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As someone who’s played far too many video games, there are certain moments that stick out as infinitely more satisfying than the rest, like getting away from the Yeti in Ski Free, sliding a phallic Tetris shape into the slot you created for it, and beating close to literally any enemy in Dark Souls.
The same can be said for plenty of sports games and I still never get tired of watching a ball cross the goal line in FIFA or sniping a shot through the five-hole while playing some ‘Chel.
However, there might be one achievement that’s more exhilarating than any of the ones I’ve mentioned: returning a kick all the way back to the house in Madden. Doing so requires a combination of skill and luck (mostly the latter) but there aren’t many things comparable to hitting a hole around the 40-yard line and realizing you’ve only got the kicker to beat.
A kick return touchdown is no easy feat in a virtual world nor is it an easy one in reality—it only happens around .25% of the time in the NFL (punt returns have a slightly higher success rate at around .45%).
However, there was one man who made running the ball back look like a breeze: Devin Hester.
Hester was drafted by the Bears back in 2006, and while he was officially picked as a cornerback, Chicago knew they had a special teams weapon after he established himself as a force to be reckoned with in Miami.
It didn’t take long for Hester to establish himself as an absolute beast, as he returned a kickoff for a TD in his first ever game as an NFL player (this video also includes his final return but we’re just getting started).
Hester would go on to return an insane six kicks in various forms for touchdowns over the course of his first season—including the time he faked out the Giants and ran back a missed field goal 108 yards.
Teams would eventually figure out it might not be the best idea to kick the ball to Hester shortly after he returned two kicks in a single game against the Rams but it appears the Colts didn’t get the memo prior to Super Bowl XLI, as he opened up the game with a 92-yard sprint.
Hester would eventually add “wide receiver” to his résumé in his second year in the league but continued to return kicks and punts, although teams did virtually everything in their power to keep the ball away from him.
With that said, there was one man who wasn’t afraid of him: Broncos kicker Todd Sauerbrun, who said he wasn’t afraid to send the ball in his direction and was promptly given a crow to eat after Hester returned a kickoff and a punt in the same game.
It was virtually impossible for Hester to continue to be as dominant as he was during his first two years in the league, and while he failed to score on any kicks in 2008 or 2009, he’d eventually experience a renaissance in 2010, which is when he broke the NFL record for combined kickoff and punt returns.
He’d go on to break the mark for the most punt return TDs in NFL history the following year.
When everything was said and done, Hester finished his career with 14 punt returns, five TD returns, and one hell of a highlight reel.
Yeah. That guy was good.