single
day off seasons. Make sure you're doing all the stuff
with the training staff in the weight room and eating right.
I always felt like, listen, you were always a week
or two or three from getting from from you know,

(15:00):
they're always looking to either replace you with somebody better, cheaper, whatever.
So I understood the game. I understood, so I never
felt like I was overly comfortable. Now, you know, a
couple of Super Bowl kicks in a few years later,
I don't think that there you're.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Not weake to weak.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
But on the other side, I always felt like I
always every single year I had to reprove myself. And
maybe that's why I played as long as I did,
because I never felt like anything was guaranteed.

Speaker 7 (15:26):
So now you go to week three in Jacksonville and
you don't have all those Super Bowl kicks on your resume.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
L So did you feel like you were a weak
to week? I think you made four.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
I know Parcells said I was weak to week, so
I mean, I didn't want to listen to the media,
but I knew what that meant. And thank goodness, I
think I made five kicks and a game winner at
the end of the game, and you know, yeah, and overtime,
and that kind of built a little confidence and kind
of gave me a little bit and the rest of
the season after. I don't want to say I don't
I think I still missed a couple of kicks after that,

(15:56):
but it was pretty pretty good season after that moving forward,
So it helped out. I think that week I needed it.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
That fanboy Paul was at that game.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I remember being in a parking lot waiting to go
to a wedding and staying in the car, going I
can't I'm not gonna leave until he makes this kick,
which I.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Was confident in. Let's fast forward a little bit that.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Year, Adham and we're talking about kicking, and that's what
your role is and nobody expects the kicker to be
able to make a tackle, get in the way maybe
if you can. It's week fifteen down in Dallas, and
it's the great herschel Walker, all the speed, all the
strength and everything like that. And for all of the
moments that you've had that are so memorable Super Bowl
when he kicks over time in the Snow Bowl with

(16:39):
the Colts all time leading score, and so many people
talk about the fact that you chased herschel Walker down
your rookie year.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Do you think that that play?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
You know, I don't know what people think that are kickers,
but my guess is linebackers, a defensive lineman look at
you a far different way than maybe the rest of
the team. Did you get a sense at that point
in time that your teammates were, oh, maybe this isn't
just a kicker, whatever that means.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Do you know what I mean? I do?

Speaker 5 (17:04):
Yeah, you know, I kicked the ball. He takes off
and he breaks open, you know, and I'm sitting there going, oh.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
My gosh, you know, like he's got a lane to
the end zone.

Speaker 5 (17:12):
And I remember turning and running and unfortunately I wasn't
that close to him, and I didn't really have an
angle on him, and I just start running and I
just remember to myself, I'm like, I'm not gonna let
him get to the end zone. And good lord, gave
me ten seconds of speed. Maybe I don't know how
it happened, but he wasn't slowing down, but I was catching.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
A little bit of ground, a little bit of ground, and.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
I ended up tackling him at the twenty something yard
line or whatever same to touchdown. We end up losing
twelve to six. I think it was all field goals
in that game. And I remember probably the greatest compliment
coach Barcelsa ever gave me. It was right after that
game and he said, listen, that was one of the
best players I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
He said, your team is going to treat you differently
because of it.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
Now I had no idea what that meant, but I
think I earned a little bit of respect. Not just
how he's our kicker. He's like, this dude cares about
the team, and he did, you know, that's a great play,
and and like I should And it wasn't. It wasn't
about that. It was always just about like, hey, how
can I contribute? How can I help the team and
what can I do to ultimately save a touchdown and

(18:12):
hopefully help us win the game. And and I think
at that point, yeah, I think to a certain degree,
guys looked at me different, treated me different.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Maybe a little bit.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
At that point I was going to say, did would
Parcels say, did that materialize?

Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yeah? For sure?

Speaker 5 (18:25):
I do remember a bunch of guys after that, like
the following day, the Monday meetings that we're watching. You
you always have a team meeting and then you break
right into special teams and you watch all the special
team stuff, and you know, coach made a coachwatman made
a comment about it, and guys like, dude, that's that
was awesome. That was like, hell, yeah, dude, you know
that was awesome. And for me, it was always like

(18:47):
I've never shied away in the weight room. I never
shied away from other conditioning stuff because I wanted guys
to know my job's physically less demanding, easier. For sure,
I don't I don't get but broken up and beat
up and leading all over the place stuff. But I
didn't want them to think that I didn't care any less.
So I mean, it was always a challenge for me,
Like the competitive nature was always like, Hey, I'm gonna

(19:08):
go in the weight room and I'm going to do
my best, And so the running backs are over there
going damn it, I gotta work harder because I can't
not beat him, you know what I mean. And so
if I made my team one percent better just because
I was working my butt off, awesome. I'm trying to
get myself better. But it was always that way, and
I think that was one of the cool things about
our team in particular. We had such great leaders.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
I was a young guy, I was a leader.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
I just tried to keep my nose clean and not
get in trouble, right, But we had the Willie mcguinnis
and the Bruskis and the variables later on, you know,
and I think those guys I just remember Willie always saying, hey,
six am, lifting group, be there kind of thing to
all of the defensive linemen. And even if you were
on time, if you were the last guy, you were

(19:53):
getting punked for being late, right, and you might be
there at five point forty five, But if you're the
last one, and that's a different mentality. Not every team
has that, and I think that was The reason why
we were so successful because because guys didn't shy away
from holding each other accountable. But you have to hold
yourself at the highest standard and the highest level to

(20:14):
be able to say, dude, you're not doing your job.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
You're not doing it right. So you can't do that
unless you're doing things right.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
And I think our group of guys at the beginning
of the era had that. And I think obviously amazing
coaching Tom Brady can't say enough.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
I mean, you got to have coaches, you got to
have players.

Speaker 5 (20:31):
But we had a really, really, really good group of
guys that that did everything they had to do to
be successful.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
It sometimes doesn't get the credit of that.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
And what was it that Harrison would say at like
five point thirty when Brady walked.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
In did He used to say they could in this
right or good afternoon.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
It's five thirty in the morning and he's coming in
and they're busting balls about. It's holding everybody accountable and
making yourself accountable is what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Right, It's not that way everywhere.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Mus you like every team not not even when I
say team, I'm not talking organization, I'm talking every single
year you have a new team, right, You've got twenty
different guys, you know, some guys are gone, some guys retire,
some they're new.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
It's a different team every single year.

