Stephen Holder and Gregg Doyel of IndyStar discuss the Indianapolis Colts' loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Matt Kryger/IndyStar
BALTIMORE — The stupid $500,000 bonus wasn’t his idea. Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri isn’t greedy, isn’t ungrateful, isn’t stupid. He knows he makes a lot of money. He knows, over the course of his career, he has made a lot of money. Sure, he’d like to make $500,000 more.
But not like this. Not tied to the vagaries of football, to things that have nothing to do with Adam Vinatieri himself, things like wind and rain and snow and even some dude for the Baltimore Ravens making like legendary former U.S. high-hurdler Renaldo Nehemiah and flying over a Colts blocker before smacking away Vinatieri’s half a million … er, Vinatieri’s 38-yard field goal.
But that’s how it went down on Saturday for Vinatieri, who endured the Colts’ 23-16 loss to the Ravens along with a personal loss of $500,000. Vinatieri entered the game with 24 field goals in 27 attempts, putting him three made field goals away from 90 percent on the season (27-for-30). That was the arbitrary threshold written into Vinatieri’s contract before the 2016 season, when Vinatieri was pursuing a contract in the neighborhood of $7 million over two years, a pricey damn neighborhood for a kicker, and yet something of a bargain for arguably the greatest kicker of all time — and the greatest clutch kicker ever, no argument needed.
But, there’s that word again: But …
But then-Colts GM Ryan Grigson countered with a two-year contract for $6 million, with a $500,000 bonus each season for connecting on 90 percent.
“Only two years I’ve ever had that in my contract," Vinatieri was saying ruefully after this game, giving me the courtesy of complete honesty when I asked him if he knew that the bonus was gone after Ravens safety Tony Jefferson hopped a Colts blocker and swatted down Vinatieri’s 38-yard gimme in the first quarter.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett discusses the loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Matt Kryger/IndyStar
“Of course (I knew),” he said.
When, I wanted to know.
“The second he blocked it,” Vinatieri said, and let’s please applaud the man for not insulting anyone’s intelligence. Of course he knew $500,000 was riding on that kick. Of course he knew it was gone the instant it happened.
It happened last year, too.
Not sure which one was worse, either. This season’s bonus loss was pretty bad, given that Vinatieri was 22-for-23 (95.7 percent) entering the game two weeks ago at Buffalo and was asked to kick two field goals in an actual blizzard. He made neither, including the one where Colts coach Chuck Pagano blew an opportunity to get the ball closer to the hashmark, letting almost 40 seconds run off the clock instead.
Where were we? Oh, right. The math. The contract. The stupid bonus. Vinatieri has missed five field goals this season, four in the last three games. Two were in a blizzard, and the other two — both on Saturday at Baltimore — were in a monsoon. One was blocked by Jefferson. The other was a 60-yarder at the end of the first half, a 60-yarder into the rain but with a strong wind at his back … a strong wind that magically died down just as Vinatieri prepared to kick it. Vinatieri’s kick would have been good from 59½ yards, but alas. In the 60th yard it dipped beneath the crossbar.
“The wind was howling when we trotted him out there,” Pagano said, “and then it’s like it died as soon as he hit the ball.”
So that’s this year, $500,000 gone thanks to Mother Nature and Tony Jefferson.
Last year? Well, Vinatieri was 26-for-29 entering the final game of the season. Make at least one kick without a miss, and he’d be 27-for-30 (or better) and reach the 90-percent threshold.
So here’s what happened: The Colts had the ball at the Jags’ 19, third-and-7, and Andrew Luck drops back and … gets sacked for an 11-yard loss. Instead of a chip shot, Vinatieri has a kick approaching 50 yards. He misses. The bonus is gone.
So I’m asking him, one year later – I’m asking him on Saturday in Baltimore — what he thinks about having so much money tied to a single kick or two.
Vinatieri smiles at me. Or maybe he was wincing. He’s such a good sport it’s hard to tell, but this is what he said:
Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano discusses his team's loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Matt Kryger/IndyStar
“I don’t think I’ll have any more incentives in my contract,” he said.
He has one more year in him, by the way. Maybe more, who knows, but he was committing to one more year after this game and saying: “I have things I’d like to accomplish.”
After scoring 10 more points on Saturday, giving him 101 on the season — and extending his NFL record to 20 consecutive 100-point seasons — Vinatieri is just 66 points from passing Morten Andersen for the most points in NFL history. Andersen has 2,544. Vinatieri has 2,479. He’s going to pass Andersen, there’s not much doubt about that, and he’d like to do it here. He has kids in school in Indianapolis. He has invested 12 years here.
“Indianapolis is home to me and my family,” Vinatieri said. “I love the Irsay family, but I understand this is business. I just know I’m going to play another year.”
He’ll leave, too. Believe that. Vinatieri was telling me he doesn’t want to move his family — or leave them here while he goes somewhere else — but he’ll do it if the business of the NFL pushes him that way. He has played a long time (this is his 22nd NFL season) and made a lot of field goals (557) and earned a lot of money (more than $40 million,
according to overthecap.com). He’s 45 years old but getting better with age, and was pretty good when he was younger: winning two Super Bowls for New England with kicks in the final seconds, two of his NFL-record 27 game-winning kicks in the final minute of regulation or overtime.
But older Vinatieri is better Vinatieri. His accuracy up to age 39 was 83 percent (448-for-540), but he has converted 90 percent since then. As recently as two weeks ago, Vinatieri was second only to Stephen Gostkowski (91.2 percent) since 2013, but now he stands fifth in that span (89.4 percent). What happened? The blizzard of Buffalo happened. And the monsoon in Baltimore. And Tony Jefferson, hurdling a Colts blocker in a single bound.
You ever talked to someone within hours of them losing half-a-million bucks? I have now, and I can tell you what that person looks like:
Like he’s not smiling at all. Like, definitely: That was a wince.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.
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