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Veteran kicker Adam Vinatieri announced his retirement on social media. At 48, he was the oldest active player in the NFL and retired as the highest points scorer in NFL history with 2,673.
Adam Vinatieri's career
Adam Vinatieri was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New England Patriots in 1996 at the age of 24. In his rookie season, Vinatieri made 27 of his 35 field-goal attempts.
He would be the kicker for the New England Patriots until the end of the 2005 season. He recorded six seasons with at least an 80 percent conversion rate and two seasons with 90 percent.
He played in four Super Bowls with the Patriots and won three. The three wins came with Tom Brady and the loss was in his rookie season in 1996.
The New England Patriots decided to move on from Adam Vinatieri at the end of the 2005 season. He landed with the Indianapolis Colts and kicked for Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, among others. The Colts would be Adam Vinatieri's only other team in the NFL.
As the years went on, he continued to rack up points. Despite his age, he was able to remain healthy.
Adam Vinatieri kicked for the Indianapolis Colts into his late 40s. He made over 80 percent of his field goal attempts in his ten seasons and made over 90 percent in three of those seasons.
His final season would be in 2019. In December of that year, Adam Vinatieri suffered another injury to his knee and underwent surgery. The kicker missed the entire 2020 season. After almost a year and a half out of the game, Adam Vinatieri decided that it was time to retire.
Adam Vinatieri retired with the highest number of points scored in NFL history. He holds the record at 2673 points, beating out Morten Anderson by 129 points. Stephen Gostkowski is the closest active player with 1875 points, according to ESPN's leaderboard. He is currently 11th all-time in total points scored. Mason Crosby is also in the conversation at 20th overall with 1682 points.
