The Pro Football Hall of Fame 2026 induction wrapped up on August 8, but the discussion around why NFL legends Tom Brady and Bill Belichick missed former kicker Adam Vinatieri’s induction has not died down. Now, a New England Patriots legend has shed light on why the duo would have skipped the ceremony.

“Brady was drafted in 2000. Adam came in in 96. There’s like a five-year age gap. I don’t think Adam and Tom were like close buddies on the team, where clearly, Tom was with Gronk, right? There’s an age gap. Just because he was a teammate and he accomplished a lot while he was on the same team you were on doesn’t mean there’s a relationship or a friendship there, where you feel super obligated to have to be at something like that,” former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson said on Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson podcast.

Vinatieri was inducted in Canton in his second year on the ballot, becoming the third full-time placekicker in NFL history to earn the honor. The freshly inducted Hall of Famer was with the Patriots for a decade from 1996 to 2005, overlapping with Brady and Belichick. So their absences, including that of owner Robert Kraft, did come as a surprise.

According to Johnson, Belichick’s non-attendance was obvious because the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach was snubbed in his first year of eligibility. But for Brady, he said the two just were not close.

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However, in his 18-minute-long speech, Vinatieri made sure to mention that both Brady and Belichick did contact him about his induction.

“Coach Belichick reached out to me months ago, letting me know, ‘Hey, I’m sorry, I can’t make it. Camp’s going on and all that,'” said Vinatieri. “Tom called me beforehand and said, ‘I’ve got this family vacation that I lined up months and months ago, and I just really can’t get out of it.'”

Vinatieri’s induction was highly anticipated due to him being the greatest clutch kicker in league history. He hung up his cleats as the all-time career leader in total field goal attempts (715) and total field goals made (599).

The 53-year-old also won four Super Bowl championships, three of them with Brady and Belichick. So it is a little hard to believe that the former quarterback and kicker did not have a rapport with each other.

But yes, it is possible that Brady did have other priorities, because the current Fox analyst did appreciate Vinatieri for his on-field theatrics.

“When you look up clutch in the dictionary, it should have your picture,” Brady wrote in a 2021 Instagram post on his retirement. “Honored to have played with the (greatest of all-time).”

In his speech, Vinatieri also mentioned receiving a message after the ceremony at 7 a.m. from Brady himself. And according to the former kicker, the two bantered back and forth with “zero animosity.”