Adam Vinatieri walked into Canton on Saturday and reminded everyone that even the most polite kicker in NFL history has a sense of humor. His Hall of Fame speech included one of the coldest Bill Belichick jokes we’ve heard from a former player.
Vinatieri paid tribute to Belichick early in his address, thanking his former head coach for the trust and the opportunities that turned him into a four-time Super Bowl champion. Then he went for the punchline.
“Unfortunately, Bill couldn’t make it here today. There’s a lot going on at UNC right now,” Vinatieri said. “He may be on a recruiting trip right now looking for the next Lawrence Taylor. I thought it was because training camp had already started, but in truth, it’s because he’s judging his girlfriend’s cheerleading competition.”
The crowd cracked up. So did the players on the stage behind him. Vinatieri delivered the line with a straight face, which made it hit even harder.
Belichick was not in Canton on Saturday, though he had been invited. The former Patriots coach is now the head coach at North Carolina, deep in his first fall camp at the college level and reportedly working long hours to get the Tar Heels ready for their opener. He and Jordon Hudson have been a running punchline for months now, and Vinatieri clearly did not want to leave that one alone.
Vinatieri did not stop with Belichick. He also took a shot at Peyton Manning, thanking him for “generously donating your forehead for today’s teleprompter.” Manning was seated in the front row, and even he laughed.
The willingness of former players to poke fun at Belichick at Hall of Fame events has quietly become a tradition. Vinatieri is just the latest, following a Browns reporter who delivered a brutal Belichick roast during last year’s ceremony. There is a common thread in all of them, which is that these guys clearly love Belichick and also see the whole Jordon Hudson situation as too much comedic gold to leave alone.
Belichick’s move to Chapel Hill was one of the biggest coaching stories of the last two years. He took the North Carolina job after being frozen out of the NFL, and he brought with him an entirely new front-office structure to run college recruiting like an NFL personnel department. Early returns have been mixed. Some of his moves have looked visionary. Others have felt like a legendary coach adjusting to a market he does not fully understand.
Vinatieri’s joke landed because it captures where Belichick is right now, out of the NFL spotlight, chasing recruits, and dealing with tabloid coverage that would have made his Patriots-era press conferences unrecognizable.
The kicker himself is one of the greatest to ever do it. Vinatieri hit game-winners in three Super Bowls, played 24 seasons, and made 566 field goals. He is the all-time leading scorer in NFL history. His candidacy was never in doubt. The interesting part of his speech was going to be the tone, not the resume, and he nailed it by combining sincerity with a couple of well-placed jabs.
The Hall of Fame speech is the last major mic drop of a career. Vinatieri used his to remind us why he was so beloved in the locker room. Even the most disciplined coach in NFL history was not safe from a Vinatieri prank.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
