ATLANTA — Whenever Tom Brady decides to walk away from football, his Hall of Fame exploits will be forever etched into the memories of Patriots fans everywhere.
Stephen Gostkowski, not so much.
Gostkowski kicked in his sixth Super Bowl on Sunday night. That ties him with Mike Lodish, a defensive tackle for the Bills and Broncos, for second-most appearances in NFL history. Only Brady, with nine, has more. [...]
ATLANTA — Whenever Tom Brady decides to walk away from football, his Hall of Fame exploits will be forever etched into the memories of Patriots fans everywhere.
Stephen Gostkowski, not so much.
Gostkowski kicked in his sixth Super Bowl on Sunday night. That ties him with Mike Lodish, a defensive tackle for the Bills and Broncos, for second-most appearances in NFL history. Only Brady, with nine, has more.
That longevity and two Super Bowl victories should be enough to usher Gostkowski into the Patriots Hall of Fame but he seems to forever be known more as the kicker who followed Adam Vinatieri than as some franchise all-time great.
Vinatieri, after all, clinched two Super Bowl wins with game-winning field goals for the Patriots. That’s Hall of Fame – as in Canton and gold jacket – stuff.
The good news is Gostkowski doesn’t seem caught up in any of this historic fluff. The 35-year old just keeps on kicking and Bill Belichick keeps trusting the 13-year veteran in the game’s biggest moments.
“It’s awesome and it is cool and you never want to take it for granted,” Gostkowski said, “but once you get here you never want to take your eyes off the prize.''
While Gostkowski’s consistency and longevity have moved him past Vinatieri on most Patriot scoring lists, his performances have been far from perfect in his five previous Super Bowls. He’s 5-of-6 on field goals but missed two of his 13 extra-point tries. A missed extra point in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI against the Falcons proved to be a vital one. That miss forced the Patriots into a bind that necessitated two 2-point conversions late in the fourth quarter of the team’s historic comeback from a 28-3 deficit.
Thankfully, a James White run and a Brady pass to Danny Amendola were just enough to tie the Falcons and force overtime. The Pats famously went on to score on the only possession of the overtime with White capping an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a two-yard rush to history.
In last year’s loss to the Eagles, Gostkowski missed his only field goal from 26 yards early in the second quarter. The Pats trailed at the half, 22-12, and went on to lose, 41-33.
Gostkowski’s six Super Bowls are the most of any kicker and he’s within range of eclipsing Vinatieri on the all-time production lists. Entering Sunday night, Vinatieri leads in field goals made (7-to-5) and extra points (13-to-11).
Gostkowski kicked in his 28th postseason game, the fourth-most in NFL history by any player. Only Brady (40th), Vinatieri (32) and Jerry Rice (29) have played in more. He does hold all of the New England franchise records. He's the all-time scoring leader (1,743 points) with the most field goals (367) and extra points (649). This season he also became the 19th kicker in NFL history to reach 350 field goals.
The chance that Gostkowski would have to add to those numbers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was high. The pressure that he’d face was just as high.
According to CBSSports.com, in the 52-year history of the Super Bowl, kickers have connected on 54.5 percent of their field-goal attempts beyond 40 yards. That’s substantially below the 72 percent success rate in the 2018 regular season.
That dip in the numbers speaks to Super Bowl pressure, something Gostkowski admits is present but avoidable.
“There are TV cameras all over the place during those kicks but really once the game starts, it’s a game,” Gostkowski said.
Gostkowski’s only field-goal miss in the Big Game came last year in Minneapolis when his 26-yard attempt in the second quarter plunked off the left upright. He went on to make a 26- and 45-yarder, which was the longest of his five Super Bowl field goals. In Vinatieri’s five Super Bowl games, he connected on just 70 percent of his field goals, well below his career average of 84 percent.
“It’s always about keeping to your routine but, of course, it is the Super Bowl so nerves are a given,” Gostkowski said. “It’s all about keeping your focus and doing what you’ve done thousands of times. You always have to be ready for the opportunity.”