Stephen Gostkowski had a brief dalliance with departing the only NFL franchise he'd ever known.
The kicker, in his first true free agency stint, told reporters Tuesday that he considered signing elsewhere, but the allure of returning to a perennial Super Bowl contender -- and the opportunity and pressure that comes along with it -- made his decision to sign a new two-year contract with the New England Patriots easy.
"To me, it means a lot," Gostkowski said, via the Providence Journal. "It's a very fragile position. It doesn't take much to be at the top or the bottom in a position such as mine. To be able to have a chance to do it, in one of the most high-pressured teams in the history of sports and have a chance to continue to do it, I think it would be tough to go somewhere else. The grass might seem greener on the other side, but it's not always that way.
"I like the challenge of being here -- the bad weather... the pressure of the big games and all that stuff. Just the opportunity to have a chance to keep playing with a lot of the friends and teammates that I've made. To me, that means the world a lot more than other things that could be offered from other teams."
Gostkowski, a fourth-round pick in 2006, was immediately tasked with replacing potential Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri. Successfully supplanting a legend is pressure of its own. Doing it on a perpetual champion is an even bigger weight. Gostkowski has met that pressure head-on and succeeded with aplomb for the past 13 seasons.
"... It's nice when other teams show interest in you and stuff like that," he said of free agency. "But at the end of the day, I would like to try to finish where I started. That meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to my kids and my family. We are ecstatic to have two more shots to play for the Patriots."
Then Gostkowski dropped a dandy #HumbleBrag:
"My daughter's been to three Super Bowls and she's not even three yet. My oldest son has been to five," Gostkowski said. "It's a dream come true. I wouldn't change anything for the journey I've been able to have and look forward to trying to make a couple more memories."
Must be nice for the Gostkowski children. Must. Be. Nice.
