Club Shay Shay - Devin Hester

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

On episode 39, Shannon welcomes in 3-time special teams player of the year, 4-time Pro Bowler, and member of the 2000s & 2010s All-Decade teams & the NFL 100th Anniversary team: Devin Hester.��Devin Hester breaks down why he’s the GOAT NFL punt and kickoff returner, giving Shannon insight into one of the most overlooked positions in the game.All aspects of Hester’s legendary career are dissected: his most memorable kick returns, playing with Jay Cutler & Brandon Marshall in Chicago and Matt Ryan and Julio Jones in Atlanta, switching to offense when teams started kicking away from him, his 100 speed rating in Madden, and more. Listen to hear why #23 is the Jordan of returners.#DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Make sure to listen to the Good Morning Football podcast Monday through Friday on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, welcome to another edition of club shea shea i am your host shannon sharp also the proprietor of club shea shea the guy that's stopping by for conversation and a drink today is a three-time special teams player of the year he's three-time first team all pro made four pro bowls he's also a member of the 2000s and 2010 all decade team they're not very many of those guys he's also a member of the 100th and 2010 all-decade team. There are not very many of those guys. He's also a member of the 100th anniversary teams,

which means he's one of the 100 greatest players in NFL history of the 20,000-plus players that's ever played. 100 greatest Bears of all time, University of Miami Sports Hall of Famer, Hurricane Hester. Anytime. The Windy City Flyer, Devin Hester. Dev, what's up, bro? What's up, baby, man? I'm hanging in there. How about yourself?

Man, I'm great. Man, I mean, when you hear me reading out our special teams and the All-Pro and the All-Decades two times, there's not very many of those guys. The 100th anniversary team. When you hear all these accolades, what do you think? Man, it's just, to be honest, a great career by a football player.

You know, from high school all the way up to college and then in the pros, you know what I mean? Those are type of stats and statistics that a football player dream and love to accomplish once they finish their career. Right. Congratulations on being nominated in your first year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. What would it mean for Devin Hester, a returner,

basically a special teams player, because there are not very many, if I'm not mistaken, Morton Anderson, Ray Guy, Jan Stenerud, George Blanda, who started a part, he was a kicker and a quarterback, but you were primarily of return. What would it mean for Devin Hester to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility? Yeah, it would be honest man. It would mean a lot to me man. This is is something that we just not talking about an award

that anybody gets right. Um, when you talk about the hall of fame man this is the greatest among greatest this is like when you go back to the ancient day you're talking about achilles troy the greek gods like those names are among all the warriors that that was fighting you know so in this situation when it comes to football man the hall of fame is every dream come true for a kid, man. And for me to make it, man, it really, not only for me to make it, but to open up the doors. Because if I do make it and when I do make it, I would be the first one as a kickoff and point returner that makes the Hall of Fame.

For me, that's very special to open up doors for the younger ones coming up, but not only for myself, but to put a chair on top of my career, man. You mentioned if you play football, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the football heaven. It's football mecca. That's where all the greats go. That's their final accolade. That's their final accomplishment.

That's the, as you mentioned, the cherry on the top. There is no greater than that. And so, you know, they mentioned, you know, Pro Bowl player and they mentioned Super Bowl. But when they say Devin Hester, Pro Football Hall of Famer, there is no, there are only, there are less than 400 gold jackets out there. There are about 25,000 Super Bowl rings out there. There are only about 400 gold jackets.

Right. That's a lot, man. You know what I mean? That's like being in the field, you know what I mean? In the hospital. It's only two or three doctors that run that hospital, man. You get that name behind your name, man. It speaks for itself. When I mention

returners, they've been some all-time great returners. We can go back to Gale Sarris, who played with the Bears. We go Billy White Shoes, Johnson, Rick Upchurch, Deion Sanders, Joshua Cribs, Dante Hall, Brian Mitchell, Mel returners we can go back to gail saris who played with the bears we go billy white shoes johnson rick up church deon sanders joshua cribs dante hall brian mitchell male gray uh eric metcalf where does devin hester rank man to be honest man we we to be honest we all know man we I'm talking to you I ain't talking to me but I'm talking to you well then thank you don't share the shop oh you're there so you are you the guy you said is Devin Heston telling me he to go most definitely but that's what I wanted to hear

that's what I wanted to hear oh yeah I am I wanted to hear? Oh, yeah. I am. And I believe so. You know, when you look at the stats. Right. You look at the touchdown. Yes. The things that I did has never been done before. Right.

