Former UNM football star now an unrestricted free agent after four seasons in NFL.

Former Clovis High and University of New Mexico football star Hank Baskett III was released by the Indianapolis Colts last week and is an unrestricted free agent for the first time since the 2005 National Football League draft, the Clovis News Journal reported.

Baskett, who joined the Colts midseason, was criticized when he bobbled an onside kick to start the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, leading the New Orleans Saints to score on the next possession and go on to win the contest 31-17, the News Journal said.

Baskett spent most of his NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles, who released him in the second week of the last season to make room for quarterbacks Michael Vick and Jeff Garcia, and he signed two days later with the Colts, the paper reported.

During his NFL career, Baskett has caught 76 passes for 1,080 yards and has scored six touchdowns, the News Journal said.

6:00am 2/9/10 -- Hank Baskett Reflects On That Onside Kick: Former Clovis High, UNM standout is philosophical about Super Bowl game changer.

It's not exactly the kind of thing you'd like to see as part of the highlight reel of the most-watched television event in history, but former Clovis High School and University of New Mexico star football player Hank Baskett is philosophical about that shocking onside kick that turned the tide of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday.

Baskett was the Indianapolis Colt who first touched the ball when the New Orleans Saints pulled their surprise play to open the second half, but after players from both teams piled on the ball in a scrum that seemed to last a lifetime, it ended up the Saints' ball.

"It will go down as a momentum swing," Baskett told the Clovis News Journal, agreeing with the Monday Morning quarterbacks, like the 56 percent of respondents in an ESPN SportsNation poll that said the onside kick recovery was a more vital play than Payton Manning's fourth-quarter interception.

"But I did everything I could to get the ball," said Baskett, who told the News Journal that Super Bowl Sunday was an amazing experience regardless of the outcome.

"The national anthem and everything, it's something to know everybody is watching," Baskett told the News Journal. "I was thinking back to Play Inc. (a Clovis recreation center), where it started. All those times you're at practice and your friends are at the lake, you're asking yourself what you're doing it for."