Former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt says burned bridges that are now nearly two decades old are still keeping him out of the team’s Ring of Honor.
Vanderjagt told Zak Keefer of TheAthletic.com that he has never heard from Colts owner Jim Irsay or other team personnel since leaving Indianapolis after the 2005 season, and that he hasn’t been recognized by the team for personal reasons, not because of his play on the field.
“Let’s be honest,” he says, “clearly, I should be in the Ring of Honor.”
Vanderjagt may now be best remembered for critical comments he made about his coach Tony Dungy and teammate Peyton Manning, which led Manning to call him an “idiot kicker who got liquored up and ran his mouth off.”
“Look, I regret doing the interview, obviously,” Vanderjagt says now. “That’s one of the most obvious things in the world for me. I shouldn’t have said it. I take the onus to the fact that I shouldn’t have said it.”
Or he may be best remembered for missing the last field goal of his Colts career, a 47-yard kick that would have tied the game in their playoff loss to the Steelers. He says then-Colts GM Bill Polian was furious at Vanderjagt for going on David Letterman and joking about the missed kick days later.
Vanderjagt also had plenty of great moments as the Colts’ kicker, and he was a first-team All-Pro in 2003, but the Colts don’t have much interest in associating with him now. Among the examples Vanderjagt cites: Dwight Freeney says he asked the Colts to contact every one of his former teammates to invite them to his Hall of Fame induction; Vanderjagt says the Colts didn’t issue him the invitation to Freeney’s ceremony.
If that was an intentional slight, it was an awfully petty one from the Colts.
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