Bears’ Devin Hester: “No surprise, teams still kick towards me” – NFL News
Devin Hester is not surprised that given his statistics and form on the field this season, opposition teams still continue to kick the ball towards him.
The Chicago Bears superstar has been in prolific form this season as he continues to put in performances that have his name being touted as a potential Hall of Famer, and is the leader in the National Football League for scoring Kick return touchdowns with 17 to his name. He also holds the record of 12 punt returns.
Hester said that the odds that he will complete the kick returns are still not favourable to him and the opposition will continue to kick to him in the hope that their covering teams will be able to stop him because creating an entire plan from scratch for one player no matter how good is “too much”.
The specialist kick returner was particularly devastating against the Lions. Playing through illness and a sprained ankle Hester completed 122 yards on punt return and even scored a touchdown in the second quarter as he covered 82 yards to the Lions end zone. However he had to leave the field later and watched the rest of the game from the sidelines with the Bears crushing the Lions 37-13.
"When you're sick, you're just in a relaxing mode," Hester said. "You're just really living life up, living it up. I wasn't stressed out or anything. I was just out there being ready.
The Bears will start their four games against the teams from the American Football Conference West on Sunday with the visit of the San Diego Chargers. Chargers Coach Norv Turner has a plan in mind to stop Hester and the Bears telling reporters
“We have an outstanding punter (Mike Scifres) and we've come a long ways; we've improved a great deal in our coverage teams," Turner said. "But it's not a deal where you want to put our guys out there and say, 'Go cover him.' We have to have a plan and we do have a plan. That plan has to be flexible because we're aware that we're in a stadium where the elements will be a big part of it.”
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