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Vinatieri: Morten Andersen's HOF induction may open door for more kickers

Adam Vinatieri is probably the closest thing the NFL has ever seen to a first-ballot Hall of Fame kicker, but the number of kickers in Canton altogether is a little low for his liking.

The league's all-time scoring leader, Morten Andersen, will finally be inducted into the Hall as part of the 2017 class, joining Jan Stenerud as the only full-time placekickers to receive the honor.

Stenerud introduced the soccer style kicking used today and Andersen's stats are tough to ignore, but Vinatieri believes we could be entering an age of more Hall of Fame kickers.

"There's other great kickers out there, too, that have done a lot of good things," Vinatieri told Sirius XM NFL radio on Wednesday. "Maybe this opens the door a little bit for other people to understand the importance of a good kicker and what it means to your team and how it can make a difference in the outcome of seasons and careers and all kinds of different stuff."

Vinatieri says Andersen has been a hero of his since childhood and that the longtime New Orleans Saints kicker should have gone into the Hall a while ago.

"To be honest with you, I would have liked to seen him go in a long time ago," said Vinatieri. "I feel like Jan Stenerud, obviously, was the pioneer for soccer-style kicking, but Morten rewrote the book with everything that he had done.

"You play at the top elite level for 25 years in the National Football League. You're the all-time leading scorer in the National Football League. There's so many things that he did."

Vinatieri is the first name that comes to mind as a future Hall of Fame kicker, but players like second all-time points leader Gary Anderson, Detroit Lions 20-year man Jason Hanson, and Oakland Raiders current strong leg Sebastian Janikowski are potential candidates.

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