Remembering Devin Hester’s historic Super Bowl return

Let’s pretend the rest of the game never happened.

For 14 seconds on February 4, 2007, there was nothing better in the world to be than a Chicago Bears fan.

That’s how long it took for Devin Hester to slice his way through the Indianapolis Colts’ kickoff coverage unit the way only he could en route to becoming the first man to return the Super Bowl’s opening kickoff for a touchdown and, more importantly, spotting the Bears an immediate 6-0 lead in Super Bowl XLI in his home state of Florida.

Nothing I’d experienced as a Bears fan to that point had come remotely close — not even the improbable Week 6 victory over the Cardinals in which he did … basically the same thing to put Chicago ahead for good in that game.

First off, I wasn’t even alive when the last time the Bears made the Super Bowl before that — sorry if that makes some of you cringe — and didn’t really get into watching football much until about 2003.

I also didn’t really taken to many Chicago athletes on a deeper level before that 2006 season, either.

Of course, I was lucky enough to grow up with Michael Jordan and the Bulls’ second three-peat, and I was mainly an avid White Sox fan because of Frank Thomas. (Also, we couldn’t stand the Cubs in my household because my great-grandma made us watch them and nothing else on her grainy old TV. Sue me.)

So seeing Hester emerge as the game-altering force he became off rip as a rookie was a foundational piece of my sports memory. Believe me, I’d never been as in tune with a defense’s performance as I was those first few seasons with Hester as the punt returner. If the Bears even let an opponent cross its own 40-yard line, I was crushed because it meant Hester might not get a great shot to return a punt for a score.

And heading into that fateful Super Bowl against Peyton Manning and the Colts, who I begrudgingly believed were the better team after they knocking off the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, I thought Hester might be the Bears’ only chance to even the odds. As well as the offense played to that point (largely due to the run game), I simply didn’t believe in Rex Grossman on the biggest stage.

Defense and takeaways — Lovie Smith’s favorite recipe — would have to win this one.

But then again … why would the Colts even dare to kick it to Hester, who had already returned six combined punts/kickoffs/missed goals for scores that year? Surely they wouldn’t, and it seemed for all the world they wouldn’t.

So we waited with bated breath as Hester prowled near the end zone, waiting to see if he’d get his chance to shock the world. All the while, my dad and I paced back and forth in our living room, playfully remarking how insane it would be if Hester took the opening kick back for a touchdown. As Adam Vinatieri lined up to send the ball away, we both agreed the Colts wouldn’t give him the opportunity.

But they did. As the ball headed toward Hester at the Bears’ 8-yard line, I found myself thinking curiously that the Colts’ arrogance had won out but that it wouldn’t matter. More than likely, Hester would go down around the 20, and the Bears would promptly hand off to Thomas Jones to start their first offensive drive. On the broadcast copy, it certainly looked like there wasn’t much room for the rookie return man to operate.

Then, he side-stepped a tackle at that aforementioned 20-yard line, and it hit me in an instant: he was gone.

I started jumping up and down before my dad. Once he joined in, the whole living room was shaking, our snack trays rattling and our furniture shifting as we crashed absentmindedly into it. It was just like when we’d seen Hester stun the Cardinals months before, but this was different. This was history. This was the Super Bowl. Suddenly, it felt like the Bears were destined to win.

We kept screaming and then pausing to stare at the TV to make sure what we saw had actually just happened. Because there was no way the Colts had really kicked off to Hester, right? And there was no way he had just turned that play into a touchdown, yeah?

Yep. It really happened. We had just placed the most absurd expectations on this rookie out of the University of Miami, and he had just delivered in a fashion it was clear only he could.

Obviously, we know the Bears didn’t win the game — in fact, they got blown out — and the Colts learned from their previous folly by not allowing Hester to touch the ball again. (At least Prince came through with an epic halftime show.)

But those first 14 seconds, independent of anything else that happened in that Super Bowl, cemented Hester as more than an exciting, electric, or even clutch player. In just one season of playing NFL football, he became a legend, delivering us a moment none of us would ever forget no matter what came after.

Making my famously non-effusive dad levitate. Giving Bears fans a shot of hope they’ll always remember even as the years drag on and the Super Bowl appearances continue to evade this franchise (though hopefully not for much longer). Defying what we — even he — thought was possible.

Because whatever he thought he’d do in his NFL career, even after that amazing rookie campaign, he still probably never thought he’d run the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl back for a touchdown.

Not in his — or our — wildest dreams.