Never in a National League football. And the position that I played, I took it at another level. Right. You know what I mean? And to be honest, when it's time to pick a returner, I do believe I should be the first one when it's time. Point or kick returner, it doesn't matter. If you're returning the ball, Devin Hester's name should be called first.

Most definitely. 100%. I truly believe that. And I know everybody that knows the game of football and loves football, you know, when they mention the best kickoff and punt returner, if you're a real true football player, you don't say that enough.

When I look at your record, you're the first and only player to return to opening kickoff in the Super Bowl for a touchdown. You broke the most touchdown all-time return touchdowns. You broke D.R. records in Atlanta. Most punt return touchdowns, 14. Most returns for TDs in a season, 6.

If I'm not mistaken, that was your rookie year. Did you expect to have that kind of impact in your rookie season? No, most definitely not. You know what I mean? But I was told coming out of college

that from a couple coaches, right, that, listen, man, if you go to the NFL right now, you're just going to be a kickoff and punt return. Okay. I said, you know what? I'm going to go, but I'm going to be the best one to ever do it. And let me piggyback off of what you just said. You said that I broke the record for the most kickoff and punt turn

in a single season, my rookie year. I did. But my second year. I did. But my second year, I broke that record. Wow. Oh, yeah. So when you think back, the coaches are telling you, yeah, you can come out, but you're only going to be a returner.

Now, I remind you, in college, you were mainly a DB. You played more defense than you played offense. What made you so confident that you could go to the NFL and have that level of success, considering that you were kind of like a Jack? You played offense, you played defense, you returned to football. You weren't really a specialist on the offense or the defensive side. That's

something that was left up to the coaches, man. I don't really like to talk about that topic because a lot of people don't know it, but my sophomore year when I started playing DB and I beat out the starting corner.

Late in the season, like five more games left and ended up leading the team in picks. So I made a parade hall American and all that. My sophomore year, so my junior came in and I was rated one of the top corners coming in the league in the season. So, you know, you start getting all the accolades, the photo shoots,

the magazines start coming to the campus doing all this stuff. My D coordinator didn't like it. He was like, you know what I mean? You blow it up too quick. You on the scene too fast. We gonna sit you down. So, spring ball. I got knocked down to 13, man.

Spring ball, man. And I approached him about the situation. Like, listen, I'm not that type of player that feed all the accolades and all American and play ball, all American and all that. That's not what I want. I want to come in here and contribute as being one of the starting corners on this team and do my best. And so I approached

him about the situation and it didn't go the way that he wanted because he was like, I don't care what you're saying. We finna sit you down. There's too much spotlight on you. And I said, that's bullshit. You know what I mean? And I got up and walked out. He was like, that's all. And he called me and I didn't come back.

And so he stuck his head out the door. said as long as you play here you would never play another down for me as long as you play here and i said the best my whole junior year at cone so i just did kick off and punt turn and i said you know what i'm gonna be the best kickoff punt turn that is so that where my cornerback career just pretty much ended man so that was one of the reasons you also left early you're like man i man, I got to get up out of here. I might do something bad to somebody because they trying to mess up my money. Apparently, that's what really happened,

man. So I was like, I really just got drafted off my sophomore year, what I did in my sophomore year when I did have the opportunity to play. Right. When you look at the way the game is shifting now, the rules that they implemented, no more three-man wedges, no more two-man wedges,

no more holding hands. You remember when you came in, you had three of those, you had three D tackles or two D tackles on the offensive line with holding hands, and then here we come. We got 5,000 pounds looking to blow somebody up. They're no longer allowing you to do that, obviously, for concussions, for the health of the players now.