Speaker 5 (21:16):
But when you have the leadership, not and leadership doesn't
have to come from coaching.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
I've said it a million times.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
I say it to the high school kids, I say
it to young kids. Leadership is always the best when
it comes from the players, when you take that ownership yourself,
because having a coach harp at you or whatever. Yeah,
you're you're you're doing it for the fear for your
job or whatever whatever. But when your your peers are
doing it, it just it just means different.

Speaker 7 (21:42):
Can I ask you that that ninety six team when
you come in, do you feel like that sort of
set the groundwork for what ended up happening. Did you
feel like that that team, maybe you know as a
as a super Bowl runner up, doesn't really get as much.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
I'm super naive. That's my rookie year. I don't know,
Like I said, go sh just going to Super Bowl
things easy. It wouldn't be back again five six years
later before we make it back again.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
I knew nothing.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
I just he didn't think you know a little bit
about whatever is going on. We did have, you know,
we had good leaders and some good old vets and
stuff like that, but we still were a little ways
away from it. And then obviously Parcel's leaving and Belichick
leaving and Pete Carroll coming in, and the team kind
of changed a little bit at that point. Still good,

(22:29):
just different. But I think when when when Belichick came
back and you know, nobody knew Brady was going to
be Brady. You know, we see his pictures from his
draft day stuff. We're like, look at this chunky. But
I've never met a more competitive guy than Tom.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
I never.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
I mean the way he transformed, transformed his body, the
way his competitive side, his study habits, And I say him,
there's twenty other guys, there's fifty other guys that are
doing the same stuff, but Tom's the quarterback, so he's
the captain, he's the figurehead.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
So but but I.

Speaker 5 (23:03):
Just think it was it's just it was just that's
why it was so much fun. You know, Belichick never
made it comfortable ever. We always said we're all walking
on eggshells. I remember us winning the game, Josh Miller
sitting next to me and so I don't know what
year this was, but it is during the nine or
ten in a row run that we had going on.
And I don't remember who it was, but we whooped

(23:24):
the crap out of the team. We won thirty five
to seven or something. I mean, it was a it
was a big scoring game and it was never really close.
And I remember Belichick walking in and go, oh, you
guys feel pretty good about this. And I won't tell
the whole story because there's a few explicits in there,
but he's just given us the business, right, And he
went down the list of guys like, hey, Tom, okay, you.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Know I think you had a good game.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
Well, here you're throwing into a defensive team meeting and
you know, we're kind of chuckling and giggling a little bit,
and then oh you think this is good enough, Well,
now you're trying to get your quarterback killed with your
offensive guys. And then he flips it over the defense.
It flips it to the specialty. And he went through
the list of guys and I'm like, and I remember
Josh nudge me.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
He goes, God, damn, I fuck, we just got done
kicking the crap out of this team right, But he just.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
Kept it real and he's like, this is okay if
you're playing this team, you think this is good enough.
When you get to the playoffs, it's not right. And
so he just there's always a there was always a
feeling of we're really good, but we're never gonna get complacent.
But if we continue to do what we're supposed to,
we should beat the piss out of everybody. And that's

(24:25):
what that's why it was so much fun. Practices weren't fun,
meetings weren't fun, but Sunday after the game was always fun.
It was always fun, you know, and that's why you
start to build, you build a dynasty or a legacy
of That's why guys wanted to come and play there
because they just knew it's different, and it was it

(24:46):
was different.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Do you have to be a different kind of a person?
Tho as like everybody can't take that. You come off
a thirty five to seven win and you think you're
the cat's ass and you're expecting to Monday to see
all the highlights and every instead, every single unit gets ripped.
You've got to be able to accept that and go this.
SOOB is doing this for a reason, right, right, And

(25:07):
it has to take a different kind of cat to
accept that, doesn't it.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
And that was early too, that was when we were
still developing stuff, like I think I think Coach Belichick
and I think he would say that at the beginning
he was much tougher than when when some of the Vets,
when the Willies and the and the bruce Ki's and
the Varabels. Now we're older veterans and we've been through

(25:35):
it starts to change a little bit, and not not
a lot, but but he's maybe like, Okay, hey, I
love the opportunity practices. Hilarious, that's good, Hey, Vets, you're
going to take the time off and you young guys
are going to get killed today. But this is an
opportunity practice. I love the terminology. It's funny, you know
it was it was, you know whatever, But but it's

(25:56):
it's always one of those things that that I learned
so much, and and what I think you learn is
is you can handle and your body can do amazing
things if your brain allows you to, or if your
brain just gets out of the way and doesn't tell
you can't.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
You know what I mean. So so the and maybe
that's a little bit of.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
The military way of knocking guys down to build them
back up into what you want to do. And you know,
I mean they Parcels had military background and Belichick did,
so maybe that's some of that. But I there's a
million ways of skin a cat. I know, there's there's
lots of teams that won Super Bowls different philosophies, but
their formula is pretty damn good.

Speaker 7 (26:35):
So both of them, right, So two Hall of Fame
coaches will obviously Belichick is going to be someday.

Speaker 6 (26:42):
How different were they the two of them A.

Speaker 5 (26:45):
Lot of similarity. I would say more similarities than the differences.
But they each have their own way of doing stuff.
Obviously they're different, for sure, but but there's there's probably
a lot of similarities as well. And and what I
thought is these guys could they both had a really
good and act of bringing out full potential guys and

(27:05):
different ways of doing it. Some guys need to pad
on the back, some guys need to be mf whatever.
But but you know, we can look at guys that
were problems on other teams and they come in and
instantly contribute and become a star for this team. Good
guys that have helped these teams win. And and that's
because they just they towed the line too. The guys

(27:26):
that come in, they.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Go, hey, this is a different organization.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
Guys are players are different, you know, leadership is different.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
And then they just they're not a problem.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
They come in and they do a great job and
help contribute to victories and Super Bowls and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
It's it's great.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
I want to follow up.

Speaker 6 (27:43):
This guy's the coach maker.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
Didn't think about it?

