Almost Super

Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007, was the first Super Bowl played in a driving rain, the first to feature even one African-American head coach (let alone two), and the first in which the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown.  

The Bears had rolled through a league-best 13-3 regular season. They scored 427 points (including 65 by the defense and special teams), while allowing only 255. Eight Bears were selected for the Pro Bowl: center Olin Kreutz, guard Ruben Brown, defensive end Tommie Harris, linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, special teamer Brendan Ayanbadejo, kicker Robbie Gould, and return man Devin Hester. 

 

DEVIN HESTER TAKES THE OPENING KICKOFF TO THE HOUSE.

Quarterback Rex Grossman had excelled while leading the Bears to wins in their first seven games, but he struggled as the season went along. After Grossman committed 19 turnovers in the second half of the season, sportswriters asked head coach Lovie Smith whether he might make a change for the playoffs. Smith’s answer has lived on as a sound bite ever since. “Rex is our quarterback,” he said in his syrupy Texas drawl.

     Smith’s trust in Grossman was rewarded when the Bears squeaked past the Seattle Seahawks in overtime and then routed the New Orleans Saints to punch their ticket to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the legendary 1985 season.

     When Smith met his counterpart and old friend, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts, on the field at Miami’s Dolphin Stadium before the game, they shook hands as the first African-American head coaches in Super Bowl history. “I just told Lovie how proud I was of the moment,” said Dungy.

     Then the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri kicked off to Hester, and the sensational rookie who’d set an NFL record with six return touchdowns on the year did not disappoint. He raced 92 yards to the opposite end zone. After Gould added the extra point, the Bears led 7-0.

     Fourteen seconds had been played. Fifty-nine minutes and 46 seconds remained, but Hester (who eventually proved to be the greatest returner of all time) was done for all intents and purposes. From then on, the Colts squibbed every kickoff and punted the ball near him only once.

     The Colts’ first possession ended with safety Chris Harris intercepting a Peyton Manning pass at the Bears’ 29-yard line. Alas, the Bears failed to move the ball and were forced to punt. A 53-yard strike from Manning to Reggie Wayne got the Colts onto the scoreboard, but a botched extra point left the Bears ahead 7-6.

     The Bears fumbled the ensuing pooch kick (while Hester waited in vain at his own goal line), and Indianapolis recovered. The Colts returned the favor on the very next play when running back Joseph Addai coughed up the football to Bears defensive end Mark Anderson. On the next play, Bears running back Thomas Jones scampered 52 yards down to the Colts’ five-yard line. Then Grossman found Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone, extending the Bears’ lead to 14-6.

     The Bears did not score again until Gould booted a 44-yard field goal with 1:14 left in the third quarter. In the meantime, Prince delivered a stupendous halftime show and the Colts delivered a touchdown and three field goals against the Bears’ bend-but-don’t-break defense.

     At the outset of the fourth quarter, the Colts were ahead 22-17, not an insurmountable lead by any means. But then came the play of the game. Grossman’s pass intended for Muhammad was picked off by Kelvin Haynes and taken 56 yards for a touchdown. The Bears had now been outscored 23-3 since the first quarter. The ensuing kickoff was soon followed by the coup de grace, another interception of Grossman.

     The final score was 29-17. “A frustrating loss,” Grossman said. “There were definitely opportunities for us to take that game, and we didn't do it.” For his part, Manning was later overheard saying that the Colts “should’ve scored 70 [points].” They had controlled the ball for 38 minutes, earning 24 first downs to the Bears’ 11 and amassing 430 yards of offense to the Bears’ 265. The Bears had lost to a superior team and to perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time.

 

 

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Many Happy Returns

DEVIN HESTER

     The Bears clinched the NFC North Division championship Monday night with an impressive 40-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. It marks the Bears' tenth division title since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, and it would not have been accomplished without Devin Hester, who has rebounded from two subpar seasons to re-establish himself as the best kickoff and punt returner in the game today and as the greatest of all time.
     Hester came into the game, the 74th of his career, tied for the most return touchdowns in league history with Brian Mitchell, who had 13 in 223 games. It looked as though he would break the record when he got free on the opening kickoff of the second half. Alas, Hester was brought down at Minnesota's six-yard line after toting the ball 79 yards. So close and yet so far.
     But just minutes later, Hester fielded a punt at his own 36-yard line and took it to the house. It was the 14th return touchdown of his career, confirming him as the most proficient return man in history. Hester needed just 286 attempts to set the record, compared to 1,070 by Mitchell.
     "Right now, [Hester] is a Hall of Famer," said former All-Pro return man Deion Sanders. "I can't think of a returner ever playing the game with the impact he has. There is none."
     Well said, Deion. Hester's impact goes well beyond the touchdowns he scores. It also is felt in the field position he provides by his returns and when opponents sacrifice yardage by trying to kick away from him. His mere presence on the field is enormously disruptive to the Bears' opponents.
     Hester is a respectful, humble man, and after breaking the record he sought to deflect credit away from himself and toward the ten Bears special-teamers who accompany him on his jaunts toward paydirt. "I'm just glad that God put me on this team," he said.
     The official record of 14 return touchdowns does not count Hester's return of a missed field goal in 2006 or his electrifying kickoff return to open the 2007 Super Bowl. Even without those two "asterisks," however, Hester's record will never be broken by anyone but a truly great player. And before he is through, he might put the record at a level where it will never be broken, period.