Why Is Devin Hester Not In The HOF?

WHY IS DEVIN HESTER NOT IN THE HOF?! 

2007 he became the first NFL player to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown. He holds the NFL record for most all-time return touchdowns (punt and kickoff combined) and most all-time punt return touchdowns. In his first 13 weeks as a professional football player, Hester recorded six return touchdowns, including a punt return in his NFL debut, and a then-record tying 108-yard touchdown from a missed field goal against the New York Giants.^[20] He also returned a punt for a clutch 83-yard game-winning touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals to give the Bears the lead in a comeback win, and two kickoff returns in one game against the St. Louis Rams. It was when the league out of over caution of collisions (With the number of concussions going up in 2023-'23) during kick offs moved the kick off line back to the 35 yard line. Had that move not been made who knows how many touchdowns he would've finished his career and preferably with the Chicago Bears who drafted him. Here is what Hester had to say in 2011 about the rule change: 

"Bears return man Devin Hester thinks it was stupid of the NFL to move kickoffs up five yards, and he’s not afraid to say so.

After a Week One that saw more touchbacks than usual but also more touchdown returns than usual, Hester said nothing really changed, and that the NFL passed a rule that was ostensibly about player safety but didn’t really have an impact."

“It’s just showing the NFL that moving the line up five yards didn’t budge things a bit,” Hester told the Chicago Tribune. “They got a couple touchbacks but you’ve still got guys bringing it out and at the end of the day that rule is pointless. It’s not going to prevent concussions because guys are bringing it out five to eight yards deep in the end zone. We’re still coming out with it. And that’s taking away from some of the fun in the NFL because guys are going to bring it out regardless.”

Hester is far from alone. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell thinks more touchbacks will mean fewer injuries, but most of the players who are putting their bodies on the line seem to want to keep the game the way it is. While Hester was used sparingly on both sides of the ball, I compare it to a DH in baseball getting into the HOF and never touching the field. The NFL is more liberal in the amount of players it lets in.  Roger Goodell is as useless as Bud Selig as a sports commissioner.  

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Some of this piece was from other sources. 

I’m for the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl and seeing a limping and hustling Pat Mahomes made me want to come up with crazy nicknames for what he does. I know Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T. and not many quarterbacks will play long enough to touch Brady’s accomplishments. With football being a team sport Brady didn’t do it all himself. But really who were the Patriots during Brady’s years there? Most would say Belicheck was the genius first by drafting Brady and the subsequent success but seeing what’s going on in New England now I have an even greater respect for Brady. Every game I watched with him the team looked well prepared for every game. I admit I slept through a couple of Super Bowls with Brady because I love variety in my sports while I am a hypocrite because I would love to see the Bears in that many Super Bowls.

Speaking of the Bears and the subject of Quarterbacks: Trading Justin Fields would be asinine when there are so many needs they have than Quarterback, like how to keep one on his feet with a good offensive line. With the holes we have on the defense trading Fields and having to the process of having to build around him trading Fields even for more picks would turn Chicago fans off quickly. Kansas City loves Mahomes as much as he loves playing for them and they have shown they are willing to put weapons around him to help him succeed. The Bears had a chance to pick Mahomes in 2017 but moved up to number 3 to take a dud in Mitch Trubisky. We could have had Deshaun Watson but the God’s vetoed that choice thankfully. But we could have had Patrick Mahomes and his stupid State Farm commercials. 

Someone once told me that if we had drafted Mahomes Chicago would have done what most Chicago teams seem to do and that’s go on the cheap and not put him in a position to win. Let’s not do the same with Justin Fields. Let’s do what we have to do to put him in Super bowls leaving it all on the field because we’ve done our duty to protect him and bargain with him in good faith. I’m nowhere near ready to trust Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus considering the number of slick talkers who have come through Halas Hall since we let Lovie Smith go. We’ve only beaten Green Bay twice since Lovie Smith the last coach to get the Bears to a Super Bowl. Looking at Aaron Rodgers and Pat Mahomes. Tom Brady or Kirk cousins, it proves so goes your quarterback so goes your club. G©  

Coach Prime may have ended up in a place, while a beautiful place, it has been a wasteland since long before there was ever a thought of a college playoff to decide the National Champion. The last time they were relevant was the early 90's which included a National Title in 1990. These days it is easier to go from 1-11 to bowl eligible. Particularly in a Big 5 conference like the Pac. 12 soon to be the Pac 10 in 2024 with USC and UCLA moving to the big ten. It used to be whom and when you beat in the 90’s when deciding on bowl participation but still having to win a number of games. Coach Prime’s Buffaloes need only to win six games regardless in or out of conference. I’m not sure he knew what he was taking on with teams like Stanford, Oregon, Washington and Utah. With a favorable non-conference schedule and a few upsets in conference I can almost guarantee there will be some calls from The NFL that he cannot ignore because he’ll keep losing assistants to other schools or the NFL. All of this for a man who coached 32 college football games. G©