Devin Hester Believes He Should Be a First-Ballot Hall of Famer

Former Bears star Devin Hester will learn later this week if he has made the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Hester, 39, retired in 2017 as the most decorated return specialist in NFL history. He holds NFL records with 20 special teams return touchdowns, 14 punt return touchdowns and most punt return touchdowns in a season, with four.

In a story published Tuesday by Sports Illustrated's Mitch Goldich, Hester was adamant he should make the Hall of Fame this year.

“Most definitely,” he said when asked if he was the best returned ever. “Without a doubt.

“You look at my stats, you see I have the most return touchdowns of all time. Imagine if teams kicked to me my whole life, how crazy the stats would be. I really only got two or three good years of getting the ball kicked to me.”

He added making the Hall of Fame during his first eligible year would carry additional weight. 

“First-ballot Hall of Famers are Hall of Famers that you don’t have no question that they should be a Hall of Famer," he said. “You think about the best of the best—best quarterbacks, best running backs, best receivers. I know we don’t have any [full-time] returners in the Hall of Fame, but I did things that have never been done before.”

In Reshaping the Rules, Have We Written Devin Hester—or Future Hesters—Out of Football?

When the NFL's 100th anniversary all-time team was unveiled in 2019, Hester was part of a select group of players who had not yet been named to the Hall of Fame but were still part of the team. At the time, Hester, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Peyton Manning (who has since been enshrined) and five others—Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Gronkowski, Shane Lechler and Adam Vinatieri—were the lone players not to have been named to the Hall of Fame. 

Said Deion Sanders, whose record of 19 return touchdowns Hester broke: “There’s no man that was feared more than Devin Hester with a ball in his hands on special teams. And that’s coming from me.”

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022 will be inducted during NFL Honors, which airs live Thursday, Feb. 10 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC