<h3 class="story_subhead">With yet another touchdown, one called back and a close call, Bears return star Devin Hester is a once-in-a-lifetime experience</h3> </p>September 17, 2007 BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist Before he faces a phalanx of cameras and writers who want to verify the great unknown -- is he human? -- Devin Hester first must finish reading his Bible passage. Then he places a linen mark on the page, tucks the book into his locker, shakes his dreads and confirms that, sure, he expects to score every time someone is foolish enough to kick him the football. </p> Which makes him superhuman, at least in the sporting vernacular. </p> </p> <font size="1">Devin Hester gives credit where its due on Sunday at Soldier Field. <span class="credit">(Matt Marton/Daily Southtown)</span></font> </p>''Yeah, it is a zone,'' says No. 23, using the term associated with Michael Jordan's region of unconsciousness. ''Once you get your hands on the ball and break a couple of tackles, you're in it. I feel anytime I can get the ball, it's a touchdown.'' But if his words sound boastful, and if his mentor is the hopelessly flamboyant Neon Deion Sanders, do understand the source of Hester's firm self-belief. ''Every day, I give all my credit to God,'' he says. ''He has blessed me with the talent I have. Through the grace of God and my teammates, they allowed everything to open up and get me to the end zone. With the players I have around me on this team, I think I can do anything.'' </p> Send everyone else home, why don't you? That goes for Rex Grossman and his inevitable ''mental midget'' moments, Cedric Benson and his decent but hardly overwhelming ballcarrying and even a defense that continues to carry a shaky offense to the point of ad nauseum. Far as I'm concerned, a Bears game can be reduced to nothing but a series of Heaven Devin kick returns and it would be worth the heavy admission price. Remember last season, when we were stupefied by his record-breaking seven returns for touchdowns, when team play-by-play man Jeff Joniak called him ''reeeee-dicculous,'' when we thought we were in an amusement park wrapped around a twilight zone inside some futuristic thunderdome? </p> Well, Hester has launched an encore. Would you believe he returned three more kicks for touchdowns Sunday? You wouldn't, I suppose, because it didn't happen, but please realize it SHOULD have happened. His 73-yard punt return for a score in the second quarter, yet another masterpiece of weaving and gliding and turbocharging that merited the first 100 speed rating on the Madden game, was accompanied by a 95-yard kickoff return for an apparent six points late in the third quarter. But as the fans danced and hugged in thorough amazement, all you saw was a yellow flag not far from Bears linebacker Rod Wilson, who sat motionless on the 35-yard line as a holding call nullified the return. An entire stadium of people, even those in a press box that smelled history, wanted to curse Wilson. Hester only wanted to hug him, saying, ''I wasn't disappointed about it because I know what type of player he is.'' On the other close call, Hester was one block and juke away from a 49-yard score, stopped at the Kansas City 18 after a 31-yard punt return. </p>Eight TDs in 21 gamesIf you include his touchdown with the opening Super Bowl kickoff, Hester now has eight career kick return TDs, the same number as Bears legend Gale Sayers and only five behind the 13 special-teams TDs of former Washington Redskin Brian Mitchell, who holds the NFL record. What is so laughably mind-boggling is that Hester has played only 21 games in the league. At this rate, he'll break Mitchell's record in December, and he's on pace for 70-plus touchdowns if he plays 10 years in the league, which, of course, would be one of the all-time sports records. All right, I'm hyperventilating. But if you can't get excited about Hester, even amid the never-ending Good Rex/Bad Rex drama, you don't grasp big pictures. We are watching a sports miracle, a can of Red Bull in shoulder pads, something you've never seen before and might never see again. The embattled Grossman did a much better job delivering an ode to Hester than he did passing in the second half, adding two more lame interceptions and hearing more boos in a lackluster 20-10 win over the woeful Chiefs. </p> ''He's unbelievable. It's hard to explain to someone who wasn't there to see it,'' Grossman said. ''He cuts and makes his moves at full speed. It's like playing Tag, and he's just messing with you.'' </p> The tributes continued in the other locker room. ''Devin Hester is the best in the league, period,'' Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said. ''As you can see, he's crazy. The guy is phenomenal.'' </p>An offensive weaponAll of which begs two questions, the first to Bears coach Lovie Smith. Um, why isn't Hester being used more on offense? One of the offseason's biggest stories was the move of Mr. Excitement to offense, but through two games, he doesn't have a single touch. ''Hester has the chance to break it every time he touches the ball,'' Smith said, stating the obvious. So why has he been used for only a handful of snaps? Was the Hester experiment a b.s. decoy? It better not be, because in two games, the Bears have managed one offensive TD -- on a trick-play flip to 315-pound guard John St. Clair. ''To get him the ball on offense only makes sense. But it's easier said than done,'' Grossman said. ''Obviously, we need to get him the ball into space. We had a bunch of plays, but we didn't get it to him.'' </p>Trying to get betterWhile you grow even angrier about the Rexually dysfunctional offense, Question No. 2 goes to Chiefs coach Herm Edwards. You seem like a fairly smart man, Herm, from what we see on the HBO documentary ''Hard Knocks.'' What prompts you to keep kicking to Hester after he repeatedly burns you? Isn't that coaching suicide? ''We did give thought to that, especially after we scored again,'' said Edwards, referring to a third-quarter field goal. ''We said, 'We're not kicking him the ball.' '' But they did. </p> Still in his locker stall, unable to find daylight in the media pack for the first time all day, Hester is left to shrug. He isn't interested in criticizing his coaches. ''It's all in the game plan. They know what it is, and they stayed with it,'' he said. As for the Chiefs daring to keep kicking to him, he says the NFL is filled with proud people ''who have a lot of confidence'' they can stop him. They, of course, are in denial. </p> All you need to know about Heaven Devin Hester is what he did when he went home. He said he would watch his highlights -- but to not marvel at himself. ''I try to look at the negative things on film,'' he says, ''and see how I can get better.'' </p> Imagine that. </p>