Speaker 7 (27:46):
Question, So we get ourselves in Belichick? Right, they played
for Tony Dunge is also in the Hall of Fame. Right,
Pete Carroll's going to the Hall of Fame too.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Question.

Speaker 7 (27:54):
I mean, did anybody that ever coached you, like just
you know Joe Smith.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
No.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Again, like I've always said from day one, I've been
super blessed to be around the best coaches, the best players.
Like I pinched myself all the time ago this like
it could have been. It could have been way different.
It could have been. You know, you play for a
team that had zero success and zero whatever. It's just
I always sit there and go, man, I'm I'm I'm
not the four leaf clover. I just got lucky to

(28:21):
be in the right spot at the right time through
twenty some odd years and it worked out pretty damn good.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I think, you know, following up on something that you said, though,
you know, there's a perception out there from fans and
people who aren't in the locker room that we have
to treat everybody the same, and maybe there's a baseline
of that. But when you were talking about some guys
need a pat on the tail, some guys you need
to ride them, were both bills capable of doing that,
and knowing I can't ride this guy because I might

(28:47):
lose him, so I got to build him up a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Conversely, I got to sit on this guy. I ordern't
get the best.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
Out of it here.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Well, Parcels. I only played for him my rookie year,
and he was scares hell to me. I didn't want
to be anywhere in general facinity like.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
He was very entertaining. You know, we're in our stretching
lines and he's going through the line and he's given
digs and he's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
But you don't want to get caught laughing because oh
you think that's.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
Funny of it.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
You know, I remember my rookie year.

Speaker 5 (29:14):
I'm going into the training room to grab a band aid.
I don't even know why I was in there, but
I was in there, and I watched him walk up
to one of the guys that were on the table
and he.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Said, hey, let me ask you a question. Are you
injured or you hurt?

Speaker 5 (29:26):
And so I'm listening but not trying to pay attentions
that coach I don't understand, and he said, well, if
you're injured, you're really not any good to our team.
You're not contributing, you know, blah blah blah. He said,
if you're hurt, at least you can go out there
and help and help our team do some stuff, you know,
x y Z. So he goes, let me ask you,
are you injured or hurt? And he's like, oh shit,

(29:48):
I guess I'm hurt. He goes like, great, you'll have
a red jersey and your locker. You're obviously be limited.
You're gonna do some a few things or whatever. He
goes to the next guy next to him, he goes, hey,
are you injured or you hurt?

Speaker 4 (29:59):
He went down the whole thing, and I'm like, I
get you the hell out of here.

Speaker 5 (30:01):
Right, I'm like, hey, I'm not either. I just didn't
hear grabbing a band aid. You know, I'm good whatever,
So that that's just a different mentality of and that
maybe doesn't even fly now. That was thirty years ago, right,
But it's just a different mentality of the way they
do stuff. Right with Belichick, he was the defensive coach
at the time, or the DB's coach at the time.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
I didn't have a name. I was a hey, hey
four or I.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Don't think, hey, asshole, that was my name, right, right,
But I didn't have a name until about the herschel
Walker thing and then hey, now you got a name, right.
But you have to earn your stripes, I think to
a certain degree. And I was okay with that, like,
like my dad coached me, and like I like that
better than the everything is roses and come on, you'll

(30:48):
be okay, Like, no, no, you don't have to be
my friend, be a coach, be a tough guy, do
what you need to. I like that way, But it's
not for everybody. You're absolutely right. Some guys can excel
and succeed in that. Other guys aren't very good at that.
And I think what those two coaches in particular, would do.
They would get the guys, they would get the Rodney
Harrisons and the junior sayous that love that stuff, right,

(31:11):
And so then it worked for those guys. So Parcelszo
always said that too. He's like, I just I want
my guy. So when he would go to a new team,
he would cherry pick ten guys off the old team
and he'd be their core guys, their leaders in the
locker room. And they might even they might even have
been past their prime, they might be a solid be
now they're not even an a player anymore. But that

(31:31):
leadership brings everybody else up, and I think that's why
they're so successful.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
I love the formula.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
It was never as comfortable, but I loved it.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
Then you go to the one team just for those
guys you take.

Speaker 7 (31:42):
It's it's Anthony Pleasant, it's Rick Lyle, it's Bobby Hamilton,
those kinds of guys that Bill Belichick now takes with
them from the Jets.

Speaker 6 (31:51):
It perpetuates.

Speaker 7 (31:52):
So you know, I know you started off by comparing
them saying how there's more similarities than we probably all
would think.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
But I would imagine.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
That Welchick worked for parcels.

Speaker 5 (32:01):
I'm sure he took a lot of his things and
says I'm gonna throw my own little spin on it.
But a lot of the things that he learned through
football probably the same way.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Let's go to the snow game, Adam, and I'm curious
as you're driving in that day when you see that.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Now, kid from South Dakota, so it's not like you're
a kid.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
From Florida, so it's not like you haven't seen flakes
before anything like that.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
What's going through your mind as you see the weather
that day.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Honestly, I shook my head and go, Belichick, you did
it again.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
He did some voodoo shit to make the weather crappy
because he loves that.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
This is not a Belichick bash.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
I love you, you're a great man and you're my favorite
all time coach. But he would be the guy that
would we go practice in the game field and I'm like,
we're tearing up the field. He's like, ah, he can
handle it. I'm like handle it like they're filling the
holes in with sand and then they're painting green.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
To make it look like there's grass on the field.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
I'm like, this is bs, why are you doing this?

Speaker 4 (32:51):
He's like, because they can't handle it and we can't.
And I'm like, okay, that makes sense, all right, I
got it. So of course it's gonna snow. Of course.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
I think the forecast said spotty little bit, maybe.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Not eight inches of snow all day long, right, And
so we get there.

