By Ron Borges

Up until last week the fans voting in the Herald’s bracketed competition to name the greatest Patriot of all-time (did we have any doubt who that would be?) were pretty much on the money.

For example, they kept linebacker Mike Vrabel going farther than his No. 10 seeding would have seemed possible and they were right about that. They also eliminated some stars of the moment in favor of bigger but more faded stars of the past.

In the end, it came down to Tom Brady vs. Hall of Fame guard John Hannah and hall of Fame finalist (twice) Andre Tippett vs. Super Bowl hero kicker Adam Vinatieri. This is where the fans got derailed by a moment in time over a career.

While it’s always hard to argue that a player in the Hall of Fame is not superior to an active player, it wasn’t in the case of Brady vs. Hannah. Great as Hannah was, he was still only a guard. Brady is the consummate quarterback and the genius behind all of the Patriots’ recent success.

It was, in reality, a battle between two sure-fire Hall of Famers, one already in and the other biding his time until he’s eligible. Quite rightly, the fans opted for Brady, as befit the importance of his position and the skill with which he plays it.

Which brings us to Tippett vs. a kicker. Now admittedly, Adam Vinatieri is really THE KICKER, after having won two Super Bowls with last second field goals as well as winning the final game ever played at Foxboro Stadium with an overtime kick after he’d first forced overtime with a knuckleball 42-yarder in a blizzard kick that tied the game against the Oakland Raiders and gave New England its first playoff win in what would be a magical run to their first Super Bowl championship.

Having said that, the fact is there is only one pure kicker in the Hall of Fame. That’s Jan Stenerud. Some argue there should be more but the voters have consistently limited pure kickers, apparently believing they are something less than football players.

Suffice it to say this, Adam Vinatieri was one of the most important role players in Patriot history and his roles were mostly dramatic ones. But Tippett was not only the greatest defensive in team history but  widely seen as second only to Lawrence Taylor among outside linebackers of his era.

Tippett was a member of the All-Decade team of 1980s along with Taylor, chosen by the Hall of Fame voters, and was recently named along with Taylor by a panel of 50 former players and coaches (22 of them Hall of Famers) to the all-time 3-4 front.

Adam Vinatieri could kick but he didn’t have the kick of an Andre Tippett, who should have gone on to the finals, where he, instead of Vinatieri, would lose to Brady in this week’s vote.

But the voters have spoken and the finalists are Brady vs. Vinatieri. Anybody voting for the kicker?