Saints Morstead Executed The Gutsiest Call In Super Bowl History To Perfection

It was May of 2009 and to the dismay of many New Orleans Saints fans, the team's braintrust gave up a No. 5 and No. 7 pick in the 2010 Draft to select SMU punter Thomas Morstead.

The baby boomers who are old enough to remember when the Saints spent their first-round pick on Texas kicker/punter Russell Erxleben cringed at the thought of wasting draft picks on a punter.

Erxleben didn't boom very many in New Orleans.

He remains today the Saints all-time Titanic of draft choices. The worst draft pick in team history.

Drafted to handle both the kickoff and punting duties, Erxleben was reduced to punting only. He was an average NFL punter at best.

Another surprising aspect of the Morstead selection was that incumbent punter Glenn Pakulak was coming off of a solid year in 2008 but Sean Payton was in search of a "hang-time type of guy."

Morstead first caught the Saints' eye on pro day at SMU when he lofted one into the heavenly skies with a 5.56 second hang time.

"For me," Morstead told The Times-Picayune last year, "the idea is getting to where you can do this on a consistent basis. For any punter, that's the name of the game. It's not the yardage, not how far your punts travel. It's how many yards the other teams return them."

Morstead won the training camp battle with Pakulak and eventually added kickoff duties to his job description as well.

Although he only averaged 36 yards per punt in the regular season, Morstead punted 11 times in the Saints first two playoff games in 2009, leading the NFL with a net average of 45.0, and helping the Saints reach Super Bowl XLIV.

In what was probably the tipping point of the Super Bowl, Morstead opened the second half with an onside kick -- the first such kick outside the fourth quarter in Super Bowl history -- helping the Saints gain momentum and beat the Colts to earn their first championship.

While on its face, Payton's decision to have Morstead attempt appeared to be a brash move, it wasn't as risky as it may have appeared.

Credit special-teams coach Greg McMahon, who had been under fire from Saints fans all year, with detecting a Colts' trend of aligning 15 yards off the football during kickoffs and retreating quickly at the time of the kick.

This left about 10 yards of the field uncovered by the Colts as the Saints charged up field as soon as the ball left Morstead's toe. This play tipped momentum in the Saints favor as they outscored Indianapolis 25-7 in the second half.

It is one of the reasons Payton is credited with one of the greatest coaching jobs in Super Bowl history and it certainly justified the Saints decision to use a draft pick on a punter.

Because as you know most of those bastards are flakes and head cases but not Morstead.

"Timing is everything, and it starts with how well you get the process going by catching the snap," Morstead told Peter Finney back in May when he was just battling for a spot on the roster.

Indeed timing is everything and regardless of what happens from this point forward, Morstead's perfect timing tipped a Super Bowl Championship in New Orleans' favor and secured his place in NFL history.

Not bad for a 5th round draft pick out of SMU.