Speaker 5 (33:08):
I don't think it's snowing yet. It's overcast, like it
is most every day, you know, in the fall and
the winter time. But it starts to snow when we
go out there in like pregame warm up, like checking
out the field and checking out everything, and what I
remember is like the biggest snowflakes you've ever seen. I mean, gigantic,
super cool cinematography wise, you know, if you're taking a camera,

(33:28):
you're taking pictures. It's awesome. But to play and it sucks,
you know, starts snowing hard and harder and harder. Now
you can't even really see across the field to the
other sideline. I'm like, this is gonna be absolutely miserable.
But I'm thinking this team from California, Oakland, they can't
handle this. We're gonna whoop their butts in this stuff.
And they come out and play really solid game most
of the game. They're sticking it to us, right, They're

(33:50):
playing really well. So and as a game progresses on,
it just gets more and more and more. And you know,
it was interesting going out there watching the whole tuck
rule stuff and all that. You know, when Woodson goes
around the corner and you know, hits Tom's arm, stripsack
or arm coming forward whatever, I'm sitting there thinking, ah, Jesus,

(34:12):
cleaning out our locker tomorrow, right. I'm like, cause it
looked like a fumble to me, right, And then all
of a sudden, the referees are right, we're under review,
and I'm like, okay, well, thank goodness.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
The rule at that time was what it is.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I get it.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
And they change the rule after that, I get it.
But the way they judged it that way was the
right call. And I'm thinking to myself as I'm watching that,
I'm thinking, man, we're cleaning out of locker. And then
all of a sudden, the realism comes on to me,
is like, you're gonna have to kick the hardest kicking
your entire life, probably to give us a chance after that.

(34:46):
So Kenny Walter, is my holder, comes up to me
and he says hey, Adam, all the snow, all this stuff,
he said, I'm not gonna even try to spin it,
he said, I'm just gonna put it down, and wherever
the laces are, the laces are. And I'm like, you're building.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
A shit ton of confidence for me right now.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
But thanks a lot for this. But but so literally
we went out there, it's forty five yards. Try to
get a quick sweep off of the ground. And I'm
thinking to myself, listen, you got to think like three things.
Slow steps to it. And I've got like as long
as cleats in my plant foot as I can to
get a little bit of traction and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
But I'm thinking they're not going to be able to
rush fast.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
So my timing can be a little bit slower because
they're not going to be as fast either, So don't
worry about that necessarily. But you're thinking, like you're trying
to run on ice, right, you can't take big, long strides.
You're going to slide and fall on your button. So
I'm thinking shorter steps, try to just try to get
your foot in place, try to get the ball above

(35:43):
the line of scrimmage. I didn't want to smack my
center in the butt. You know, that didn't work out
very good.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
So I'm like, get it above the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
They're not going to be able to get a good push,
so it's not, you know, not as imperative to get
it as high if you can think of all this
stuff as you're going out there. But I'm just thinking,
you have to get it online and give your off
a chance, right, So get to the ball. Kick it,
you know. I look up, I'm like, okay, I didn't
fall down. Got it above the line of scrimmage. It
looks like it's going fairly straight, but it's still got

(36:12):
to go forty five yards and it was in a
Blizzard's not an easy kick, and honestly, God, as it's leaving,
I'm like.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
Got a chance.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
You're right, I'm like, okay, maybe, but but when it
got to the uprights, it's snowing so hard.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
I wasn't sure.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
I couldn't really tell until the referees went forward and
raise their hand. I'm like, oh my god, I made
this kick. Like I know. The reporters said, you know,
after the game, like, oh, you know, what's the percentage?

Speaker 4 (36:35):
I'm like, I don't know, you know, I'm like, I
look back at that and I go, that's two percent.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
You know, I like, honest to god, I don't know
how many times you can make that, but made it
when I needed to, you know, kind of had a
had a plan, kind of executed a plan. You know.
I didn't want it to come off like a two
iron super low, but that's the best I could do
at the time, and it was. It was good enough.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
And then you get you know that it unfolds into overtime,
and I know, Matt, you know, we were talking about
this a little bit almost anti climatic because there was
so much shorter, but there's still all that.

Speaker 6 (37:04):
Snow on the field than it was before. Same mindset.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
The only good thing, if you can say a good thing,
is yes, it was twenty three to twenty four years
whatever shorter, but we call time out. Our guys are
trying to clear off as much snow as possible, and
then Gruden maybe the only time that you should maybe
not try to ice the kicker, if you will, because
it gave us another thirty seconds. We cleared a little

(37:29):
bit more snow, wasn't completely clear, but it was way
way more clear, way easier that one was one of
those like, yeah, you're gonna make this, Like like I
had all the conference the world that I was gonna
make that and kick it a look up, I'm like,
oh thank god, So yeah it was.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
It was.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
It was a wild day. I'm happy that it happened
that way. Never would want to do it again just because,
but no, it was. It was pretty awesome. I've played
in a few crazy games in Buffalo and stuff, but
that one is that forty five yarder to tie the
game is by far my favorite kick I've ever made,

(38:07):
even Super Bowl kicks and all that, just because the
difficulty level was as hard as you could get.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
You miss it, the season's over.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
I mean like you couldn't stack any more negative or
potential stressful situations on top of that kick, and to
make that thing was pretty awesome.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
It's really interesting to hear the way you say that,
because there's so many people that it would be.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Oh, you know, that's my job and deflect.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
When you hear somebody like Bill Belichick, who's said it
many times and other great historians of the game call
it the single greatest kick in.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
The history of the National Football League, how does that
make you feel? Well?

Speaker 5 (38:46):
It's a huge compliment. It's awesome to think that whatever.
But as I look at other kicks and other things,
I haven't watched every kick from everything. I know the
Pat summer On one and some of those ones awesome too,
but far the most difficult kick I've ever had to
think and or or attempt.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
And yeah, you'd have to, you'd have to.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
I'd be hard pressed to find another one that stacks
up to that. But you know, thank goodness, my team
gave me an opportunity to try.

