We’re running ‘Ambush.’”
Thomas Morstead will never forget those words. New Orleans trailed Indianapolis 10-6 when Saints head coach Sean Payton instructed the rookie punter/kicker to deliver the kick of a lifetime.
Thomas Morstead
Morstead, a three-year letterman (2006-08) at SMU, hadn’t even tried an onside kick until practice a dozen days earlier.
“My adrenaline started going and my heart was pumping out of my chest,” says Morstead, who is just six credits shy of his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He plans to finish his degree at SMU as soon as his schedule allows.
Despite the nerves, Morstead had an inkling that the first onside kick attempt before the fourth quarter in Super Bowl history stood a solid chance of succeeding.
“We knew that the ball was tough to handle and we had five guys on two over on that side of the field.”
Once the ball traveled the requisite 10 yards and bounced off the hands of the Colts’ Hank Baskett, a mad scramble ensued for possession. After what seemed like the longest 65 seconds in Saints’ history, New Orleans’ Chris Reis came up with the prize at the bottom of the scrum. The Saints were on their way to springing an upset against Peyton Manning and the Colts. (The Indianapolis Colts also claim an SMU connection: The team is owned by alumnus Jim Irsay ’82.)
The Saints rode the momentum of Reis&rsquo recovery to capture their first NFL championship, 31-17, and set off a celebration to remember.
A self-described “third-string punter and fourth-string kicker” early in his SMU career, Morstead blossomed under the watchful eye of the late Frank Gansz. The onetime head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs was Morstead’s special teams coach for his last year at SMU in 2008, when the Mustangs struggled to a 1-11 finish.
“He was like my dad away from home,” says Morstead, who was drafted by New Orleans in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, a day before Gansz succumbed to complications from knee-replacement surgery. “He mentally prepared me for life in the NFL, and as a rookie I caught myself thinking often about things he told me I’d experience.”
Morstead now finds himself permanently etched into Super Bowl lore, which crossed his mind after Coach Payton’s halftime command.
“I had a lot of time to sit and think. I realized I had a chance to be involved in the play that could potentially change history.”
Now he and the Saints will chase a repeat. With the NFL’s 2011 championship game slated to be played in Arlington, Texas, Morstead, who makes his off-season home in Dallas, says, “It would be pretty special to play in a Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium.”
– Whit Sheppard ’88