Do you believe your records in the return game will be broken? I think from them just moving the kickoff up forward, you know what I mean, and allowing the kickers to kick it deep in the end zone. When

I was in the league, you know, after my third or fourth year when they had the negotiation about changing the rules, my special team coach, which is the best, I would in the league, you know, after my third or fourth year when they had the negotiation about changing the rules. Right. My special team coach, which is the best – I would say the best team coach in the NFL, which is Dave Toll, who is at Kansas City Chiefs right now. But he brought it to my attention. He's like, hey, we getting ready to go to a meeting.

They having a meeting about moving the kickoff up. Right. And so it was like be ready for it. And so when he came back, he said, you know what? When we had the meeting, out of 32 teams, everybody agreed on moving it up

beside me. And everybody said, well, we don't have no Devin Huston, so we want to move it up. Right. And that's why they moved it up. Because every team voted to move it up if you also remember Devin now they don't allow the guys when I first came in the league playing special teams the guys would get 10 15 yards deep get a running start so when the kicker hit the

ball everybody's little dance sprint so by the time the wall set up and they looked around the guy would be in his hip pocket running past him. And you also was one of those guys that said, your coach would tell you, I don't care how deep they kick it, bring it out. Come on. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.

What does that mean? Because you see now, basically, if the ball two yards deep in the end zone, you see everybody's like, okay, we good. We straight. We ain't breaking out. You was like, hey, they already knew Devin Hester coming out with it. So, hey, they can't kick it. Look, they kicked it out of the end zone. You coming out with it.

Hey, you know how the kickoff team, they get points for sprinting the end zone? Yes. Yes. Every team we played, they were getting points because, listen, they had to sprint to that end zone because they knew I was coming out. So what would you say are, what's the best attribute to have if you are a returner? Is it speed?

Is it vision? Is it quickness? Is it elusiveness? What's the number one thing you need? I would say it's hard to narrow it down to one. Okay. Because you've got to have these three. Okay, give me your most important.

Okay, if there's four or five of them, give me the list of importance going one through five. So what's the number one thing you need? Vision. Okay, vision, one. Two, speed. Okay. Three, the heart of the lion.

Okay. You know what I mean? A lot of people got speed. A lot of people got vision. But when it's time to hit that hole, and you got 100 people coming, and then you looking up in the sky and that ball hanging for, you got four or five seconds and you clock. You know what I mean?

You got four or five seconds to catch the ball, and that ball hanging on six seconds. Hey, you looking up,, you look it up. A lot of people throw their hand up. They going to throw their hand up. You have to be right. Then you go back in the field room, and you put your hand on it. You got the closest guy 10 yards from you.

Right. They're like, what you doing? Man, listen, that ball was hanging too long, man. you doing? Man, listen, that ball was hanging too long, man. So what was of your returns, what was the return? Because I remember you played

a game against the Broncos, and the Broncos were winning the entire game. They were dominating. And then all of a sudden, they made a mistake. And they kicked two of them to you. And you brought them both back. If you have a game, what's your favorite game in which you brought a putt back or a kick return back?

I would say probably my rookie year, man, against Arizona. Okay. That's when Denny King had that incident where he said they thought who he said it was and he let him off the hook. You made him say that was you that caused that. Oh, yeah. I caused a lot of things in the league, Shannon. Oh yeah. I crossed a lot of players in the league, Shannon. But yeah, man, I will say that game, because we went into the halftime down three to like 24, man.