Speaker 6 (39:14):
It, and a couple of weeks later, yeah, that's that's nothing.
Indoors indoors ty games.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
That was pretty awesome too, because I just you know,
that game kind of back and forth and then the
Rams catch up and oh my gosh, you know, and
I remember I remember the commentator John Madden saying, ah,
you know, she'd probably just take a knee, and thank goodness,
we didn't.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
We had enough time.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
And you know, our philosophy, or at least Charlie Weiss's philosophy, is,
you know, let's see if we get a couple first downs,
if we can, if we can get in range, and
in that year, I think we had I think I
had five game winners, including that one in the one,
and so we were blowing teams out, but we were
winning games. And that's the cool thing about our team
that particular year is we lost to the Rams earlier

(40:00):
in the year, but it was a good game, came
right down to the end, and we built a lot
of confidence in that game, and knowing that every close game,
we were just building more confidence and more confidence. And
I literally remember them kicking off to us and I go,
we got a minute and a half left. I've seen
Tom do it all year long, Like, hell yeah, we're
gonna do it again, right, j R. Edmund Troy Brown bandinking,

(40:23):
you know, Jermaine Wiggins has one, just a couple of places,
bang bang bang bang all the way down the field,
and I'm just thinking, hell yeah, you know. And so
the feeling for that kick is never.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
It's a game.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
You dream about it your entire life. You know, as
a little kid, You're like, what's as a kicker, that's
the dream, right, kicking a game winner in a Super Bowl.
I mean, that's exactly what you think about. So I'm
over in the net and I'm watching, you know, and
I kind of have a routine like Hey, when we
get to a certain yard line, I start to warm
up a little bit, and everything's spent up a little bit,

(40:56):
so you start a little earlier. And it's funny because
in my entire career, when you get ready for game winners,
everybody kind of treats you like you've got some rare,
contagious dis You got to let parsuit.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
You're no hitter in baseball.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
Yeah, nobody wants to talk to you, touch you, say
anything to you. Two guys in my entire career in
twenty four years, two guys Willie and lawyer. Lawyer and
my lawyer, the two guys that would say something to me.
And Willy comes up to me as I'm walking in
and he gives me a right on the boat, Come on, man,
I go hit this thing. And I'm like, I can't
feel my ass cheek right now, but thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
But okay, good, you know.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
But and and Johnny Rotten, our equipment guy at the time,
Johnny hillbrand And was like, you hit it, I don't
get it, and he takes off down the sideline. So
the funny things that you remember because everything's happening fast
but slow everything slow motion kind of sort of it,
and you know, we finally you know, dinking and dunkin
and dinking and Duncan and Tom spikes the ball and

(41:50):
it's all right, get out there and kick this thing.
I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, forty eight yarder. It's
not a chip shot by any means. It's a long kick.
But I'm like, this is like like I everything's calm
and quiet, lots of stuff is going on, but it
just kind of your world just kind of shrinks to
a little bit here. The only thing that I do
remember is Rod Rutledge was my left wing and dre

(42:14):
blies on the other side, and Rod is talking mad
trash to him. Yeah, yeah, talking all just just numbshit.
I can see it too. It's like just yesterday, right,
And and I'm the kind of guy that I like
to get everybody set because I don't want to take
my steps back and wait back there for a long time.
And so Rod's over here just jahn just talking trash,

(42:36):
and I and Kenny's like waiting for me to get set,
and I go, Kenny, make him stop.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
He goes.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Rod gets set, you know, and Rod's like, oh, you know,
he gets down right and so the biggest kick of
your life and this stupid crap is going on in
front of you, right, like the stuff that's happening in
front of you. And so I take my steps back
and Kenny gives a set call comes boom boom boom,
and it's like that golf shot that you don't even
feel hit your club right, like it's just just nutted right,

(43:05):
perfect right, and and I feel it leave my foot
and I and without even looking up, I'm like, oh,
that felt really good. And I look up it's dead
center and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
And at that point I.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
Turn and I'm jumping around and whatever, and Kenny's grabbing me,
and the confetti starts.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
And all that stuff, and and it.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
Was just just I don't know, you know, it's just
amazing at that point, We've we our team fought so
like six years for me and all the years and
all the stuff, but but just that year in particular,
with with Bloodshell going down and Brady coming in, the
ups and downs, the nine to elevens, I mean just

(43:41):
just the world was just a different place and for
it all to come together like that, it was I mean, yeah,
I mean absolutely, I did it was. It was just
one of those things that you couldn't help it.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
And then and then.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
Johnny, who I love telling the story because because I
have the ball.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
And on my and.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
I see him, you know, we're the champions and all
this stuff, and I'm bringing my wife down from the
crowd and where everybody's high fiving and hugging and all
this stuff. And then all of a sudden, I see
him coming over and he looks like he's been in
a dogfight, right faces, all red shirts all pulled off,
and I'm like, what happened? He goes, I got the ball, man,
and I'm like, I'm like, awesome, I go what happened
to you? And I wish like, like I've seen so

(44:25):
many videos of the ball hitting the net and all
this stuff, but you never see after that right hits
the net, trickles down, Johnny catches the ball. The two
ball guys or whoever they are, are like, give me
the ball.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
He's like, nope, this is mine.

Speaker 5 (44:37):
And they're like attacking him, like trying to like hit
him and pull his arms and stack him and stuff,
and he's like, I was not giving the ball. He
runs inside, puts in the trunk locks it up and
then he comes out and tells me, and I'm like,
are you kidding me? Like this really happened during the
Super Bowl. I wish, I wish I had video of that,
but but it was just a yeah, Incredibley went off
on the team.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
No, what a great memory.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
And you know, with the benefit of time now and
as you're saying, you're as you're aging a little bit,
you couldn't possibly think of this at the time. But
do you understand that in that three week period between
the two kicks in the Oakland game and the first
the first super Bowl to ever be decided on the
last play, the first super Bowl championship in this region,

(45:18):
do you get an understanding of what your legacy is
in this area if you ever did it, if you
never did anything else at him those plays right there
in that three week period. I mean, you never have
to buy a stake in New England and forget for
the rest of your life of what you were able
to accomplish. And you accomplished so much more, but just
in that period right there.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
I didn't realize it at the time, but over the
next decade or two or whatever, I love it because
every person that I meet tells me exactly where they're at,
what they were doing.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
Like I've had people send.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
Me letters and say, my dad, who was elderly who
watched this stuff physically was weeping in his chair.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
I got people telling me we were running down.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
The street and freaking out and just do all kinds
of crazy stuff. And like, for me, it's my livelihood.
It's a game. It's what I've always wanted to do
in my life. But I didn't understand what the magnitude
of what it meant to everybody else until that time.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
You know.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
And so so yeah, it's awesome. I like, like every
time I come back and people, I love to hear
the stories. So like I bet you hate talking about this.
I'm like, no, I love it, absolutely love it. I
mean it's a great memory for all of us. And
and you know, the Red Sox aren't start winning after that,
like like like the the Massachuset, New England sports has

(46:41):
been super spoiled the last two decades with Red Sox
and Celtics and bro you know, like all the stuff that,
Like it's just been amazing. It's just been a great run,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (46:52):
So you know, Bill after that.

