The Greatest Return Man Ever Was Almost A Titan
(CBS) Rewind about five years back to the 2006 NFL Draft. The Chicago Bears held the 57th pick of the draft, and they almost missed out on their guy.
The Bears waited anxiously behind the Tennessee Titans to make their pick. They knew who they wanted -- Devin Hester, a 5-foot-11-inch return special out of Miami.
"The Titans, who were picking ahead of us, had (Hester) on the phone and were making flight arrangements, and then they changed their mind literally at the last minute," Bears general manager Jerry Angelo told Chicagobears.com on Wednesday. "So it wasn't like he wasn't coveted by other teams. Even though he was a bit of an enigma, he still was a tremendous talent. We felt the worst we would get was a top returner. We really had no idea he would become the best returner ever to play the game as he has. He had such a passion to be great, and that's the one thing a lot of people don't know about Devin. Devin's a great worker. He has a tremendous passion to be a great player and that's one reason we drafted him. We felt like he was going to do everything he could do to be the best he could be and that he had too much talent not to become a very good player."
Lucky for the Bears, the Titans passed up on the game's most proflict return man of all time, who now holds the record for most punt returns and most combined kick returns.
The Bears knew from the minute they laid eyes on Hester that he would be something special.
" (Area scout) Mark Sadowski really did a great job of evaluating Devin. Mark comforted all of us—Lovie [Smith], Dave Toub and certainly myself—that there was no bust factor with Devin. Devin was going to be a special player. We couldn't say for sure where or when. But he felt strongly about it. That's what I go on; what our area scouts tell me, and Mark was very adamant about that even though there was some gray area."