Right. We was beating out behind. You know what I mean? And then that's the time where that 2006 season where we kind of depending on the defense and the special team. Right. on the defense and the special team, they pretty much carried us all the way to the Super Bowl. So offense was struggling, and them boys came out and had a great game plan and put 24 points up quick on us. So we went in the half, man, and, you know, as the veteran guys kind of brought all the guys up and said,

man, listen, we continue to fight, man. We got a special team here. We continue to fight. We're going to pull it out. Man, the defense started clicking, getting turned over left and right, and then, shoot, two minutes, two, three minutes left in the game. We're going to pull it out. The defense started clicking again, turn over left and right. And then, shoot, two, three minutes left in the game. We're down

four or five points. It's punt return call. I'm looking like it's my time to put on a show now. Let me ask you a question. Let's just say for the sake of argument, you're down, as you mentioned, you're down less than a touchdown. You're like, man, we need a spark. Do you say to yourself subconsciously,

I need to make it happen, or you just let it happen? You're like, I just do my thing, just let it happen organically. Are you telling yourself, I need to make a play here? No, I'm telling myself, I can't wait for something like this to happen. I can't wait for us to be down four or five points, and we need a big spark. I don't want to be blowing the team out. I want to be in a moment where I want to be that guy that say,

boy, listen, we need to touch that right now. We're down. There's two minutes left to go in the game. Who are we going to depend on? Shoot. We got this here. Right. That's the type of player I wanted to be my whole life,

and I always look back saying, listen, man, there's only two or three players that I know as a kid that determines the outcome of the game. I want to make one of those plays. Right. When you go back and you're a returner and you play without pads, you had no thigh pads, you played with no knee pads, why as a returner? I was a dog.

I didn't care. I didn't care about getting hit. I just felt like I was Superman, to be honest, man. I didn't fear nobody. Right. And I was the type be honest man I didn't fear nobody and I was the type of player where I would mean more the sideline and look at the coach like I dare you to kick it to me

and before the ball is kicked I'm on they sideline staring at them like I wish I would kick it to me that's how much confidence I played with man and so your teammates know like it's one thing playing you know with a Hall of Fame quarterback, John Elway.

I just knew I felt very comfortable on a given Sunday that, hey, we're going to be okay. When they have you as the returner, they're like, man, we good. If we can get these guys backed up knowing that he can't angle it, he just got to get it out, we got Devin Hester back there. Night, night. backed up knowing that he can't angle it. He just got to get it out.

We got Devin Hester back there. Night, night. Night, night. Night playing Mike Tyson in the prime. Night, night. Coach, you don't realize when teams did kick to me, the ratio was every three kicks I touched, one I was going to the house.

Right. I was that to the house. Right. I was that hot my first two years. Out of three kicks, one I was guaranteed to go to the house. That was the ratio. Right. Just imagine if I got these teams to kick me all 11 years of me playing. How my stats would be? Crazy, man.

You got to realize. I had like seven, eight returns called back that don't even count in my stats. Right. Well, I was ready for that don't even count in my stats. Right. Well, I was ready for them kickoff and punt returns. So, if I said you could only choose one, kickoff or punt returns, which one would you choose? I like punt returns. Why do you like them?

Because I can be myself. I can be myself, right? Right. So, kickoff return, we all know, sideline right, sideline left for middle return. Right. Shoot, punt return, I can put myself, right? So kickoff return, we all know sideline right, sideline left for middle return. Right. Shoot, punt return, I can put a little cranberry juice and a little crystal hot sauce on that, you know what I mean, and do what I do

and then go back to the return. Right. Let's just say for the sake of argument, Devin, we call a right return. And a lot of times, I don't know how you guys did it, but we would set up the return towards our sideline. Because if you set it up to their sideline, they're going to be calling it out.

So we normally set the return up to our sideline so it was going to be quiet. But the returner, we never had a returner like you. Did you automatically like, okay, we got a right return. I got to make sure I get to the right. Or you say, you know what? I'm going to trick them. I'm going to do a you say, you know what? I'm going to trick them. I'm going to do a little dancing over here, pretend like I'm going to go left.

I'm going to start left a little ways, knowing that you're going to get back to the right. Oh, yeah. See, when me and Coach, they built a relationship where he really had confidence in me and was able for me to voice my opinion. I say, listen, whenever you want a touchdown, just double the gunners. I don't give a damn about them fat boys up front. Right.

Double the gunners and let me get started. I'm going to do what I do. Let all the returns go to the field. You let all the returns go to the field, I'm going to find me a hole. Right. Because I'm going to create one. Right. Double the gunners.

