When the Chicago Bears selected Devin Hester with a second-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft (57th choice overall), the team knew it was adding a multi-dimensional player with elite skills in the return game. Few, however, could have predicted how profoundly he would influence the franchise, set NFL records still standing and reinforce the importance of special teams.
Hester played in 11 NFL seasons (2006-2016) – eight in Chicago, two in Atlanta and a final season split between Baltimore and Seattle. He burst onto the scene as a rookie, helping ignite a Bears team that finished with a 13-3 regular-season record and eventually reach Super Bowl XLI.
In that 2006 season, he returned 47 punts for 600 yards (12.8 average) and three TDs, 20 kickoffs for 528 yards (26.4 average) and two touchdowns and also returned a missed field goal 108 yards for a touchdown – one of only five such “kick-six” scores in an NFL game.
Hester opened Super Bowl XLI with 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown – the only time in Super Bowl history that has occurred.
He followed his All-Pro rookie season by setting more records in 2007. Among the many highlights in that All-Pro season was a game against Denver in which he returned both a punt (75 yards) and a kickoff (88 yards) for touchdowns. Overall that year, Hester returned four kickoffs and two punts for scores, establishing an NFL record for six combined kick returns for TDs.
Hester earned first-team All-Pro honors a third time with a 2010 season that saw him lead the NFL with 564 yards and three touchdowns on punt returns.
For his career, Hester took 14 punts and five kickoffs to the end zone in 156 regular-season games.
He was selected to play in four Pro Bowls (2007-08, 2011, 2015) and earned one of the two spots for return specialists on the NFL 100 All-Time Team. He also was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
