Australian punter Lou Hedley didn’t hear his name called in the 2023 NFL Draft, but he didn’t have long to wait to get his chance at the big time.
The 29-year-old was claimed as an undrafted free agent by the New Orleans Saints, and will now fight to make their 53-man roster – and a minimum payday of $750,000 USD.
It’s a dream come true for the father of one and former tradie, who has one of the wildest journeys to American football’s top flight you’ll ever hear.
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Week 17
Hedley grew up in the small West Australian coastal town of Leeman (with a population under 400), where his father was a cray fisherman. Naturally, he grew up an AFL lover – and for a long time, playing professionally was his dream. With a leg like a cannon and a 193cm, 100kg frame like a bodybuilder, it’s no surprise he had a decent shot. After dropping out of high school, Hedley became a scaffolder in Mandurah, while he made it all the way to the WAFL, playing 18 games for the Peel Thunder reserves at fullback. “I pretty much lived in a harness way off the ground for seven years of my life,” Hedley told Bleacher Report in 2019, revealing he also did fly-in fly-out work (FIFO). “It was all good fun, and it allowed me to stay fit while I worked. Plus, it was great money and I didn’t have time to spend any of it.” Then, despite knowing virtually nothing about American football, Hedley’s close circle convinced him to try his hand at the sport. He learned the ropes in 2017 in Melbourne at ProKick Australia, the academy that has churned out dozens of Aussie punters and shipped them off to American colleges. But for Hedley, there was an added complication. Having not finished high school, he’d have to take the long way to college – a trip to junior college to get his grades up. It was a huge, and expensive, gamble. Hedley even had to sell off his stake in a Bali tattoo parlour he’d purchased with a friend. Yep, really. Hedley got his first tattoo aged 15 on a trip to Hong Kong. In 2016, after spending time surfing in Bali, he and a close friend decided to purchase Rosemarrie Tattoo there – more for love than money, he’s said. These days, Hedley is covered almost head-to-toe in ink, including his nipples. It’s no wonder the moustachioed Aussie immediately went viral when he signed for University of Miami in 2019, wearing a singlet that showed off his terrifying frame and holding his hands in the uni’s trademark ‘U’ shape. After nearly a decade out of school, you’d expect Hedley to have struggled at junior college and at Miami. But he impressed at his junior college – the City College of San Francisco – and has since gone on to pick up both a bachelor’s degree in sport administration in 2021 at Miami before a master’s degree in liberal studies last year. He even knocked over his master’s with a 3.9 GPA (out of 4), picking up a bunch of student athlete scholarships along the way. While that would be impressive enough on its own, what Hedley has done on the field is just as magnificent. He featured in 47 games for the Hurricanes across four years. The Aussie punted 206 times with an average of 45.2 yards per try, a career long of 67 yards, and 77 punts dropping inside the opposing 20-yard line. Last year, he put 23 of 46 punts inside the opposition 20 – a remarkably consistent record. His list of honours is lengthy. He’s a three-time All-conference player – including in 2022 after off-season leg surgery. He’s also an Associated Press second-team All-American, and a finalist for the Ray Guy Award for college football’s best punter in 2020. And he’s already got one massive fan: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Hedley picked #94 on his college jersey since it’s the number that Johnson wore at Miami in his college football days. “Thanks for rockin’ my #94 Lou Hedley,” Johnson tweeted back in 2019. “Look forward to that workout one day. In the meantime, welcome to the U, keep disrupting and always be the hardest worker in the (MF’n) room.” Three punters were selected in this year’s Draft, two in round six and one in round seven. Given Hedley is 29, his age certainly counted against his chances of being picked up. But just hours after the Draft came to a close, New Orleans had Hedley’s signature on a contract. “Thankful for my opportunity with the @saints!,’’ Hedley posted on Twitter. “Such a an amazing organization. The work don’t stop.” A father, a former tradie, a tattooed beast with the body of a linebacker – Hedley’s one hell of a story. It’s just getting started.
