By Chris Avena
In this special edition of American Outdoor News, we have the distinct honor of sitting down with one of the most iconic figures in professional football—Adam Vinatieri, the NFL’s all-time leading scorer. Over the course of an extraordinary 24-year career, Vinatieri became synonymous with clutch performance under pressure, securing his place in history as a cornerstone of four Super Bowl–winning teams. With four championship rings, multiple records, and countless unforgettable moments, his legacy as an All-Pro kicker and future Hall of Fame inductee is already written in the history books.
Yet beyond the bright lights of the stadium, Adam’s passion for the outdoors runs just as deep as his love for the game. Raised with a rifle in hand and a respect for the land, he has spent his life hunting, fishing, and living the outdoor lifestyle. Whether it’s stalking trophy whitetails or testing his skills in the backcountry, Vinatieri approaches the outdoors with the same focus, precision, and dedication that made him a legend on the field.
In our conversation, Adam shares stories from his incredible NFL career, reflects on the values that shaped him both as an athlete and a sportsman, and talks about the lessons learned in the wild that apply just as much under stadium lights as they do in the quiet of the woods. From last-second field goals to once-in-a-lifetime hunts, Adam Vinatieri continues to prove that champions aren’t just made—they’re forged through passion, preparation, and a relentless drive to succeed.
Chris: Adam, I must ask you, how do you sit in a hunting stand with all those Super Bowl rings without making any noise?
Adam: I honestly don't wear them. I don't want to get them too dirty and muddy, but
Football has been a blessing for me for many, many years. People always used to ask, what's the worst thing about football? They always think it's injuries and such. I always tell them it is the same season during hunting season, so I don't get to get out in the woods as much during football. But now being retired from football after 24 years in the league I'm getting a little bit more free time. I am still involved with football. I coach my sons football team. But it was definitely a blessing. It allowed me the ability to go travel around the world and do some destination type hunting. But definitely enjoying these past couple fall seasons of being out of football and watching the colors change on the trees, and watching the sunrise and sunset in a stand is a beautiful thing.
Chris: I think the best part of this season is watching the leaves on the ground change color.
Adam: Well, I tell you, this year has been a little hot one day, cold the next day, so I think we're going to get into some consistent weather, and that should hopefully keep the bucks moving around and hopefully we will get a good opportunity later this month.
Chris: You grew up in South Dakota, correct?
Adam: I did.
Chris: You must have had hunting season all year- round while living in South Dakota.
Adam: We really did. My mom's side of the family where farmers from the eastern side of the state, so we did all the upland bird hunting, pheasants, ducks, geese, all that stuff, and a little bit of deer hunting out there as well. But we lived in Rapid City which is right on the black hills, so really good deer hunting, some antelope hunting. If you're a South Dakota resident, there's elk hunting as well. So being in South Dakota, I'm not sure that there's a better state. If you're looking to hunt whitetail deer, maybe you're thinking more like Iowa or Illinois. If you're thinking elk hunting, you might be thinking, Utah, Colorado, some of New Mexico. But for us, being in South Dakota, we had the best of everything. You had deer hunting, elk hunting, bird hunting, there was a lot of great stuff out there. So, I feel like I was very blessed being from South Dakota.
Chris: Did you have a favorite season?
Adam: For me and my family opening weekend of pheasant season, which is like right about now, mid-November, the second and third week of October in South Dakota was amazing. All the relatives got together. My dad, my brothers and myself would all go out there into corn fields and walk and work the dogs and it seemed like every fall, that was the one thing that I looked the most forward too. But now I do a little bit more big game hunting now that I live in Indiana. But yeah, pheasant hunting with the family was definitely a treat because it seemed like there was 25 relatives that would get together and my uncle, who was a farmer back then, he would cut the corn fields. They would cut them in strips that we could handle and stuff. So, I mean, I got spoiled rotten growing up as a kid for sure.
Chris: Sure. You must have had all types of game all over the farm.
Adam: It was unbelievable. You don't limit out every year, obviously, but there were definite years that we kind of had it figured out. Depending on the season and depending on the weather would dictate our success a little bit. But there wasn't a single year or day that I regretted the time spent out there. Getting to spend time with the family and siblings and the dogs and watching them work and all that stuff was amazing for sure.
Chris: Have you raised your kids around hunting as well?