Speaker 7 (46:54):
I'm not sure how long after the season was over,
but he was sort of, you know, retelling his thoughts,
and he said, if you had told me I was
going to have my best player in position to win
the Super Bowl out of taken that situation, It's not
often that a coach talks about his kicker in those
kinds of terms.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
I've heard him say that, I thank you for the compliment. Obviously,
there's so many unbel like I would never ever physically,
hell no, I would never say that.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
But I felt like I was a guy that.

Speaker 5 (47:27):
Contributed to my job like everybody else did, and I
can't get in everybody else's head.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
I loved it as much as anybody.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
I tried as hard as anybody, Like I competed as
much as anybody else.

Speaker 4 (47:39):
But we had so.

Speaker 5 (47:40):
Many brothers, you know, like they're not my biological brother,
but there was my brother as much as anybody else
in this whole world. Like, like, there's guys that mean
the world to me throughout the last twenty years of
you know, like I call weeee right now.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
You'd be like, what's that?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
You know?

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Are like the relationships that we built? And I always
say that to people too like that that have never
won a super Bowl or a high school championship or whatever.
I said, you'll have that for the rest of your life.
It will be different for you because of it. The
relationships that you build with these guys. It's just different now.
I mean, it's just because what you had to go
through to get to that level.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
It's just a just a different thing.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
You mentioned Bruski and Willie, and that's interesting to hear that.
Pick up the phone and call those guys. What about
Kenny and Lonnie?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Because you guys, we talk all the time, all the time.
You guys are literally the three of you.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
You're practicing by yourselves the whole time, and the three
of you are responsible for some of the greatest moments
of franchise system.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
No doubt, you know. And people say, hey, how was
that kick?

Speaker 3 (48:42):
To Bill or the media ask him, well, the operation
was clean, And I don't think fans necessarily realize how
important the operation.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Those Yeah, you only get recognized if you screw up,
made a little bit different, but snapholed. They don't ever
get even mentioned in less thing goes wrong, right, And
I was so blessed that Kenny taught me a lot
about kicking and trajectory of footballs and stuff. He learned
it from John Casey when he was in Carolina and

(49:12):
then he brings it to me. It's like, hey, listen,
I can I can adjust the lean a little bit
to help if if we've got a big win, we
can take some of the draw off the ball.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
If I lean it a little bit more, I'm like,
what the hell you talking about? Just put it down.
I'll take it right.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
And over time, my trust level in him was incredible,
like like I'm like, dude, like whatever you do, just
do you because I know it's and it made it
so much easier for me because I don't have to
worry about all this other stuff. And Lonnie another I
mean awesome as well, like like those guys, and that's
funny that you say it, because we have a little

(49:45):
chain that we always.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
Go talking about family stuff.

Speaker 5 (49:47):
Are just funny stuff or hey remember this or whatever
all the time once a month.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
At least, if not more often.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
So Yeah, and Donnie lives in California, Kasing Carolina and
I'm in India now so but but it never goes away.
The relationship is as good today as it was twenty
years ago.

Speaker 6 (50:05):
Doesn't that make you feel good? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (50:07):
And so the whole like, what is it slightly forward
into the left?

Speaker 6 (50:10):
Is that that Kenny?

Speaker 5 (50:12):
Well? So, so the amount of.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
That's how we want to get held.

Speaker 7 (50:16):
Yeah, when you're a nerd, that's that's that's that's that's
the nerd stuff.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
We had to ask the kicker about it.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Now that you're talking about that, then we'll explain it
to the rest of the world.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, a little bit of a forward.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
Lean allows you to get to hit the ball more solidly.
Actually opens the sweet spot because all little kids always
sit there and when they put it on a te
they hold it back right and so they always miss,
you know, So a little bit of a forward lean
it allows you to drive the ball.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
A little bit more.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
And if you play in New England, it's windy every
single day, so you have to learn how to drive
the ball a little bit the lean as far as more.
You know, away, you always want to lean the ball
a little So as a righty you're going to lean
it a little bit to the right away from your
body because your foot as it comes through you want
it to hit perpendicular to the ball. So but Kenny
could actually go, hey, listen, we've got a big left

(51:03):
to right wind, so we wanted to actually almost cut
into it a little bit.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
So I'm going to give you a little bit less lean.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
So your ball, if we were inside and there was
no condition, your ball would actually draw a little bit.
But that wind's pushing it, so it's going to keep
it straight or vice versa. If it's blowing the other direction,
then a little bit more lean. So I never even
understood that. He's just like, you don't worry about it.
I'll get this figured out. But that was always and
it's funny because they never really looked at the holder

(51:31):
and the kicker right before they you know, there's a
conversation going on all the time, and we'll find high
ground or something like. We always want to go from
a you know, you don't want to put the ball
in a hole and trying to getting a golf ball
out of a hole, right, you want to have it
high ground. If if you're hitting a scramble, you're gonna
put it high ground so you get a good, clean hit, right,
same kind of thing. There'd be times you'd be like, no, no,
this is better here. You know, we're always working on

(51:52):
because he's on his knee, can see the ground better
than me. And it sounds corny, but that's the little
things that make the difference in the in the grand
scheme of it.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
So we're talking about Lonnie Packson, the long snapper, Kenny Walter,
your holder, responsible for many things. If you go to
the two thousand and three season and fast forward to
Super Bowl thirty eight, and I think there's a lot
of people that just look at Super Bowl thirty eight
and Okay, maybe that's really where the dynasty was born.
You guys were dominant that year, started that twenty one
game winning streak, and you kicked the game winning field

(52:21):
goal again, and I think people.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Don't know what's going on. Oh yeah, Adam had another game.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Winner, but that was not your typical game winning field
goal because of what was going on in that game.
You actually missed a kick in that game, which probably people.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Don't recall, and you had a kick blocked. You had
unique circumstances that game, didn't you.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
Yeah, Lonnie got hurt Earlier in the season. We had
another holder or another snapper that got hurt. And then
Brian Kitchen, who was retired, came in. Bill knew him
from earlier in his career, and he comes in and
he had a little bit of issues. He ended up
cutting the webbing of his finger in the pregame meal,

(53:00):
buttering a roll with.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
A state knife. I don't know how that happens.

