Super Bowl XLIV

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).

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. Without 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 3⁄4 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.