Folks say Father Time catches up with everybody.
Perhaps so. However when Devin Hurst was launched onto the sector earlier than Thursday’s Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame recreation in Canton, Ohio, I swear I heard Father Time gasp far behind and in Make a vow to your self as you attempt to sustain.
Hester is probably the most dynamic kick returner in NFL historical past at 41 years previous. However when he stepped onto the courtroom carrying a white polo shirt with the Corridor of Fame emblem on the chest, he appeared nonetheless in his 20s.
He gave a salute that become a peace signal. He shook his proper hand, and the gold bracelet sparkled. There did not appear to be a single grey hair on his head or beard.
Would anybody be shocked if he kicked off the sport at dwelling?
Hester shall be certainly one of them when he’s formally inducted into the Corridor of Fame this weekend. There isn’t a different inductee like him.
The previous Miami Hurricanes standout actually modified the sport. Sure, he performed extensive receiver and cornerback in faculty, but it surely was on particular groups the place he shined.
Bears followers will always remember his tenure with the workforce from 2006-13. He performed a number of extra seasons in Atlanta and Baltimore after that, however he’ll ceaselessly be related together with his thrilling return to Chicago in orange and blue.
Subsequent time you will have a spare afternoon, try a few of Hester’s video collections. It is cheaper than espresso and will not provide the caffeine jitters.
All informed, he returned 20 touchdowns, an NFL document. That features 14 punt returns for touchdowns, 5 kickoff returns for touchdowns, and a very dazzling profession spotlight during which he caught a missed discipline aim at the back of the top zone as a rookie and scored 108 A landing return.
These are simply his common season accomplishments. He additionally returned the kickoff 92 yards for a landing in Tremendous Bowl XLI, turning everybody watching in Chicago right into a “Tremendous Fan” character from “Saturday Night time Dwell.”
Bears 77, Colts 2.
The ultimate rating did not work out that approach, with Peyton Manning and the Colts successful the Tremendous Bowl. Hester’s profession did not precisely go the way in which he wished, because the workforce tried and failed to show him right into a No. 1 extensive receiver.
However when he shot again, you held your breath involuntarily. Over the subsequent few seconds, something may occur as he ran ahead, modified path, cycled backwards, and at last noticed daylight and pressed the inner turbo button.
Bear in mind once I mentioned there was no different Corridor of Famer like Hester?
There will not be anybody like him anymore, both, because the NFL now treats the punt return recreation as some sort of bizarre science experiment.
Thursday’s first recreation between the Bears and the Houston Texans made that clear.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos stood alone on the kickoff on the Chicago 35-yard line.
The Bears’ different 10 gamers have been on the opposite facet of midfield, on the Texans’ 40-yard line. On the 35-yard line from the Texans’ 5, Houston had 9 blockers dealing with the Bears’ kickoff unit.
Houston had two returners close to the aim line, with Steven Sims the kickoff man. The remainder of the Bears and Texans gamers stood immobile, like baseball gamers on third base ready for a sacrifice fly ball, and so they got here to life the second Simms caught the ball.
When Sims surges ahead and will get tripped up close to the 25, there’s instantly a variety of one-on-one blocking — think about skinny variations of linebackers locking one another up.
This seems to be like a flowery XFL recreation.
Oh, hey, what have you learnt? The NFL copied many of the ideas from the XFL.
What’s going on right here? Is the kickoff recreation so unhealthy that the league ought to abandon it solely and make groups begin each possession inside 25 seconds?
One can solely marvel what Hester thought as she watched the drama earlier than her.
Perhaps, simply possibly, this led to his first grey hair.
