INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Colts are celebrating the legendary career of Adam Vinatieri on Sunday, as the NFL’s all-time leader in field goals is being inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor.
Vinatieri played 14 seasons with the Colts and helped the team win Super Bowl XLI.
Former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano spent six seasons in Indianapolis with Vinatieri and shared what made Vinatieri so special.
“I think we all saw how humorous this guy could be, that side of him at the Hall of Fame speech,” Pagano said. “But this guy, for the Super Bowl wins, the game-winning kicks, as good as he was, he was such a great teammate. He was so humble. Anything we needed, anything that I needed, he was kind of the spokesman in our locker room, kind of quietly behind the scenes. He would come to me and be like, hey, coach, on the practice schedule or anything dealing with our operation on the day-to-day, the meeting, stuff like that, he would carry messages to me from the locker room supporting his players, supporting the guys in the locker room. Then I could tell him, hey look, we need to do X, Y, and Z, and he was always out front as a teammate, carrying a great message. ‘Hey look, this is how we’re going to do it. This is how coach wants to do it. This is how the staff wants to do it.’ He was always great that way. What a great human and a great teammate.”
Vinatieri was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. He was a three-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro in his 24-year NFL career.
The Colts are scheduled to kick off at home against the Titans at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Full interview with Chuck Pagano
