People say Father Time catches up with everyone.
Maybe so. But as Devin Hurst was introduced onto the field before Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, I swear I heard Father Time gasp far behind and Make a vow to yourself as you try to keep up.
Hester is the most dynamic kick returner in NFL history at 41 years old. But when he stepped onto the court wearing a white polo shirt with the Hall of Fame logo on the chest, he looked still in his 20s.
He gave a salute that turned into a peace sign. He shook his right hand, and the gold bracelet sparkled. There didn’t seem to be a single gray hair on his head or beard.
Would anyone be surprised if he kicked off the game at home?
Hester will be one of them when he is officially inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend. There is no other inductee like him.
The former Miami Hurricanes standout really changed the game. Yes, he played wide receiver and cornerback in college, but it was on special teams where he shined.
Bears fans will never forget his tenure with the team from 2006-13. He played a few more seasons in Atlanta and Baltimore after that, but he will forever be associated with his exciting return to Chicago in orange and blue.
Next time you have a spare afternoon, check out some of Hester’s video collections. It’s cheaper than coffee and won’t give you the caffeine jitters.
All told, he returned 20 touchdowns, an NFL record. That included 14 punt returns for touchdowns, five kickoff returns for touchdowns, and a particularly dazzling career highlight in which he caught a missed field goal in the back of the end zone and finished with 108 yards returned for a touchdown as a rookie.
These are just his regular season accomplishments. He also returned the kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI, turning everyone watching in Chicago into a “Super Fan” character from “Saturday Night Live.”
Bears 77, Colts 2.
The final score didn’t work out that way, with Peyton Manning and the Colts winning the Super Bowl. Hester’s career didn’t exactly go the way he wanted, as the team tried and failed to turn him into a No. 1 wide receiver.
But when he shot back, you held your breath involuntarily. Over the next few seconds, anything could happen as he ran forward, changed direction, cycled backwards, and finally spotted sunlight and pressed the internal turbo button.
Remember when I said there was no other Hall of Famer like Hester?
There won’t be anyone like him anymore, either, as the NFL now treats the punt return game as some kind of weird science experiment.
Thursday’s first game between the Bears and the Houston Texans made that clear.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos stood alone on the kickoff at the Chicago 35-yard line.
The Bears’ other 10 players were on the other side of midfield, at the Texans’ 40-yard line. At the 35-yard line from the Texans’ 5, Houston had nine blockers facing the Bears’ kickoff unit.
Houston had two returners near the goal line, with Steven Sims the kickoff man. The rest of the Bears and Texans players stood motionless, like baseball players on third base waiting for a sacrifice fly, and they came to life when Sims caught the ball.
There was a lot of direct one-on-one blocking as Sims surged forward and was tripped near the 25 – think of skinny versions of the linebackers locking each other up.
This looks like a fancy XFL game.
Oh, hey, what do you know? The NFL copied most of the concepts from the XFL.
What is going on here? Is the kickoff game so bad that the league should abandon it entirely and make teams start every possession within 25 seconds?
One can only wonder what Hester thought as she watched the drama before her.
Maybe, just maybe, this led to his first gray hair.
