They say Father Time catches up to everybody.
Maybe so. But when Devin Hester was introduced on the field before Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, I swear I heard Father Time wheezing far behind and swearing to himself as he struggled to keep pace.
Hester, the most dynamic kick returner in the history of the NFL, is now 41 years old. But as he took the field in a white polo shirt with the Hall of Fame logo on the chest, he looked like he was still in his 20s.
He gave a salute that transformed into a peace sign. He pumped his right arm, and his gold bracelet glistened. He appeared not to have a single gray hair on his head or his beard.
Would anyone have been surprised if he took the opening kickoff to the house?
When Hester is officially inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend, he will be one of one. There is no other inductee quite like him.
The ex-Miami Hurricanes standout literally changed the game. Yes, he played wide receiver and cornerback in college, but on special teams is where he shined.
Bears fans will never forget his tenure with the team from 2006–13. He played a few more seasons after that with Atlanta and Baltimore, but he will forever be associated with his electrifying returns in Chicago orange and blue.
Next time you hit that afternoon lull, just look up some Hester video highlights. It’s cheaper than coffee, and it won’t leave you with caffeine jitters.
All told, he racked up 20 return touchdowns to set the NFL’s all-time record. That included 14 punt return touchdowns, five kickoff return touchdowns and an especially dazzling career highlight in which he caught a missed field goal in the back of the end zone and returned it 108 yards for a touchdown as a rookie.
Those were just his regular-season accomplishments. He also returned the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI for a 92-yard touchdown that turned everyone watching the game in Chicago into a “Super Fans” character from Saturday Night Live.
Bears 77, Colts 2.
The final score did not turn out that way, as Peyton Manning and the Colts came back to win the Super Bowl. And Hester’s career did not turn out exactly the way he wanted, as the team tried and failed to turn him into a No. 1 wide receiver.
But when he fielded a return, you involuntarily held your breath. Anything could happen in the next few seconds as he raced forward, changed direction, looped backward and eventually found daylight and hit an internal turbo button.
Remember how I said there is no other Hall of Fame player quite like Hester?
There will never be another one like him, either, as the NFL now treats its kick return game like some kind of strange science experiment.
The first play of Thursday’s game between the Bears and Houston Texans made that much clear.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos stood all by himself behind the ball on a tee at the Chicago 35-yard line.
The Bears’ other 10 players stood on the opposite side of midfield, at the Texans’ 40-yard line. Five yards away, at the Texans’ 35-yard line, Houston had nine blockers facing the Bears’ kickoff unit.
Houston had two return men near the goal line, and Steven Sims was the one to field the opening kickoff. Every other player on the Bears and Texans stood motionless, like a baseball player standing on third base waiting for a sacrifice fly to be caught, and they sprang to life the moment Sims caught the ball.
There were a lot of immediate one-on-one blocks—picture a skinny version of linemen locking each other up—as Sims surged forward and got tripped up near the 25.
It looked like a gimmicky XFL play.
Oh, hey, what do you know? The NFL copied much of the concept from the XFL.
What exactly was happening here? Is the kickoff game so broken that the league should just abandon it entirely and have teams start every drive on their 25?
One can only wonder what Hester thought as he watched the play in front of him.
Maybe, just maybe, it led to his first gray hair.
