By Michael Preston
Australian punter Lou Hedley’s unlikely and convoluted journey to the NFL might have taken his talents to any number of cities across the United States, but fittingly this season’s oldest rookie has caught on in New Orleans.
The Big Easy is a diverse city accepting of life’s characters, so when the six-feet-four heavily tattooed Aussie sporting a mullet to match explores his new surroundings, nobody bats an eyelid. Any reason to focus on the former scaffolder and tattoo parlor owner will hopefully be a result of him booming punts downfield in the Caesar’s Superdome.
“I’m not really the stereotypical punter or the stereotypical football player, so I feel like a city like this is perfect for me,” said Hedley talking three days before his much-anticipated debut for the Saints in Sunday’s season opener against the Tennessee Titans.
“To have landed at a place like New Orleans it’s not only the great weather but the great people, culture, the diversity of the city. I’ve done some exploring and been to Mississippi played some golf out there and since signing I think every time I go out I seem to have some people kind of recognize me a little more and everyone I’ve come across has been absolutely unbelievable. It’s a big football city so I love that, they live and breathe football, so like I said, I think it suits me very well.”
Hedley’s well-documented and unusual story has made headlines nationally, including the 30-year-old being considered the most interesting player in the NFL. He has zigzagged from a small town with a population of 400 in Western Australia to the grind of construction sites, the idyllic island of Bali, junior college in San Francisco and eventually a successful college career in Miami with the Hurricanes.
Having gone undrafted, Hedley arrived in New Orleans and found himself locked in a punting battle to displace Blake Gillikin. Unlike preseason competition for most positions, which involve multiple players, it was just the Australian and the incumbent working together to ultimately force the other off the roster.
“I can’t credit Blake enough for him helping me out coming into this building,” said Hedley. “There’s always that competitive nature behind the friendship. You compete with them one-on-one but to be honest, we built a friendship. Roster cut day, it’s a pretty sad day for everyone, including the coaches. You see friends go, not just in your position but everywhere and all of a sudden, the team gets pretty much cut in half. But you know that's the nature of the game.”
Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi ultimately made the call on which punter would be in the locker room come the home opener against the Titans and who would be released onto the kicking carousel.
“It really is different than any other position when you have two specialists in camp because they’re spending all their time together, but to both of their credits both handled it very professionally,” said Rizzi. “To overhear the conversations when they’re helping each other out is kind of cool too.”
So, what gave the raw rookie the edge over a rival with two years of NFL experience? After all, the Saints have opted for new-look kicking and punting units with long-snapper Zach Wood the only familiar face.
“When evaluating you’re just really looking to see who you think can give you the best chance,” explains Rizzi. “There's a couple of different ways to get there in the punting game. The bottom line is net punting, what’s your end result. Lou is a very non-traditional punter, so you have to try to evaluate and ask if we’ll be able to get the same result or better result with one or the other.
“One of the things that maybe goes under the radar is also the operation on the field goals, the holding part. Lou has got a lot better there through junior college and college and now he’s out there every day catching 50 balls off the jugs machine both for holding for field goals and his punting, so he’s working at the craft.”
Former San Diego Chargers punter Darren Bennet, whose All-Pro career opened the door to the NFL for former Australian Rules players, developed a reputation for being eager to make special teams tackles while on punting duties. While his physicality suggests Hedley would bring a similar edge to his phase of the game, he feels healthy punting stats and field position are of more value.
“The way I look at it is if we’re making a tackle, it’s usually a terrible thing,” he explains. “I mean, because we’re the last man on defense, hopefully I’ll never have to tackle, but yeah, when I was playing Australian Rules football, sure, I think I was a physical player.”
Coach Rizzi concurs: “We’re hoping the returner never gets to him, but it is nice to have a guy who can be physical on the ground. You look at some of the other guys that have done that throughout the league - Jamie Gillan (Giants) comes to mind, who’s a Scottish guy, Mitch Wishnowsky (49ers), Michael Dickson (Seahawks) – any time that they have opportunities to make tackles you see them kind of going in there with a different mentality. They’re not passive like most of the Americans who were soccer guys and never had to tackle anybody in their lives, they go in there with a different mindset.”
The roads traveled from Western Australia to New Orleans, those hours perfecting the art of punting and the faith Rizzi has placed in the hands of his Australian rookie all converge on the Superdome on Sunday. A new chapter in Lou Hedley’s wild adventure is ready to be written.
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