After Major League Baseball had a feud
over the ownership of the ball used on the last out of the World
Series, National Football League teams say the player who makes
the points gets the souvenir that might be worth $100,000.
New England kicker Adam Vinatieri, who already has the
footballs from kicks that won New England titles in 2002 and
2004, and David Akers, his counterpart with the Philadelphia
Eagles, both have plans to retrieve and keep the ball if this
weekend’s game in Jacksonville, Fla., is decided by one of
them.
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They won’t be involved in a squabble like the one former
Boston Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz created when he
kept the ball from the final out of last October’s World Series
and initially refused to let his team have it for display.
“If they want to arrange to get the ball, we’ll stamp it
and authenticate it on the sideline,” Patriots spokesman Stacey
James said.
Vinatieri is ready to add ball No. 3 to his trophy case.
“I’ll do whatever I can to get it,” he said. “I’ll have a
ball boy running down there if we get the opportunity” for a
game-winning kick.
In the NFL, the team that scores has legal rights to the
ball used during the play, and it’s up to the players to make
sure the ball is retrieved and returned to the bench area.
Teams leave it up to players to resolve disputes if there
are multiple claims on a ball.
There was no such protocol three months ago when the Red Sox
won their first World Series in 86 years. Mientkiewicz caught a
toss from pitcher Keith Foulke for the final out, kept it and had
it authenticated by Major League Baseball the following day. Red
Sox President Larry Lucchino claimed the ball belonged to the
team and wanted it returned so it could be put on display.
Mientkiewicz, who was traded to the New York Mets recently,
has agreed to loan it to the Red Sox until the dispute is
resolved.
The baseball might be worth up to $500,000 if sold at
auction, David Kohler of Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based
SportsCards Plus Inc., said last week. Mientkiewicz has joked the
ball would be his retirement fund.
While the Red Sox ended one of the longest droughts in
sports history, the Patriots have become accustomed to winning.
New England is shooting for its third Super Bowl victory in four
years, diminishing the value of a game-winning ball, said Brandon
Steiner of New York-based Steiner Sports.
A win for the Eagles, whose last NFL championship came in
1960, might make a ball worth up to $100,000, Steiner said.
“A Patriots ball wouldn’t be as big a deal because they’ve
won a couple,” Steiner said. “But if the Eagles win, it would
be worth a lot more money.”
Akers has a plan to retrieve the memento, even though he
might be 60 yards away if it sails through the uprights.
Throughout the season, Akers relied on teammate Chad Lewis
to collect the ball after important field goals. Lewis said he’s
up to the task, even though he’s wheelchair bound after spraining
his foot two weeks ago.
“If it comes to that, you’ll see me on my wheelchair racing
everybody else for the ball,” Lewis said. “You might see smoke
coming off the wheels.”
Bloomberg News
