Adam Vinatieri will be back with the Colts in 2018. Let’s marvel that he’s still doing this at 45 freakin’ years old

Adam Vinatieri will still be the NFL’s oldest player in 2018. On Thursday, he agreed to a one-year deal to stay with the Colts through his 23rd NFL season, the team announced Thursday.

There’s every reason for Vinatieri to stick around, even though he’ll be 46 years old by the end of the season. Last year, he hit 85.3 percent of his field goal attempts and 22 of 24 PATs. Age hasn’t slowed him down one bit.

Vinatieri is entering his 13th season with the Colts, where he has successfully converted 85.7 percent of his 342 field goal attempts and 98.2 percent of his extra points. He’ll build on his legacy in Indianapolis next season. But Vinatieri is also still a legend with his original NFL team.

Don’t forget how clutch Vinatieri was for the Patriots

Vinatieri has been with the Colts longer than he was in New England, but he cemented his reputation for being one of the league’s greatest kickers well before he landed in Indianapolis.

He got his start in the league that became NFL Europe, then signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent before the 1996 season. He spent a decade in New England, and he won three rings with the Patriots during his time there. Two of those were literally won for the team thanks to Vinatieri’s leg.

Super Bowl XXXVI, the one against the Rams after the 2001 season that started the Patriots’ dynasty? Yeah, that was Vinatieri. He nailed a 48-yarder on the last play of the game to give New England the 20-17 win.

Then two years later there was Super Bowl XXXVIII, which Vinatieri won once more, this time with a 41-yarder with four seconds left to play to give the Patriots a 32-29 victory.

Tom Brady — who will play next season at a youthful 41 — was named Super Bowl MVP both times, but the Patriots wouldn’t have built their dynasty without Vinatieri’s clutchness.

Look at these f***ing kicks

We can’t go through all of Vinatieri’s kicks, because you’d spend the rest of his NFL career reading this article. But here are a few of our recent favorites.

Vinatieri tied things up 7-7 with the Bills in Week 14 with this extra point to send the game to overtime. The Colts went on to lose 13-7, but look at this curveball in the middle of a dang blizzard.

This was the 27th game-winning field goal of Vinatieri’s career, and it’s the one that let him pass Gary Anderson to take the No. 2 spot on the all-time field goals list. It also gave the Colts a 26-23 win over the 49ers in Week 5.

Then there were those Super Bowl game winners. Here’s Super Bowl XXXVI.

And here’s Super Bowl XXXVIII. The fan reaction really puts this one over the top.

Vinatieri will probably break a couple more records this year

He still has a few years to become the oldest player in NFL history — that honor belongs to George Blanda, who retired when he was 48. But Vinatieri has a nice collection of records.

He already kicked the most postseason field goals of all time with 56. The guy who took over for him in New England, Stephen Gostkowski, is next on the list with 34. Viniateri’s high mark won’t be an easy one to break. Likewise, Vinatieri’s 236 postseason points scored is an all-time record, with Gostkowski trailing behind at 140.

These are the records Vinatieri will have a chance to break since he’ll be back for another season:

• Most field goals all-time. Hall of Famer Morten Andersen holds that record currently with 565, but Vinatieri is just trailing by six with 559.
• Most points all-time. Andersen is also the leader here, with 2,544 points. Vinatieri can nab this one too. He’s currently sitting at 2,487 points.

Andersen, who played until he was 47, was inducted into the Hall of Fame with the 2017 class. If Vinatieri surpasses him — and probably even if he doesn’t — his career will be worthy of the same honor.