Vinatieri ready to get kicking again

It took awhile, but Adam Vinatieri refers to the Colts as "we" and not "they," a transition that wasn't easy after 10 years with the New England Patriots. Now he's eager to get back on the field and be an integral part of the team. If practice goes as well as he expects this week, he plans to kick against Tennessee on Sunday. The Colts are fairly confident Vinatieri can go: They waived backup kicker Martin Gramatica and signed tight end Jerome Collins. Vinatieri has missed the last two games with a groin injury, the first games he has missed in his entire NFL career.

I wrote about Vinatieri in my column today, and he had some high praise for his teammates:

“The neat thing from the team aspect is that you’ve got a lot of great athletes and you’ve got superstars, like the Marvins (Marvin Harrison) and the Peytons (Peyton Manning), but they’re just kind of hard-working, blue-collar guys,” Vinatieri said. “They don’t act like superstars.”

It would be nice for Vinatieri to get some game action this week before the open date. There's a good chance the Colts will need the kicking superstar for upcoming games against Washington, Denver and New England.