New Orleans Saints Make First Super Bowl On Hartley's OT Kick

NFL News - January 25th, 2010 - Written by John

The confinements of the media room was bombarded the sound of 80,000 delirious fans. Echos leaked into he typically silent room quartered off by hallways underneath the Superdome by shouting as the city of New Orleans celebrated what had to have seemed impossible five years ago.

The Saints are in the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, and Bourbon Street began it's own faux Mardi Gras about a month early.

Tracy Porter intercepted Brett Favre at the end of regulation, and young Garrett Hartley called his shot with a game-winning 40-yard field goal in overtime to beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in the NFC Championship on Sunday. It was barely enough to clear the 2 1/2-point spread issued before the game.

"This is for everybody in this city," said coach Sean Payton. "This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It's not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans."

Hartley said he had a vision the night before, and called his father around two in the morning to explain it. He said he saw himself kicking a 42-yard game-winner from the right hash mark and believed it would happen.

And when New Orleans began moving the ball down field on a bizarre set of officiating calls that could have easily been overturned, Hartley said he began reliving his dream. So when he lined up for that fateful kick, he imagined swinging his leg around like he remembered, and knocked it dead through the center.

But it surely could have been the Vikings headed to the Super Bowl if not for 63 minutes of absolute misfortune. Minnesota ran 27 more plays, gained 218 more yards and 16 more first downs than the Saints, but turned the ball over five times and seemed to have been robbed on those three aforementioned calls in overtime.

The Vikings fumbled five times, and lost three, during regulation and Favre was picked off twice. The most costly was with 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter when he was simply trying to give Ryan Longwell extra room for a field goal to win it. Minnesota was driving and seemed to be with Longwell's range, but was flagged for having too many men on the field, pushing the ball back to the 38.

Favre was asked to get that distance back, but threw a rushed, errant pass while on the run, and it was soft enough for Porter to catch up across the middle and pick it off.

Adrian Peterson ran for 122 yards and scored three touchdowns for Minnesota but lost two fumbles, bringing back his butterfinger issues and giving the team something to work on during the long off-season.

"We really gave those guys the game," said Peterson. "Too many turnovers. It's eating me up inside."

But no one in New Orleans is listening to the critics who say it won questionably. The city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is finally in the NFL Championship game after the team's best regular season start ever. The match-up that could have happened in 2007 when the Saints could have played the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl 41 in Miami but lost in the NFC Championship. It's on now.

"It's a moment I've been waiting for for a long time and obviously we're not done yet," said Brees.

The Saints won the coin toss in overtime, and marched down the field on Brees' arm, getting critical third-down conversions along the way. New Orleans converted a huge fourth down on Pierre Thomas' leap across the line, but the ball seemed to have squirted out while he was in the air and was recovered behind the line. But officials retained the original spot, paving the way for Hartley's field goal.

"It was as loud as I have ever heard it in the dome," Brees added. "It feels so good to know we have given our fans an NFC championship. We have another championship to go after in two weeks."

Later in the drive, Brees' pass over the middle to Robert Meacham appeared to touch the turf as he slide across to make the catch. But again, the original call was upheld.

Brees finished the day with an alarmingly low 197 yards (considering Bodog's NFL Player Prop Bet total was 295 1/2), managed three touchdown passes to three different receivers and wasn't picked off.

Favre finished with 310 yards.

"I would have loved to represent the NFC," said Favre. "But, as I told Sean throughout the year when we talked, if it's not us, I hope it's you guys."