Adam: One-hundred percent. Yes. My two boys love it a lot. My daughter has dabbled in it. She has hunted with me a couple of times. I don't think it's necessarily her favorite thing. I think getting up early in the morning when it's cold out, she's probably feels like she would rather be sleeping. But my two boys definitely love it. My wife enjoys going out in the woods, but she doesn't want to pull the trigger or sling an arrow at anything. She enjoys being out in the outdoors, but not necessarily killing anything.
Chris: Yes, that's my son. He likes the outdoors, being out in the woods. He has no desire to shoot anything.
Adam: I tell you, for me, it was always during football season, it always was a great decompressor for me. The season's long and stressful, people around all the time. And for me to be able to get out into the woods and hear nothing other than birds waking up in the morning and the owls in the evening and turkeys gobbling in the spring. For me, just getting away from humanity, getting out in the wild was a thing that made me happy.
Chris: A lot of people don't understand that.
Adam: For sure. If they have never done it, they don't understand it. They think, why do you want to get up at four or five o'clock in the morning and sit out in the cold and do all that stuff? It's hard to explain to them until they've done it. Only then do they get it.
Chris: What traditions have you taken away from hunting, which stands out the most?
Adam: For me, it is just being around the people that I want to be around. Growing up as a kid being able to hunt with my dad and my brothers has been great. Now my brother's kids and my kids, it is just a family tradition. I think for me it is less about hanging the animal on the wall and more about spending time with your family. Non-hunters always ask, why do you have these dead animals on your wall? I tell them that every one of those animals is a memory. It represents a time in my life. I can tell you exactly where I was, who I was with, what the weather was, whatever the situation may be. So, for me, it is a snapshot in time of spending time with my family. And a lot of times it is hard to get everybody together and to go spend time. For one reason or another, the hunting season was traditionally the time where we could all get together and maybe it was twice a year you get together as a family tradition. And it seems like it was always kind of around hunting and getting together for that. So, for me, that was the tradition for me.
Chris: When you played ball did the Patriots or the Colts have anything to say about you hunting?
Adam: No. That was always one thing that I always made sure when signing contracts. Sometimes they want you to minimize risks. They do not want you taking part in extreme sports or so-called dangerous activities. No skydiving, no driving race cars etc. I always told them, “Hey, listen”, I hunt, so I'll be carrying a gun in the field, and I like to go to lots of different destinations across the world. I always told them that is non-negotiable. I told them, if you want me to play for your team, I'm going to do this stuff. I suppose more as I got older in my career. But I didn't do a lot of hunting when I was in Massachusetts, just because it's so populated that it was hard to find ground to go hunt. And if I could find it, it was a long-ways out.
But here in Indiana, it is a very hunter friendly state. So, it is really easy to meet people that will let you come hunt and or, I've got a little bit of ground myself now, so yeah, no, they never got that too much. I always had a couple of teammates on every team that I played on, we had a couple of kids from Iowa or Kansas or whatever that like to hunt and enjoy that. So, they didn't mock at it too terribly much. And occasionally I got to take a teammate or two out and introduce hunting to them as well.
Chris: You have the reputation of being very cool under pressure. When you are sitting in your stand and you see the trophy of a lifetime standing in front of you broadside. Are you still so cool and collected when you are drawing on that thing.
Adam: Well, I tell you honestly, if you ever lose the excitement of your heart racing out of your chest and you getting a little jittery, it's the time to stop hunting. Because for me, I don't care if it's the buck of a lifetime or whatever the situation may be, I still get that excitement. To be able to calm your nerves down and to make sure that if you are using your bow, you keep the pin on the animal. There are absolutely times where I know I got pretty excited and I can't lie. I have never made perfect shots all the time by no means.
Chris: But who does.
Adam: I can keep it under control for the most part. I've always had buddies that I'd laugh at. I would tell them, thank God you wear a harness, you could fall out the tree, you are shaking so much. But I was never quite that mad. I do think, obviously if that buck comes down the trail and you know that he is a shooter, my heart starts jumping out of my chest too. But thankfully, 99% of the time I can keep my nerves under control and make a good shot. So yeah, that's part of hunting, I think that is why we do it. It is for that excitement and the joy of doing that.
Chris: You have traveled all over the world, Africa, Alaska, the Arctic where is your favorite place?
