Yes, Rich Eisen kickers are people too. This is one of the most feel-good and interesting stories of the Early NFL season. The New Orleans Saints had a punting competition this season between veteran Blake Gillikin and surprise 30-year-old rookie Lou Hedley from Miami. Hedley’s journey is crazy and I’m here to talk to you about it.

Lou Hedley was a former scaffolder and tattoo artist in Mandurah, Australia while simultaneously playing American football in the Peel and Metro football leagues. He played community college football at City College in San Francisco, before making a career starting transfer to Miami University in Florida. But from the looks of it, he isn’t a stereotypical punter. He is 6’4 and looks like a bodybuilder.

Anyway, while in the Everglades he was a four-year starter for the Hurricanes. He was lighting up the stat sheet with beautiful punts a plenty. He was even in the running for the Ray Guy punting award for the best punter in the country in 2022. Miami as a football team had some success, making it to bowls games during his time at the University. He threw his hat into the ring of the National Football League, which takes us to today.

Lou Hedley is now punting in the big easy for the Saints. He just played his first professional game last Sunday against the Tennesee Titans, and put in some pretty good work averaging 48.2 yards per punt. Even though he is 30, which is when most players have played four or more years, he has a lot of potential at the pro level. Whether he harnesses it or not is to be determined but hey, Lou Hedley has a ton of people rooting for him, not just Saints fans. He definitely has the frame to be a pro athlete, maybe he’ll kick the football over the mountains like Uncle Rico.