Speaker 5 (53:03):
But long story short, and in the whole week we
had some some trials and tribulations, a little bit of
craziness that went along. So, yeah, there was a lot
of extra circumstances that went into that game. But yeah,
you know, Brian's best snap of his career was the
game winner, was bang right on point. It was perfect,
but yeah, it was. It was an interesting situation nonetheless.

Speaker 7 (53:26):
So this time though, you couldn't go out there never
worrying about your snaper holder this time. I'm sure that
was front of mine. But yet right down the middle
again forty one yards.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Yeah, well, thank thank goodness, everything worked out. Well. Yeah,
you know, it's one of those things like you know,
I think.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
The good performers at any any you know, kicking or
a pitcher or whatever. You know, if you're if you're
a closer and pitcher and somebody hits a home run
and you lose the game, you gotta forget that, right,
because you're going to be out there again and two
days later, and if you're still thinking about.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
That, you're gonna have some issues.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
And I think the best ones can clear their mind.
And don't get me wrong, it's not easy to do.
I mean, you're you're having a tough game, or you
miss a kid gosh. I mean, I I remember the
miss is way more than I remember the mix.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
I really do.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
I mean, they they just grind on you a.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Little bit more because you're like, why the heck did
I mix miss that?

Speaker 5 (54:17):
You know? So, yeah, having having a miss earlier in
the game and and having one blocked earlier in the game,
I'm sitting there going, oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
You know, but you have to be able to.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
Walk out there and at that particular time and go
clear your mind and really just focus on the next
second and a half what's what's happening in front of you.
And it's sometimes easier said than done. The ones that
can't do it usually usually on around very long.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Were you excited at that point in time that you
had another chance to quote unquote redeem yourself?

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (54:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
I hate ending a game on a on a miss
or something like you miss one in the second quarter,
you don't get another opportunity, You're like, damn it, you
know I want to you know, you just want to
have you know, it's not it's not about stats and
how many.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Of that is just you just want to. You always
want to finish on a good note.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
Do you again, with the gift of time, are you
able at them to look back at all and say
that you were part.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Of a team. You're the last team to ever repeat
the three and then the four teams, the last team
in the NFL. There's been a lot of worthy candidates.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Do you look at do you look back at that
with a certain.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Fondness of Well, that's really it's hard to win one.

Speaker 5 (55:24):
It's really hard to repeat.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
It's really hard to win three and four.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
Yeah, I mean that even you can saying that, Yeah,
to a certain degree, that's that's even more impressive, not
because you've won two, but the toll that it takes
on a on a team to make it to a
Super Bowl. A lot of times it's hard to come
back the next year because it's a month less offseason.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
It's a month you know, it's just more difficult.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
So, yeah, you know it was those years were fun
They were just so much fun because we expected to
beat everybody all the time. And I don't know if
that that's not an arrogance. It's just a confidence that
we had in the locker room that we knew that
the guys that we had like, hey, if we play well,
we execute Bill's game plan, we're going to win. You know,
we didn't win every single time, but we want most

(56:08):
of the time. You know, it was fun. It was
a really fun run throughout that and you know, nothing
against the Philadelphia Eagles or anything like that, but we
just felt like we were a better team than them.

Speaker 7 (56:20):
So with obviously the brotherhood that you talked about, how
difficult was it after the five season to leave?

Speaker 4 (56:29):
Very difficult.

Speaker 5 (56:30):
We could talk for two hours about that particular situation.
But yeah, it I didn't want to go. I just
felt like I wanted something that was fair. That's probably
the nicest way I can say it. Never saw free
agency for ten years, got franchised several times. All I

(56:51):
wanted was a multi year deal, fair money, it's all.
And they played games. And then I finally got a
team that offered me that, and I gave him an
opportunity to match or to give a real offer.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
And it didn't come.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
That's so I left.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
And that's about as nice as I can say that.

Speaker 7 (57:11):
So, Matt and I were talking about this before you
came in, and I'm not sure if it was on
your mind at the time, if it was part of
the you know, the thought process, but like, ultimately the
way it worked out, it may have been one of
the best things that could have happened for You're kicking indoors.
How many more years, four fourteen more years has that

(57:31):
ever happened to?

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Like?

Speaker 4 (57:32):
I mean this, Yeah, I was fortunate.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
I played two full careers with two different teams, right,
I mean really, I mean ten years and fourteen years.
I mean, are you kidding me? That's pretty awesome going
to Indie. You know, I always said if I was
going to leave an incredible organization, I wasn't going to
go to a crappy.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
Organization that had no chance of winning. Right. So didn't
say AFC, NFC this or that.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
I said, play it in crummy weather in New England
for ten years. If I'm going to leave, it's going
to be for some It's going to be a South team,
it's going to be a dome, It's going to be
somewhere nicer weather, if you will, you know. And then
I had a lot of teams that called, and then
Indy made me an offer I could refuse.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Was that a thought process that you know, like was
the indoor part of it?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Hey, this could really help.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
I didn't really look at it longevity wise. I didn't say, hey,
I can extend my career doing this. But I did think, man,
this is my stats shouldn't suffer going in sure, you know,
if anything, they should improve, which they probably did over
you know, my field goal makes versus missus. You know,
percentages probably did go up being inside at that point.
I think in my first ten seasons, I'd never missed

(58:40):
a kick inside, which I was like, oh, that doesn't suck,
you know.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
So Tom never lost the game in a dome for
a long time.

Speaker 7 (58:46):
Yeah, and you got a chance at least to have
one playoff game in Crumby Weather that first year.

Speaker 6 (58:51):
Right you were in Buffalo.

Speaker 7 (58:52):
You kicked five I mean Baltimore with five field goals
in the slop there in Baltimore. I mean that must
have made you feel right at home, right, just like.

Speaker 5 (58:59):
Taking Yeah, it was funny because some of the new teammates,
they're like, man, I hated you for a long time.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
You better prove you're worthy of it.