Adam: I love Africa. I have been there quite often. It is really a gentleman's hunt for the most part. I mean, obviously most of the times, unless you're doing some real remote stuff, which I'm going to go to Cameroon into the Rain Force and chase some bongos a year from now. So that is less comfortable and more roughing it. But for the most part, when you do some of the lodges in Africa, it is very five star -ish. You get to sleep in a comfortable bed, they feed the crap out of you. There are tons of game moving around. The Arctic, we are sleeping in tents around grizzly bears and polar bears and stuff like that. It is less comfortable, but if you want to go shoot a polar bear, you got to go where they live.
That's part of the deal. So, for me, it is less about being comfortable and more about seeing the terrain. Alaska is beautiful. I absolutely love Alaska, the Yukon and places like that. I don't know if I have a favorite. A lot of my friends would rather whitetail deer hunt than anything on the planet. And I agree. I love whitetail deer hunting. But I love to sheep hunt. As long as I'm still healthy to climb them mountains, I'm going to keep doing that until my knees give out. It's really about experiencing a new place in the world and seeing new culture. I have not hunted New Zealand or Australia yet. But I've visited there and I'm looking forward to doing that too.
So, I don't necessarily have a favorite. I know going into the Arctic is not for the faint at heart. If you're not willing to be in extremely cool conditions and being a little uncomfortable, you probably shouldn't do that. And I'm thinking the same thing going into the Rain Force in a year from now, it's going to be hot, there's going to be a million bugs. It's probably not great sleeping conditions and stuff like that. But if you want to do it, if you want to be and experience that, you have to deal with a little bit of that. And I think that part scares some people away, too. If you want to have a comfortable, fun hunt that you get to shoot a lot of animals, go to South Africa. That's a fairly easy to get in and out, fairly easy to bring guns in and out. You're going to have a great time. But if you want to shoot a big horn sheep, it's not in Africa, you know, you got to go where you want to go.
Chris: Have you taken the big five in Africa?
Adam: I have not shot an elephant yet. I went leopard hunting this last year, and unfortunately in Namibia, which is one of the driest countries south of the Sahara Desert, and unfortunately it rained 11 of the 14 days we were there. I do not like rain. And I came home without getting one, so I have got to do that one again. But it's still a cool experience watching them putting the bait in the trees in and watching all of that. It was still pretty cool. So those two I'm still waiting on, but hopefully by the time I'm dead and gone I will have gotten those plus a handful of others as well.
Like I said, I'm going to Cameroon for those hunts. I was potentially going to Russia to do some sheep hunting, but that went on hold now for God knows how long. But a lot of the Middle East stuff, some of the “Stan” countries, to go Marco Polo and some of the big sheep hunting. I'll eventually get to that hopefully, but I'm going up to British Columbia on a moose hunt next year. Don't get me wrong, I'm never against Midwest hunting, South Dakota and Indiana and doing all the stuff here in the United States. I absolutely love it, but I feel like I need to hit some of the big stuff while I'm still young enough to do the travel.
Chris: Yeah. While your legs are still young enough to get you up the mountain.
Adam: That's right. The mountain hunting, they always say do that while you can, because when you're 65 or 70 years old, you are a little bit beyond your prime, it gets much, much more difficult. So, I kind of want to do the hard things first and then maybe sink back into some of the easier stuff when I get a little older.
Chris: Record breaking ranch, that was originally your family getaway?
Adam: I actually bought the ranch about five years ago. I started it thinking when I was getting close to the end of my football career, I wanted to have a ranch where, this day and age it is hard to find public ground. It is difficult for people to be able to invest a lot of time putting in food plots, hanging stands, doing all of that stuff. I bought a ranch in Missouri. We high fenced it. I have got a big beautiful 10,000 square foot lodge there. We have got beautiful, gigantic deer, elk, lots of different exotics. We have some Dall sheep running around. It's really a five-star place. It is kind of like when I go to Africa. It is like an African lodge in the United States in the sense of you sleep in a beautiful lodge.
Our chefs are second to none. They do a great job. I've never had a single complaint. The only complaint that guests usually give is, I've gained 10 pounds since I've been here because the food is so good. Our guys are great. We put them on big deer and elk and all kinds of stuff, and it's turnkey. It's for the client that maybe the businessman that doesn't have a lot of time to spend in the woods, doesn't have a lot of time to put in food plots and hang stands, maybe doesn't have any private grounds. So, they can come out to us, spend three or four days, have a hunt of a lifetime, have a great time, and the guys are keeping the animals out, and we'll send them to the deck. I mean, it's really, it's turnkey five-star experience for people that want to come and do it. It's in Midwest, Missouri, it's easy to get to. We're an hour and 15 minutes from St. Louis. It is really easy to get there. Anybody that wants to experience something like that, go onto www.Recordbreakingranch.com and check it out. It's second to none.
