Trip to family’s English village jump-started

People have fallen in love with football in many ways, including playing or watching it on television.

Jets punter Thomas Morstead became a football fan in a completely different way growing up outside Houston.

Morstead’s football origin story didn’t start under the bright Texas lights like many of his peers. His love for the game began in a small English village where his mother Isobel was born and raised.

Leonard Fenwick, Morstead’s great-grandfather, founded the Beelsby Farming Company in Lincolnshire Wolds, where he purchased land sometime in the 1950s with help from a local doctor in town. Fenwick and his seven sons developed the land and grew it into a successful farming operation that still stands today.

During a family visit to his family’s village as a 12-year-old, Morstead’s uncle Charles Salmon placed a rugby ball in his hands for the first time. Until then, Morstead mainly had played soccer.

“I was a soccer kid early, so I could always kick a ball, but getting a ball to spiral off my foot, it was different,” Morstead told the Daily News about his experience kicking a rugby ball for the first time. “I used to go out to my street after that when I went home and I practiced. It got me into it at an early age.”

During this visit to his uncle’s village, Morstead learned how to drop kick and punt a spiral. Salmon himself played and coached rugby for Market Rasen & Louth Rugby Union and Football Club. Morstead and Salmon would kick the ball to each other, increasing the distance each time.

Morstead didn’t know it then, but this would be the start of a successful career punting footballs.

Morstead played football sparingly in seventh through ninth grade, but a broken leg on the first play of a scrimmage as a freshman at Pearland High School ended his time on the gridiron, or so he thought, as he was 5-foot, 90-pounds. But during the next three years, Morstead grew to 6-4, 180 pounds as a senior and his mom encouraged him to give football one last try.

In 2003, Morstead was a second-team All-District selection and was named the Brazoria County Special Teams MVP. He was also a member of the National Honor Society, along with earning Academic All-State honors.

Because of his high academics as a student, Morstead received an engineering scholarship to Southern Methodist University, where he landed a roster spot on the football team as a walk-on.

“That gave me an opportunity to walk on there. I had the opportunity to earn a football scholarship as I had filled out as I lifted weight which I hadn’t done before,” Morstead said. “I walked on at 6-4, 182 pounds and two years later, I was 6-4, 225.

“Pretty significant changes in my body throughout high school and early through college. I was able to earn a full scholarship for football after my second year and it kind of took off.”

Following his redshirt freshman season at SMU, Morstead’s maturation continued. He was a first-team All-Conference USA selection in 2006 when he was both the Mustangs’ punter and placekicker. That season, Morstead was ninth in the nation with a 44.6-yard average as a junior. He also converted 13 of 20 field goal attempts.

Despite his punting average falling to 41.8 yards per attempt as a senior, the Saints selected Morstead in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft (164th overall).

“None of us thought of him playing after high school,” Morstead’s mom Isobel told The News. During the next five years, the stars had to be aligned several times for him to shine and get an opportunity. However, he loved playing and continued to work hard on honing his craft.

“When he got the opportunity in college, he excelled,” she said.

After he was drafted, it took Morstead only a short time to have success in the NFL. Nine months after they selected him, Morstead and the Saints were Super Bowl XLIV champions. His onside kick at the start of the second half down 10-6 completely changed the game and is one of the most memorable plays in franchise history.

“The best way to describe that rookie year is it was like magic,” Morstead said. “It was magic for the team, it was magic for the city of New Orleans, it was the first Super Bowl appearance, it was the first Super Bowl victory.

“It was just awesome to be a part of that ride as a rookie. It was almost impossible to appreciate it at the time. It was an awesome experience, we partied with the city after every game and it was just a lot of fun.”

Morstead played with the Saints until 2020 when the team released him after 12 seasons.