Speaker 5 (59:07):
Gary Brackett, one of our linebackers in particular, he came
up to me after the game, he goes, you earned
my respect like that in itself, I mean, because it.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
Was fifty some yacht right from one of them, right, fifteen.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
To six or whatever the score was, so it was
all field goals. Every point was scored by my field goals.
Probably a boring game to watch unless you're a defensive
minded person, but yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
It was a pretty good game I.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
Think from a Patriots fans perspective when you look back
at that era and you look at the Patriots Colts rivalry,
meaning Brady, it was one of the greatest periods of
all time. You got to see it from both sides.
What was that like to experience it from both times?
I think, or I remember not proud to say this.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Did you get booed when you came back in six?
So I think there was sort of smattering of boos.

Speaker 5 (59:49):
Were so so this is exactly what they did, and
I respect all of them for it.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
They cheered me when I came on. They booed me the.

Speaker 5 (59:58):
Entire game, and they any ovation to me when I left,
which is a respect thing, which which I was like,
I get it. I understand.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
That's cool.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
That's the gamman ship, that's the that's the twelfth player
kind of thing, which was cool. I do remember later
on when we came back, some of the fans dude,
are you ean suck?

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
This and that?

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
And I remember McAfee, who who never stays quiet for anything,
turns around he's like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Really he sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Come on, like like he just challenged that guy, and
like all the people around him were like, ah, it's
pretty funny, like he got you, you know whatever. And then
then it carried on. But but I didn't usually like
to make too much. I try not to pay too
much attention to the crowd and stuff. But yeah, you
can absolutely hear it. But I get it. I mean
I understand, like, listen, fans are are buck while they're awesome,

(01:00:46):
they're awesome, and that's that's what makes them awesome. I
mean they there's truly an advantage of playing at home
in New England.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
You mentioned him, so I got to follow up with it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Please tell me you never have to pay when you
and McAfee go out, but you have ever a mad
he's in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Backafee blowing up into what he's blown up to.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
You know, when he said he was going to retire
from football and he was going to start all this stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
I'm sitting there, going to do don't do it? What
are you talking? Like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
You're going to give up multimillion dollars a year on
the field. And he's like, I got other things that
are going to work out good. And I'm like, holy cups.
I'm like, like he was right. I was wrong, Like like,
don't get me wrong, Like he still had many more
years of playing, and he was a great team and
he was fun to be around and all that stuff.
I'm so proud of him. He's done great. He's done amazing.

(01:01:30):
Like I always knew he was the life of the party.
I just didn't know he was going to kill it
as well as he did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
You've been out now for a couple of years. I
think you need to wait another two or three years.
When you hear people debate about Pro Football Hall of
Fame drawing a lot of kickers in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
Adam too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
But I don't think that there's anybody that would take
a look at your career all time leading score, the
clutch kicks the game when he kicks everything like that,
And again, to quote one of the greatest stories of
the game, Bill Belichick, he says, it's a no brainer.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
And do you think about that? Is that on your
mind at all? Is it important to you?

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
I would lie if I said I'd never thought about it.
That's that's an absolute. That's not true.

Speaker 5 (01:02:15):
You know, when I played, I didn't ever want to
talk about it, or I just kind of deflected that story.
Now that I've sat back and thought about it a
little bit more, yeah, I mean obviously, I mean you
lie if you didn't say you want to be in
that of course I do. It's a humongous honor to
be considered one of the elite guys to ever play

(01:02:35):
the game. I'll say this, you don't get there without
playing with amazing teammates and having that opportunity.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
If I played, I don't know, pick a team.

Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
I'm gonna say the Alaska Eskimos because I don't want
to disrespect any team in the league right now. But
if you play for them and you never play I
look at a guy like Jason Hanson. I think he's
a great kicker, played a lot long time, played in
a couple of playoff games. He doesn't get doesn't get
the recognition because he didn't get to play in those

(01:03:08):
types of situations. So for me, I sit there and
I go, if I'm fortunate enough to have a gold jacket,
which I hope I do. I hope I do. I
hope it soon, you know whatever, and if it happens,
it's it's more. Of course, I had to kick those kicks,
but I couldn't have been anywhere out there with without
all of my teammates, without the coaches, without having them

(01:03:30):
having faith in me to put me out for these
certain situations and stuff like that. So of course you
have to you have to make the opportunity when it
presents itself. But there's just so many other, you know,
people that they don't give you enough time to thank
everybody that deserves things.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
You mentioned Hanson, and there's a handful of other kickers
that you can think of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Oh, you know that that guy might have had a
Hall of Fame career.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
But I think there's a unanimity, unanimous thinking of well,
there aren't a lot of kickers in the Hall of Fame,
but if there's ever going to be one, it's got
to be this guy in Adam Vini Terry. How does
that you know the fact that there just seems to
be a consensus of it. I don't know that that's
gonna happen when these netwiks get in the room, because
there is all that politics that gets involved and everything

(01:04:16):
like that. But there is a sense of this guy
broke the mold and this guy his career did it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
That's got to make you feel proud.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
It does, Yeah, it does.

Speaker 5 (01:04:26):
I mean again, like I always tried to take every
not even every season, every kick, every game, every whatever,
and do the best that I could to help my team.
But when you turn around you look back on your career,
it was pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
It was pretty fun.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:43):
Yeah, I'm so blessed, been so fortunate to be, like
I said, to be put in the right situations with
the right team, just to just some snot nose kid
from South Dakota that nobody expected to even make the team.
The fact that Bill Parcells didn't cut me when he
did and said, hey he's week to week.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
He gave me one more week.

Speaker 5 (01:05:01):
Thank you Bill, you know, thank you other coaches for Hey,
you know what, it's probably this kick is the hardest
kick in history. He's probably not gonna make it, but
we're gonna give you a chance, you know, things like that,
like like without those opportunities, and I'm just a guy, right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
It's tremendous, perfect way that tremendous. Uh can't thank you
enough for the time. This was really good. I hope
you're enjoyed an all the story. It was really really
fun for us kinda going to tarry our guest. Everyone.

Speaker 5 (01:05:32):
Thank you for downloading this podcast. Subscribe on Apple, google Play,
and everywhere else you listen.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Like the show, Please rate and review us.

Speaker 5 (01:05:40):
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