Chris: What is it like being an outfitter as opposed to being on the other side all this time?
Adam: I enjoy it, it's fun for me because I guess the way I look at guiding is, it’s a lot like taking my kids out. My sons when they were growing up, I don't necessarily have to pull the trigger or sling the arrow myself. I'm right there with them experiencing it, helping them score and judge the animal and kind of guiding them. So, I get to experience their excitement even though I'm sitting right next to them. I really enjoy it. Everybody has great stories and we have a lot of repeat customers. Most of the people that come the first time are booking for the next year right away because they enjoyed it so much. That tells me that we're doing a good job and people enjoy coming back and I enjoy it. Then obviously we talk a lot of football and people ask a lot about playing in the NFL and experiences and stuff like that. So, we've got a couple good stories that people like to hear about that too, at times.
Chris: I know from guiding some hunts myself, people are nuts.
Adam: They have fun.
Chris: What's the craziest thing that's happened when you're guiding on your ranch?
Adam: I don't know if it's crazy, but we have, I'll say some blood thirsty clients is a good way of saying it. One of our best clients came in and he wanted to kill a big elk. He is a guy that comes back once or twice a year every year, and he can't sit without killing something. But anyway, my lead guide took him out. He wanted to shoot an elk, and it was right at the beginning of the bugle season. So, my guide bugles in this beautiful bull elk, and he's a bow hunter, and so it walks out into the field. He makes a beautiful shot and shoots him right in the right spot. He bucks up, takes off running, goes down into the ravine, and my guide Eric continues a cow call like a lot of times you do, just to keep him calm.
Well, sure enough that bull wasn't by himself, he was with another bull. And then the second bull walks out the client ends up pulling an arrow, re knocking an arrow, shoots the next bull “whack”, and Eric goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa you know, that's the second bull? And he says, Yeah, I know you got anymore? So, I don’t know if that's crazy or not, but he wanted to shoot everything that we had on our ranch.
Chris: That's a pretty wild
Adam: He's a psychopath in a good way when it comes to wanting to shoot stuff. So, he's been back several times a year, every year. I mean, my goodness, he has a good time when he is here. But those are the clients. We love those guys because we enjoy it as much as they do, I think.
Chris: Now I got some quick questions here. I'm going to ask you one or the other, just give me the first thing that pops into your head.
Bow or crossbow?
Adam: Bow
Chris: Bow or rifle?
Adam: Bow again.
Chris: Mechanical or fix blade?
Adam: Mechanical. I know Africa, they always want fixed blade all the time, but I've had great experience with mechanical ones. I've never had a failure. They've always done a good job. I think the technology at this point is so good. Now, if you're shooting a Cape Buffalo in Africa, you have a two blade, fixed blade, heavy, heavy, heavy thing. But for North America, Midwest, deer, elk, mechanical, I like it. I do. That is my thing.
Chris: Favorite game animal.
Adam: I better say whitetail, but I love elk hunt. Probably elk.
Chris: Parcells a Belichick.
Adam: Ooh. Ooh, you're going to get me in trouble on this one. Bill Belichick is my favorite all-time football coach. Now, Bill Parcells, I learned a lot from, he was my coach as a rookie, I have to give him all the love in the world because he was the deciding factor of bringing me to the team and keeping me on the team. So, he's got a definite special place in my heart. But Bill Belichick, I don't think that their head is a better football coach X’s and O's than he is. So, I'm going to say Bill Belichick number one. But that is absolutely no slight on Bill Parcels or Tony Dungy or all the great coaches that I had along the way.
Chris: Last question- 2002, playing the Raiders, blinding snowstorm- the Pats came storming back from a 10-point deficit, 27 seconds left on the clock and it is all up to you. Are you thinking?....... Please don't let me be Scott Norwood??
