Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2009 season. The underdog Saints upset the Colts by a 31–17 score, earning their first championship in franchise history. This was the first major professional sports championship ever won by a New Orleans-based team. The game was played at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida, for the fifth time (and in South Florida for the tenth time), on February 7, 2010.
This was the Saints' first ever Super Bowl appearance and the fourth for the Colts franchise, which was also their first appearance since Super Bowl XLI. The Saints entered the game with a 13–3 record for the 2009 regular season, compared to the Colts' 14–2 record. In the playoff games, both teams placed first in their conferences, marking the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII (16 years earlier) that both number-one seeds reached the Super Bowl. The Colts entered the Super Bowl off victories over the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets, while the Saints advanced after defeating the previous year's Super Bowl runner–up, the Arizona Cardinals, and then overcoming the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship. It was also the first time both teams started with a 13-game winning streak. This game would also mark the last Super Bowl appearance for both the Colts and Saints as of the 2025 NFL season.
The Saints were behind 10–6 at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV. During a play many consider the turning point of the game, Thomas Morstead kicked off the second half with a surprise onside kick. The Saints recovered the kick and soon got their first lead of the game with Pierre Thomas's 16-yard touchdown reception. The Colts responded with Joseph Addai's 4-yard touchdown run to regain the lead at 17–13. The Saints then scored 18 unanswered points, including Tracy Porter's 74-yard interception return for a touchdown, to clinch the victory. Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, was named the Super Bowl MVP. His 32 completions tied a Super Bowl record set by Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII. The Saints' win was seen as a major morale boost for the city of New Orleans following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, the game would later become controversial by the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, when the NFL determined in 2012 that the Saints operated a slush fund between the 2009 and 2011 seasons to pay out bounties to their players for injuring their opponents.
The live broadcast of the game on CBS was watched by an average U.S. audience of 106.5 million viewers, making it then the most-watched Super Bowl. The National Anthem was sung by American Idol season 4 winner Carrie Underwood, and the halftime show featured the British rock band The Who. Super Bowl XLIV was the last Super Bowl to have a uniquely designed logo as its predecessors had: starting with Super Bowl XLV, the logo was permanently settled to bear the Vince Lombardi Trophy and the Roman numerals denoting the edition of the game (except for Super Bowl 50, which used Arabic numerals).
Background
Host selection process
NFL owners initially voted to award Super Bowl XLIV to West Side Stadium in Manhattan, New York City, during their March 23, 2005 meeting in Kapalua, Hawaii. West Side Stadium was a proposed retractable roof stadium which was to be the new home of the New York Jets, and the centerpiece of New York City's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. No other cities were considered at the time, and owners overwhelming voted 31–1 in favor of the New York City site. After an unsuccessful effort (by a different group) to land either XLI or XLII at Giants Stadium, the New York area was assigned XLIV on a 'conditional basis', contingent on securing funding and completing construction of the new facility. The NFL even agreed to waive their rule that prohibited a stadium from hosting a Super Bowl during its first year of operation.
The plans for West Side Stadium faced stiff local opposition, and was controversial since it would include a substantial amount of public financing. The total price tag of the stadium had ballooned to nearly $2 billion. New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver vowed to veto stadium funding, and Cablevision (then-owners of Madison Square Garden) lobbied heavily against its construction. On June 6, 2005, New York state officials declined to approve $400 million in public funds for stadium construction. On the same day, the IOC released their evaluations of the 2012 Olympic host bids, describing New York's bid as positive, but stated that the new stadium was "essential to the hosting the Games". On July 6, New York lost out on hosting the Olympics, finishing fourth in the IOC's balloting. Lacking the necessary funding, and without the Olympics as an anchor, the plans for West Side Stadium were cancelled. In August 2005, the NFL re-opened the bidding for XLIV, inviting the losing candidates from XLIII to resubmit and/or amend their previous proposals. Atlanta (Georgia Dome), Houston (Reliant Stadium), and Miami (Dolphins Stadium), the three cities that lost out to Tampa for XLIII, all submitted bids.
