Chicago Bears return man Devin Hester has played 32 weeks in the NFL. Seven of those weeks, he's won the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.The seventh was announced Wednesday, honoring Hester for his 64-yard punt return touchdown on Sunday against the Saints. That gave Hester the NFL record for combined kick return touchdowns in a season, with six. The old record was five, set by Hester last year. No one else has ever had more than four kick return touchdowns in a season.
And no one else has ever had more than seven Special Teams Player of the Week awards. Dante Hall also has had seven in his career, and the two of them are tied for the most ever. It really is amazing how Hester, in just two NFL seasons, is doing things that no other return man has ever done. If the 25-year-old Hester plays at even close to this level until he's 30, he'll completely re-write the kick return section of the NFL record book.
But Hester knows he doesn't deserve all the credit:
"It's a big thing whenever you get a guy to go out and put 10 or 11 returns in in two years; that's a great accomplishment," Hester acknowledged. "But like I always say, I give all my credit to my teammates. Those are the guys who lay it on the line and do all the dirty work. And at the end of the day it seems like I get all the glory for it.' ...
"For guys who go out and put it down on special teams ... (Brendon) Ayanbadejo, Adrian Peterson, Rod Wilson, Jamar Williams, you can all the way down the line, those guys are key on our special teams."Hopefully, we get that special-teams group back and look forward to next season."
The Bears have the best special teams in the NFL by a large margin, and although special teams success often doesn't stay consistent from year to year, as long as Hester is on the team, the Bears are in awfully good shape in the kicking game.
