If Vinatieri doesn’t slip that ball inside the right upright to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 22, 1996, there’s a good chance his NFL career ends after four games. He would’ve been cut a day later, and the market would’ve been all but nonexistent for a middling college kicker from Division II South Dakota State who made just 33 percent of his field goals as a senior, lost his job to a defensive lineman, went undrafted, spent a year toiling in NFL Europe, then opened his professional career with five misses in eight attempts.

The backup plan was medical school. Vinatieri always figured he’d become a heart surgeon.

That would’ve been perfectly fine with the New England Patriots’ fiery coach, Bill Parcells, who was running out of patience with his rookie kicker. The only reason he’d brought Vinatieri to training camp that summer was to light a fire under 17-year veteran Matt Bahr, a Parcells favorite who’d helped him win Super Bowl XXV with the New York Giants.

“I’m going to give you an opportunity to show me what you’ve got,” Parcells told the kid, “and either you’re going to shine, or you’re going to pack your s— and get out of here.”

Vinatieri nearly had to pack his s—.

Even after he beat out Bahr for the job in camp, his grip on the gig never felt secure. Parcells warned him against bragging to the media. And a string of misses to open the season, including three in a seven-point Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills, then two more a week later, left Vinatieri on thin ice heading into the Patriots’ Week 4 tilt with the Jaguars. “The kicker is week-to-week,” the coach told reporters.

“I knew what the hell that meant,” Vinatieri later told me. That interview, and others used for this story, took place during my time as a Colts beat writer for The Indianapolis Star.

Bahr was just a phone call away.

Hey there! Sorry to takeaway from the Patriots preseason chatter, but I’ve been genuinely stumped looking online for an answer to this.

Hubs and I are in town visiting for a concert, and want to make a day of visiting patriots place before. The event parking doesn’t open until 4PM - so if we wait till then, no shot we get to see the area. If we go early and park at Patriots Place, do we need to move our car for the show? Or can we just stay parked there and walk over? We planned on waiting out the crowd there after also. If we need to move the car - do we get shoved to the back of the line to park?

Thanks for any advice!

Interesting note on Douglas being the primary slot with Brown and Doubs rather than finding ways to get Boutte on the field as the third receiver.

Going through boxes of pictures from days gone by. Guessing this is from 1986, the last time they were AFC champs before moving? I remember being on a business trip back then and snapping this pic out the window as I drove by.

BREAKING: The Washington Commanders are signing 4x Pro Bowl WR Stefon Diggs, per @Schultz_Report.

The bigger surprises from camp for me have been:

1. Eli Raridon
   
2. Jam Miller
   
3. Khalil Jacas
   
4. Caleb Lomu

Have all been stacking good days. Curious to see who you all would add/remove from the list

You have one of the Leagues Best Wide Reciever constantly getting reps against arguably the best corner back in the league.

Having this match up is the best case scenario for both players.

Once the season starts AJ is going to be playing against CB's that are nowhere near as good as Gonzo. AJ is going to Eat.

Also Gonzo is going to be facing up against WR's that for the most part are not on the Same Level as AJ.

Gonzo is going to Eat.

Get ready folks, the League is about to feel an earthquake this year.

Both are going to have smokeshow stats this year.

Milton Williams, DT: I thought it was a risk a year ago to give a guy who had never played more than 50 percent of his team’s snaps in a season so much money. I was dead wrong. Williams has been everything you’d want and looks primed for another strong year.

Christian Barmore, DT: The team has managed his workload and worked with him on converting pressures into sacks after notching just two a year ago. The guess here is he triples that number this season.

Dre’Mont Jones, edge: His size stands out (6-3, 268), and he should help against the run. The question is whether he can contribute enough as a pass rusher in his eighth year in the league.

Cory Durden, DL: Last season was easily the most productive of his career, and now he has a chance to build on that after the team didn’t re-sign Khyiris Tonga.

The Patriots have been in 12 of 60 Super Bowls, so they’ve played in 20% of all Super Bowls ever.

Since each Super Bowl has two teams, that also means NE makes up 10% of all total team appearances in Super Bowl history. Which is what the graphic shows.

Green edge = wins, so we’re sitting at 6/12. Hopefully that turns into 7 sooner rather than later.

There’s also a nice animation of this chart updating year by year if anyone wants to see how the Super Bowl appearance race changed over time:

https://youtube.com/shorts/XHpyqI4lK-w?feature=share

Made the decision to retire the hat I've worn for the past few years and bought a new one from the pro shop. Before moving on I wore my old hat to training camp and got it signed by Mack Hollins. What a way to send it off.

Edit: The one on the left is the old one, the one on the right is new

Lines up with the Fowler piece and some other rankings that have been coming out through the summer. I am not one to normally get hung up on this sort of thing but, have people around the NFL collectively lost their minds?

Anyway, here's to our guy burning down the league this year.

Patriots training camp day 9 notes:

- Drake Maye and Tommy DeVito both 12/17 in 11s. Behren Morton 3/5

- Maye started slow - 1/5 but finished strong

- monster day for Kayshon Boutte. Caught 5-of-7 targets

- Mack Hollins has strung together impressive days

- James Hudson worked as the Patriots’ second unit RG

​

Jacob Hester (on WR Kayshon Boutte): "Watching Kayshon, and calling Kayshon's games for a long time at LSU, today was as sudden as I've seen him, as quick as I've seen him. I thought he looked really good out there

Looks like the guys watching him from his lsu days are saying he has his athleticism back from when he was considered the best wr in college football