Adam: Well, I tell you what, I'm sitting there watching the whole game unfold. Was it a throw? Was it a fumble? All that stuff. And I'm thinking to myself as I watched Woodson go around the corner and strip the ball out of Brady's hand, I'm like, holy crap, the season's over. We just lost. Then all of a sudden, the play is under review and then it went from crap, we have to clean out our lockers and go home tomorrow. To, oh my God, this is coming down to you. You have got to kick a 45-yard field goal, the most difficult kick you've had to kick in your entire life. And oh, by the way, if you don't make it, you lose. So yeah, I'm pretty sure when we talked about before, that buck walks out and your heart's pounding and your palms are sweaty.
I had that same feeling in this situation and how I made that kick. I'm not sure. I still go back and look at it and just wonder like, oh my gosh that was incredible. I didn't fall on the ground and kick the ball into the lineman's butt, that it actually got above the line of scrimmage and it went 45 yards in a driving snowstorm. Yeah, that's definitely the kick that I'm the most- proud of over my entire career. But yeah, I don't know how we kicked that a hundred times and make it three times, five times. I don't know. But I made the one when I had to, and that's all that mattered. The rest was history. I guess. We ended up winning the Super Bowl a couple weeks after that, which was pretty awesome.
Chris: That has to be one of my all-time favorite games, aside from the Giants beating the Pats in the Super Bowl……...Twice
Adam: Oh, I hear you but I wasn't on that team that at that point. I was with the Colts at that point. I did watch it intently. Obviously, I had a bunch of friends on the Patriots still and I wanted them to win, but yeah, I was a bystander in that game.
Chris: You've had an amazing career spanning 24 years. How do you do 24 years in the NFL?
Adam: Well, honestly, it is a whole lot of preparation and hard work and then probably quite a bit of luck as well in the sense that you stay healthy and I learned early in my career, I had really great teammates, Willie McGinness, Troy Brown and Teddy Brewski and some of those guys that played for the Patriots early. We learned how to keep our bodies in shape and they brought in the physical therapist and the massage therapist that they told early, they told us, listen, you're young. You don't need a lot of work, but you should think about taking care of your body because your body is your tool. So, eat right, make sure you're in the training room. Do all the little things that keep you healthy. Because if you get a little bit, ah, you know, this feels off and then it doesn't take long for that little thing to become a big thing.
So, I think I learned really early in my career to try to take care of my body the best I could. To make sure you ate right, to make sure you get enough sleep, you're not out screwing around at the bar, chasing women, you're home getting the right amount of rest and all that stuff so you can perform on the field. So thankfully for me, I learned that early in my career that I didn't want to be a guy that played two years and was gone or three years like most people. And then I guess, once I figured that out and kind of maintained that formula for success. But even with that, don't be afraid to be in the training room. Being in the training room isn't just for injured guys.
It's to make sure that you stay healthy and you can do everything right. And I think one of the greatest things in my longevity is I was able to help some of the younger guys along too, to learn out how to be a pro. How to take care of your body, how to do the right stuff, how to say no to the things that you shouldn't be doing. And I think, hopefully I've helped some of the other guys keep their longevity as well. It's a lot to do with luck. I've had six surgeries throughout my career, but nothing that put me off the field until the last one in 2019. My knee surgery I couldn't come back from. And that's probably also because I was 46 or 47 years old.
And bodies don't heal quite the same way at that point. But ultimately, all in all, like I said, I was very, very blessed to be around the right people at the right time to help me do the right stuff. I would have to probably credit my wife as well. I met her early in my career and she bought into all of the nutrition and the sleep and all that stuff. So, she made it easier for me to be a pro.
Chris: She kept you in check is what you're really saying.
Adam: She's a big reason for my success, that's for sure.
Chris: Well, I want to thank you for your time. This has been great.
Adam: My pleasure.
Chris: Where can we find you on social media and Record-Breaking Ranch? Where can we find all of that?
Adam: Well, very, very easy. Obviously, I'm on Twitter and Instagram on my personal Adam Vinatieri. And then the Record-Breaking Ranch has, I mean, the easiest way, if anybody wants to check into it, book a hunt, any of that stuff. Easiest way is just go onto the www.RecordBreakingRanch.com The ranch is located in Fulton, Missouri. You' will see a big Deer and you'll know you're on the right spot. There's all the information's on there on how to book a hunt, contact information and all that stuff. And we also have an Instagram and Twitter account as well for recordbreakingranch.com. So very easy to find us, get ahold of us and hopefully there are lots of people that see this and say, man, I got to go check out this ranch and go hunting with him. So, if you do come on, we'd love to have
Chris: And they do that. Thanks again.