CHICAGO (AP) — A few years before Devin Hester began to etch his name into the NFL’s record book with one spectacular return after another, Mark Sadowski was scouting a Miami-North Carolina State game for the Chicago Bears in 2004.
He watched as the Hurricanes’ speedy sophomore took the opening kickoff 5 yards deep in the end zone. And in a flash, he was gone.
Hester sprinted up the right sideline and cut to his left on his way to what was officially a 100-yard touchdown. And he kept on going, all the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“It was the fastest thing I ever saw live,” Sadowski said. “I was just like holy smokes, this dude is for real.”
Hester will put the ultimate exclamation mark on his career on Saturday in Canton, Ohio, when he becomes the first player inducted primarily as a return specialist. He is one of three former Bears in this year’s class, along with Julius Peppers and Steve McMichael.
The NFL had never seen someone like Hester when the Bears drafted him in the second round in 2006. And the league still has not.
Hester was one of the most feared players in the NFL despite standing just 5-foot-11 and weighing 190 pounds. He returned a league-record 14 punts for touchdowns and ran back five more kickoffs for scores during an 11-year career spent mostly with the Bears.
Hester’s most memorable moment came at the end of his rookie season in Super Bowl 41 in Miami. He became the only player to date to return the opening kickoff in a Super Bowl for a touchdown when he ran it back 92 yards against Indianapolis.
By then, he had already established himself as one of Chicago’s most dangerous weapons.
Hester scored six TDs on returns in each of his first two seasons, including a 108-yarder on a missed field goal as a rookie in 2006 when he helped Chicago advance to the Super Bowl. He was so good teams would go out of their way to avoid him, leading to stray kicks and punts and a short field for the offense.
“He’s the first pure return guy to get into the Hall of Fame, and that’s because he’s the best there ever was,” former longtime Bears college scouting director Greg Gabriel said. “And that’s just a hell of an accomplishment, to be the best at one certain skill. And now the rules changes the way they are, I don’t think anybody will ever match him.”
Hester’s electric returns made him as popular as any player on a team that featured Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher along with stars such as Lance Briggs, Charles Tillman and Olin Kreutz. He earned the nickname “Anytime” because he could break off a touchdown return at, well, you know. And in a city where the Bulls’ Michael Jordan and the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg wore No. 23, Hester did justice to that number.
Not bad for someone who was tough to grade coming out of college. After all, as Gabriel said, he “didn’t have a real position.”
Hester played running back, wide receiver and defensive back at Miami. But he didn’t establish himself at those positions on a team that had a deep, talented roster. On special teams, however, it was a different story. Hester’s speed and explosiveness stood out.
“There was a little bit of reluctancy of what is this guy, what are you gonna do with him and how high do you take a guy that does have some return ability,” said Sadowski, now Pittsburgh’s director of player scouting. “And some of the antics he does in college, is it gonna work in the pros?”
By the time the 2006 draft rolled around, the Bears were convinced. They went in knowing they wanted Hester, and they nearly had their hopes dashed by Tennessee after making a calculated gamble.
Chicago used its first pick to take Danieal Manning at No. 42 overall, thinking there was a good chance Hester would still be available with their second selection of the second round, Gabriel said. The Titans, however, nearly foiled that plan. Tennessee apparently called Hester to tell him it was drafting him at No. 45, only to go with running back LenDale White. Chicago grabbed Hester at No. 57.
“I didn’t know this until I called Devin, and I said, ‘Devin, you know, we’re on the clock. We’re about to take you,'” Gabriel said. “He goes, ‘For real?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t that be for real?’ And he said, ‘Well, Tennessee called me and they said they were going to take me and and they ended up taking a running back.’ To myself, I’m like holy s—-. But it worked out well.”
So well that Hester has a place in Canton.
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