FOXBOROUGH – He’s probably the most famous kicker in football right now, perhaps the most recognizable ever.

How many kickers are at the center of three or four of the most memorable moments in their franchise’s history? How many kickers get to do commercials for pickup trucks and fantasy football leagues?

The Patriots’ Adam Vinatieri fills the bill in both cases, and that’s about it.

He is now in his ninth year in the league and at the peak of his fame, but Vinatieri is still a kicker. He’s not mobbed like a movie or rock star wherever he goes. Curious fans don’t tail him up and down grocery aisles. A light lunch at a local sandwich shop doesn’t turn into a half-hour autograph session.

“I can go around and do whatever for the most part,” he said. “You get recognized every once in a while, and that’s a nice thing, too. Sometimes, a little kid comes up and wants an autograph or shake your hand and that’s a good thing.”

Most of the autographs are etched on photos of Vinatieri’s most famous kicks, from which there are several for fans to choose – the clutch kicks in the snow against Oakland and the first Super Bowl winner in 2001. The game-winner in the freezing cold against Tennessee or the Super Bowl sequel from last year.

Because of those moments, Vinatieri will be a part of Patriots’ lore for the rest of his life and beyond. To some people, football fans and non-fans, he’ll be the player they most associate with the franchise.

The kicker doesn’t necessarily agree. He thinks a return to anonymity could be right around the corner.

“It all comes with the success of our team. When the team is doing well and you help the team out a little bit, you get a little bit more notoriety or recognition,” he said. “That’s a here today, gone tomorrow’ thing, so you always have to keep on doing what you can to stay on top.”

So why would Adam Vinatieri, of all people, be looking over his shoulder?

Because kickers live a “here today, gone tomorrow” existence, probably more than any other football players. Miss one crucial kick and you’re gone. That might not apply to someone who has built up as much credit and good will as Vinatieri, but it’s a mentality that isn’t easy to overcome, especially when you’re 31 and coming off a year where back spasms dogged you all season and caused you to make the lowest percentage of kicks in your career.

So, when New England brought in undrafted free agent kicker Cody Scates during training camp, presumably to help Vinatieri with kicking reps in practice and save his leg some wear and tear, it was a bit of a touchy subject for the veteran.

“I get myself ready to do my job, and if that means somebody else is doing part of the reps, I don’t really concern myself too terribly much with who’s doing what,” Vinatieri said.

“Adam has made a lot of big kicks for us in the four years I’ve been here. He’s been one of our best and most consistent players,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in preseason. “On the other hand, every year is a new year.”

An off-season strengthening program put an end to Vinatieri’s back woes and his job was never seriously challenged in the pre-season. But his future in New England remains cloudy because his contract runs out after this season.

Vinatieri talks the good talk about his future not being a distraction going into this season. That will all take care of itself, he said.

He may be just a kicker, but Vinatieri knows his place.

“We all have our role with the team. We all have something invested in the team. Obviously, it all starts with Mr. Kraft. He’s the one who hires the coaches who hire the players,” he said. “It’s all kind of a neat little pecking order, but we all come out here every day to win games and build championships.”