Where we give props to one member of the defeated

Even after all of the euphoria of Sunday night’s victory for the Minnesota Vikings, I would like to take a moment to do something that I generally wouldn’t, and that’s give some props to a member of the opposing team. It’s even stranger considering that player is a member of the New Orleans Saints.

When the Saints punted away on their opening possession, it looked like Marcus Sherels had an opportunity to break off a huge return. There was one guy that stood between Sherels and pay dirt, and that was Saints’ punter Thomas Morstead. Morstead, rather than pulling an “ole” sort of move like many punters would, jumped on Sherels and dragged him down to the turf.

And in the process, apparently, broke a rib.

Now, it’s not as though Morstead’s day was done after that. He punted three other times on the night, and also served as the holder for extra points and field goal attempts. The big one for me, however, was at the end of the game. After the big pass from Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs, the officials ruled that the Vikings still had to attempt a conversion, but the Saints took their sweet time getting out onto the field so the Vikings could snap the ball and take a knee.

When they finally got out there, who was leading his teammates out from the locker room to line up on the defensive side of the ball? Yep. . .it was Morstead. Broken rib and all.

I’m relatively happy with the way Ryan Quigley has performed for the Vikings since winning the punting job during Training Camp. But, if the Vikings should decide to move on from him or the Saints should decide to move on from their punter, I’m not afraid to tell you that Thomas Morstead can punt on my team any time. Kudos to that guy for showing some serious guts out there this afternoon.