IT was Rod Marinelli who tempted the fates by kicking the ball to Devin Hester, and after the Windy City tornado cut a swath of destruction through his team, the Lions coach came up with a much safer plan in the rematch that Tom Coughlin and the Giants absolutely must implement Sunday in Chicago: Kick the ball into Lake Michigan and make sure it sinks to the bottom. Hester is Chicago's most dangerous, deadly No. 23 since Michael Jordan. He is the most breathtaking, gamebreaking Bear since Gale Sayers. They called Sayers The Kansas Comet. They call Hester the Windy City Flyer. They called him Anytime at Miami (Fla.). Former teammate Tank Johnson called him He Gone. If Walter Payton was Sweetness, then Hester must be Fleetness. I don't think the league has ever seen anything like this guy," safety John Lynch said after Hester returned a punt 75 yards for one score and a kickoff 88 yards for another last Sunday to shock his Broncos. NY Post
After his performance against Denver, I would think that the even the cockiest of cocky Special Teams Coodinators would never allow either their kicker or punter to ever kick to him on purpose. It may be next season before he gets kicked to again and probably just in the pre-season just to give their unit some stiff competition. Anyone who kicks to Hester on purpose deserves exactly whatever they get. They deserve praise if they can stop him. And they deserve a smack if he smokes them. But Hester has proven that more times than not, the risk of kicking to him does not outweigh the reward if you can stop him. It's safer not to kick to him.
I do too. After Hester scored the first TD against the Broncos, I was suprised Shannahan kicked to him again.
Well, Hester needs to bait them by PURPOSELY muffing the kickoff or punt. Then they will kick to him and he will rain pain on them.
Well, the Giants won't punt to Hester (unless it's slightly mis-directed when it's simply a very high punt down the sidelines, because the Giants have one of the best ever at directional punting in Jeff Feagles who's in his 20th season. [Why is it Punters obsess over gross length when it's all about dropping the ball inside the 20 or better, and ensuring that the ball doesn't get returned with a good Net yardage?] ---- Now Kicking off to Hester is harder as out of bounds put the offence at the 40 and that's a lot to concede....expect the grubber kick to the 25-30 to be employed from Tynes.
We squib kick to everyone this year man.. Steelers couldn't stop Warren Sapp from returning a punt/kick
