Adam Vinatieri moving on?

Vinatieri is clutch, there's no doubt about that. But, to be honest how many kickers get put in the situation of being able to win a Super Bowl or playoff game with a last second kick? Give some other kickers the chance maybe they do come through maybe they don't. The fact is 3 million for a kicker is too much. What surprises me about Vinatieri is that, as you mentioned, he will lose out on all the endorsement opportunities he had around here. If you combine the discounted salary and endorsements he probably would earn more that 3 million a year.

i like bill simmons' 9 year theory - an extra $10 mil to keep players with 9 years+ of continuous service. but really, this ends up being an emotional thing - it's sad to see all these guys go, and even sadder that the reason ends up being money. but that's the nfl salary cap for ya, and, frankly, it's hard to complain when we have 3 superbowl rings. we just might not see that for a long time to come if we keep losing key players. the cohesiveness of the team just deteriorates.

Billy, yours is an example of a bad comment. I'm leaving it up only to serve as a teaching tool for others as how NOT to comment on our site. Be a little bit more insightful when calling someone out as an idiot.

Darren,

Great commentary. Billy is the idiot.

The armor does havea few chinks, and yes they will toy with Troy Brown... its the nature of the business unfortunately. The Pats will let the market establish itself, and then go after players. 3mil is way too much for a kicker... especially when monies need to be spent in the secondary, OLB, and now WR.

Darren you are an idiot

It might be nice to think that the coach and Pioli know what they're doing, but after last years debacle(Brown, Scott, Starks), can we really trust them? I don't think so. I can no longer buy the reputation of Coach Bill. We know after last year that he doesn't always make the wisest decisions. The teams that won the Super Bowls had been in place for a few years. This armour has a few chinks. What begins to smell so badly is that they didn't even have the courtesy to talk with Willie. They left him hanging. Troy Brown? They will toy with him again. Wow- this feels like Kiam all over again.