FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Step aside Adam Vinatieri, there’s a new all-time leading scorer for the New England Patriots: kicker Stephen Gostkowski.
In the third quarter of Sunday’s 41-13 win over the Miami Dolphins, Gostkowski kicked a 35-yard field goal to give him sole possession of first place in the Patriots’ record book.
“I knew there was a chance this game,” Gostkowski said. “I wasn’t trying to count the points during the game. I was trying to help the team win and score as many points as possible. It was cool that it happened on a field goal.”
Gostkowski is going to enjoy the recognition for now, though he is going to spend a lot of time celebrating.
“Something like that doesn’t really set it,” Gostkowski said. “I’ve said this before, any accomplishment that I make will be something that I will look back on when I’m done playing and be excited about and probably brag to my kids and grandkids about.”
Setting a franchise record was a special moment for Gostkowski, but what made it more special is that he did it the day before his son’s fifth birthday.
“It was cool. It was a special game for me,” Gostkowski said. “It is my son’s birthday tomorrow. The whole family is in town. Just a coincidence of something like that happening at home with a lot of people in town. It was cool because my family doesn’t come to many games, just happened to come to this one and made it a little more special.
“I looked over [at my family] after they announced it and my family was really excited and they were jumping up and down.”
Gostkowski didn’t have much time to celebrate with his family or his teammates as he received a quick standing ovation after the announcement and went straight into kickoff mode.
“It was about as fired up as I’ve ever gotten on a kickoff before,” Gostkowski said.
Gostkowski finished the game with 1,165 points in his career, surpassing Vinatieri’s 1,158 points. Gostkowski has accomplished the feat in nine seasons, whereas Vinatieri was in New England for 10 seasons.
Under coach Bill Belichick, a high emphasis is placed on special teams as the difference between winning and losing. Gostkowski’s consistency and desire to be a difference-maker has earned him a place in Patriots history.
“As much work and time and effort we put into it and as Coach Belichick stresses it week to week, we feel confident going out there and we want to be a difference-maker in the game, not a reason why the team loses,” Gostkowski said. “We play with a lot of confidence and there are a lot of really good players that put in a lot of time and effort.
“Sometimes in high school and college, people might think that is kind of a dis to not play offense or defense, but our guys have a ton of pride in playing special teams and it shows.”
Gostkowski also thanked his crew -- long-snapper Danny Aiken and punter Ryan Allen.
“I’ve had a lot of very good holders and snappers throughout the years, and Danny and Ryan are at the top of the list,” Gostkowski said. “They’ve done an absolutely tremendous job, and knowing that ball is going to be there where I want it to be is one less worry that you have to have. If you have any kind of negative thoughts going into the kick, it can make a world of difference.
“We want to be like pitching machines where you go out and we look like a robot doing it so efficiently, and a lot of work goes into that.”
At the end of the day, Gostkowski was happy he set the record in the same game the team won another AFC East title.
“We won on top of it,” Gostkowski said. “It was just a special day -- winning another AFC East championship. And then to get a little bit of recognition was cool on top of it.”
