Adam Vinatieri has been one of the most clutch kickers in the NFL for a very long time. If you aren’t aware, he was the one that kicked a 48-yard field goal to win Super Bowl 38 – that was in 2002. He was a 6-year veteran at that point.
The 44-year old is the oldest player in the league, and he has been given a lot of paychecks over his tenure in the league. While he likely isn’t struggling to pay the bills, he may have been cost a cool half-million from an unfortunate clause in his contract.
Vinatieri would be paid a bonus of $500,000 if he were to make 90% of his field goals. Heading into the Buffalo in Week 14, Vinatieri was kicking at 95.7%, but unfortunately he had to deal with some of the worst weather you could ask for in Buffalo as the snow was coming down in heaps.
Kicking field goals was extremely difficult during the Bills-Colts battle that ended in a 13-7 overtime loss for Vinatieri’s Colts. The wind was swirling, the visibility was next to nowhere, and of course it’s nearly impossible to find footing when the ground is covered in snow.
Vinatieri missed on both of his field goal attempts, bringing his season average down to 88%.
Not only was it an unfortunate circumstance, Vinatieri actually ended up being somewhat of a hero by kicking a long extra point in the near impossible conditions to send the game to overtime.
To further emphasize just how horrible the conditions were, the quarterbacks on both sides of the ball combined to complete just 18 passes on 38 attempts. It doesn’t help that those quarterbacks were Jacoby Brissett, Nate Peterman, and Joe Webb, but you get the point.
Here’s a look at how difficult it was to kick it through the uprights in Buffalo on Sunday.
Vinatieri still has a good chance of bringing his percentage back up above 90%, but this little curveball from Mother Nature certainly hurt his $500,000 cause.
(H/T For The Win)
