
A lot has been made of the play to start the second half and the guts shown by Saints Coach Sean Payton in calling it. If it wasn't as the single biggest play of the game, it was certainly one of them.
Trailing by 10-6 to start the second half, Saints coach Sean Payton called for an onside kick, and kicker Thomas Morstead sent the ball in the direction of Colts special teams player/wide receiver Hank Baskett. When Baskett failed to secure the football, a mad scramble ensued in front of the New Orleans' bench. When the chaos and confusion ended a a full minute later, referee Scott Green ruled that the Saints' Chris Reis had recovered.
Think about it, if Hank Baskett could hold onto the ball like he holds onto Kendra Wilkinson's ass, the entire game may have turned out differently.
Saints center Jonathan Goodwin was quoted this morning as saying;
"It was amazing, when we took the field after we recovered the onside kick it was just a whole different feel to the game. It just felt like there was no way we could lose the game. . . . That particular moment changed history for us."
If you watch the clock on the video above, you will see that it literally took the officials one minute to determine who had the kick. When you watched it live, it seemed even longer than that. That was one of the most surreal one minute periods of time in Super Bowl history.
Kicker Thomas Morstead was quoted after the game as saying that at one point he actually heard an official say the Colts had it. If the Colts had actually gained possession, maybe we'd likely be talking this morning about the bonehead decision by Payton that handed the Colts the Super Bowl.
After Sean Payton's failed attempt to go for it on 4th and goal, you would think that he would be gun shy. Payton game right back and did the unorthodox again with the onside kick.
Sean Payton did everything he could to win the Super Bowl for his team and the city of New Orleans. He risked his legacy on a single play. Think about it, if the Colts recovered that kick and Manning sticks the ball in the end zone Payton would forever be a goat. If you thought the Bill Belicheck's decision to go for it on 4th and two earlier this year received a lot of attention, this would have received that one week's attention for a life time. - Jason Lockhart
Jason is an aspiring sports journalist currently enrolled at Stanford University.

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