The Atlanta host committee, led by Falcons owner Arthur Blank, once again made an aggressive bid for the host duties. Blank reiterated his promise of $150 million for renovations to the Georgia Dome, and agreed to surrender half of the stadium's suites to the league. However, the lack of stadium parking, and the ice storm of XXXIV were still negatives in several owners' minds. Houston's bid was spearheaded by Texans owner Bob McNair. Houston possessed the newest stadium, but some owners were said to be unhappy with McNair's role as chairman of the NFL's revenue committee. Miami sweetened their bid with the promise of a yacht for each NFL owner. This time around, the three host committees did not make long form presentations. Instead, one representative from each city would be permitted to deliver a five-minute speech to recap and re-summarize their proposals.
The league scheduled the vote for October 6, 2005, during the mid-season owners meeting in Detroit. The vote was arranged for a maximum of three rounds. A city receiving of the votes during any round would win outright. If no city received the necessary votes (24 of 32) during the first round, the last place vote-getter would be eliminated, and the process repeated. If the third round was reached, the vote would change to a simple majority (17 of 32). Houston was eliminated on the first ballot. Neither Miami nor Atlanta received enough votes in the second round, so the third round was decided by simple majority. Miami won the vote, but the final tally was kept confidential. By the time the game was played, the stadium's name had been changed once again, this time to Sun Life Stadium.
This was the tenth time the Super Bowl would be held in the Miami area, the most ever for a single city at the time. The game was played in the Miami Orange Bowl five times (II, III, V, X, XIII), while Dolphins Stadium had hosted the game four times (XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, XLI). With Tampa hosting XLIII, this game marked the third time that consecutive Super Bowls have been played in the same state (II–III, XXI–XXII, and XLIII–XLIV). With Miami already slated to host XLI, they would be hosting two Super Bowls in a four-year span, but this would be the final Super Bowl played at the stadium before substantial renovations were made in 2015–2016. Following the game, the league threatened to take the stadium out of consideration for future Super Bowls until major upgrades were completed. It would not host another Super Bowl for ten years (LIV).
Pro Bowl changes
The 2010 Pro Bowl was played on January 31, during the off-week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, breaking with the precedent of scheduling the game for the Sunday after the Super Bowl. The game also changed venues from Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, where it had been held since 1979, to Sun Life Stadium in Miami (the same city and stadium hosting the Super Bowl itself). Fourteen players from the Super Bowl participants, seven from each team, had been selected but were unable to participate due to the change. The new schedule took advantage of the bye week given to the conference champions to rest and prepare for the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl returned to Honolulu the following season and remained there until 2015, when it was played in Glendale, Arizona, a week before Super Bowl XLIX, also in Glendale. The game returned to Honolulu in 2016, and beginning in 2017 was played in Orlando permanently. This, however, changed again in 2020, when the league announced that the 2021 Pro Bowl would be played at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The move also meant that the Pro Bowl, which was won by the AFC by a score of 41–34, would avoid competing against the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, the second full day of competition in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 52nd running of the Daytona 500, as would have been the case had the game been played on February 14 per its traditional post-Super Bowl scheduling.
Teams New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints finished the season with an NFC best 13–3 record and went on to advance to the first Super Bowl in their 43 years as an NFL team. After joining the NFL in 1967, it took them 21 years to record their first winning season and another 13 years after that to win their first playoff game. It came in 2000 with a dethroning of the defending champion St. Louis Rams, at the beginning of a decade which concluded with Super Bowl XLIV. Five years later, the New Orleans area suffered another setback when the Louisiana Superdome was devastated with the rest of the city by Hurricane Katrina, forcing them to play all of their home games in elsewhere as they finished with a 3–13 record (see Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Saints). But in the off-season, the team's fortunes began to turn. First, they signed free agent quarterback Drew Brees, who would go on to throw for more passing yards than any other quarterback over the next four seasons. They also drafted multi-talented Heisman Trophy winning running back Reggie Bush, receiver Marques Colston, and guard Jahri Evans, three players who would become major contributors on the Saints' offense. The following season, New Orleans improved to 10–6 and advanced to the NFC title game for the first time, which they lost to the Chicago Bears. Although they failed to make the playoffs over the next two seasons, they continued to sign new talent, and by 2009 they were ready to make another run at the Super Bowl.