Can We Still Hope For The Best With Colts' Adam Vinatieri?

One of the NFL's greatest clutch kickers has missed 10 attempts this season, which makes it difficult to defend keeping a future Hall of Famer.

For years, there have been two constants with kicker Adam Vinatieri.

Each time he missed a kick, critics would be quick to say the NFL’s oldest player was too old and should retire.

And each time he delivered a game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter or overtime — that number is at 29 in 24 seasons — he reassured there’s nobody you would rather have in that situation with a game on the line. It’s what defines “Mr. Clutch” in a legendary career, two Super Bowl-winning kicks, a field goal in the snow of an AFC Championship Game that ranks as one of the greatest in NFL history, a kicker destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

What we’ve appreciated just as much is his professionalism, how he understood the pressure that comes with the job, how Vinatieri showed humility and honesty in good times and bad.

That’s made this season exceedingly painful to watch, or for the truly nervous, reason to cover your eyes when No. 4 is called upon.

We’ve seen how Father Time catches up with everyone. And the reality is, at 46, Vinatieri isn’t the same trusty specialist as in the past. That’s not a revelation after 10 missed kicks, including five extra points. The only time he’s ever missed more in a season was 11 as a rookie in 1996.

He’s become a constant social media topic, after the misses started with three in a season-opening loss, for fans and media saying how enough is enough. Even for one of his most ardent admirers, guilty as charged, it’s become increasingly difficult to defend him.

The latest sigh was at the end of Sunday’s 26-24 loss at Pittsburgh, when Vinatieri had the chance to be a hero again and failed. His 43-yard miss at the end fluttered like a knuckleball ridiculously wide left. Yes, the laces of that ball were mistakenly facing him, which made the kick more difficult. The Colts have been quick to remind that execution is required from everyone on the unit, not just Vinatieri.

But when you’re considered one of the best to ever do your job, the expectation never changes. He’s paid to make the most important kicks. He’s paid to make most of them. One miss can be written off with the laces excuse, but not all of them. In the same game, he didn’t get enough of a foot into a line-drive extra point that was blocked.

We’ve seen him hook kicks badly. We’ve seen him push them wide right. We’ve seen just about everything through eight games.

I’ll be the first to admit that when he trotted out there for that game-winning chance at Heinz Field, I didn’t know what to expect. I doubted he would make a 51-yarder the week before at home against Denver, but he drove it through to provide the Colts with a 15-13 victory.

That’s why second-year head coach Frank Reich stuck with his conservative, and in my opinion mistaken decision of just running the ball three times and counting on his kicker. It worked the week before. But it didn’t the next. I wish, at the very least, the Colts aggressively tried to get the ball closer.

And that sums up where things are with Vinatieri these days. You just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

What I’d like to tell fans is to keep the faith, that Vinatieri will figure it out and the good will inevitably outweigh the bad. But admittedly that’s a tough sell, one that many readers will quickly dismiss as nonsense and biased spin.

To be honest, I don’t believe that, either. I’m at the point where I just hope the ball goes through each time he’s out there. Before, he was automatic, you expected success without expectation. Now, again, who knows?

One obvious NFL reality is very few players enjoy storybook endings to their careers. Few win a Super Bowl and walk away. Too many great players stick around too long and are forced by their failure to reluctantly admit they can’t play anymore.

Colts owner Jim Irsay has admitted in the past that the team has erred in sticking by aging players too long, for one more year that they would eventually regret.

I firmly believe Vinatieri wanted to walk away after his second straight awful game to start this season. He said with utmost certainty that he would meet with the media on Monday after the Colts’ win at Tennessee, although there wasn’t any media availability.

He evidently had a change of heart, or more likely, the Colts reassured their faith in him and talked him into staying. But the Vinatieri I’ve known for more than a decade, the fierce competitor and perfectionist, never wants to be a detriment to his team. He doesn’t want to be a reason why the team loses.

In two of the three losses, Vinatieri missed kicks that would have made a difference in the outcome. There’s no other way to look at that.

We’ve still got half of a regular season to go, which means you can expect this all-important situation to present itself again. Game on the line, a field goal needed to win, and Vinatieri is called upon again.

If he misses again, how much more can the Colts stick by him? Their loyalty, to be fair, has exceeded all the boundaries of what could be considered reasonable at this point. I’d like to say it’s admirable that the team has stuck by him this long when anyone else would have been gone.

But that loyalty hasn’t been rewarded too often, and as the old saying goes, those who ignore history after doomed to repeat it.

I’ll always consider Vinatieri one of my favorite players I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. He’s earned his place in Canton, Ohio, some day and I’ll smile when his name is called and he steps up to give his acceptance speech.

What we’re left with now is just hope. We hope he’ll make that next kick. We hope he can silence his critics and remind why he’s been so special.

I just hope he can finish what will be his final season and the Colts aren’t forced to make the difficult decision of telling a legend it’s time to call it a career.

That’s undeniably sentimental, but aren’t we all when it comes to legends?