I don't care about no fat boy. Leave the punter and the lone snapper. Do not block them two. That's a waste of a time. Do not block the lone boy. Leave the punter and the long snapper. Do not block them two. That's a waste of time. Do not block the long snapper or the punter. Now we got to ask the guy to block him. So now that you mentioned that, which is worse? Getting tackled by the long snapper or the punter or getting halted?

Which one is worse? Yes. Getting halted. Which one is worse? Yes. Getting hot. Man, come on, man. Listen, if you get hot, you know, man, listen, that sticks. That sticks to a person like a fat person. You can't get hot. I don't care who it is.

Right. So you can say the punter had the angle on me. He pushed me out of bounds. He really didn't make the tackle. But what about the long snapper? Long snapper, tackle you. Same thing. He's just going to try to wall you and push you out of bounds.

Ain't nobody tackling you. You know what I mean? They're just going to play the angle. You know what I mean? And hope somebody hurry up and come before I run past them. So what was your thought? You get a kicker. Let's just say you're five yards away from the kicker.

What's going through your mind? Are you like, okay, I'm going to stutter him. I'm going to play it to the field and come back to the sideline. What's your thought process? How are you setting him up? I'm going to eat this ground up. I'm going to eat this ground up. I'm finna eat this cushion up. Because when I get

up on him so fast, he's just going to sit right there. He's going to sit. Like a lot of speed guys, they try to take an angle too early. No, I'm eating up his cushion. I'm trying to get... So in other words, you're keeping that straight stem. You're keeping it right at him.

I'm going to go right at him. Straight at him. So I get about two or three yards from at it. I'm gonna go right at him straight at him. So I get about two three yards from denim stick one way in the model up. He gonna sit. He might sit down. I don't have a couple point of color. I get up on and they sit right down on his butt. Can't go nowhere. I mean, if you think about it,

team's not kicking you mentioned teams that wouldn't kick you to football. We had the Jordan rules. They have the book came out. They would walk Barry Bonds. You know, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, we got to keep those guys on the sideline and make sure they don't have the ball. Think about it. Teams said, we are not kicking the ball to Devin Hester.

We either kick it out of bounds or he's not touching the ball. So we take the penalty as opposed to kicking it to Devin Hester on the kickoff, or we just going to put it out of bounds. Forget that hanging it up there for four or five seconds. No. Put it out of bounds. Kick it out of bounds. Most definitely, man.

You know, we even made commercials in Chicago. I'm kicking the ball in the lake, Michigan Lake. You got boats out there waiting on the ball to come. Like, we knew what team was getting, man. Like, I even had punters come up to me before the game, doing pregame warm-up, like, man, you finna mess my stats up today. I was

averaging 48 yards a punt. Now I'm finna drop to 32 because I gotta keep the ball out of bounds 20 yards. Right. So, so, returner. You can play DB in college.

You played a little wide receiver. And then you kind of transitioned since. I want more. Yeah, I love returning punts and kicks. But I believe I can do a little bit more on offense. What made you come to that decision that says, I want to do more? It was because I wanted to be honest. Coach Lovey brought that to my attention the minute they

started kicking away from him and he was like devon to be honest with you man you're probably and it gotta be in the top two top three most dynamic player with the ball in your hand in the national football league right now teams are kicking it out of bounds i gotta find a way to get the ball in your hands so the only way way I can do that to move you over the offense, right? And that's why I got move over the offense because the punters and the team start kicking the ball to me. They'll kick it to me. I don't just been I'll probably stay that corner and been playing straight park turn

kickoff turn, right? But it also helped the contract because you say like I'm not just a returner. You know, I'm on the offense to not say y'all. Hey, y'all need to factor that into that contract also. That's when I got that contract, when they moved me over to offense. Let's go back to your younger years. You grew up in Florida. You lost your father to cancer. Your mom was seriously injured in an automobile accident.

So was football, was sports an outlet for you to deal with the pain and the trauma that you were going through as a young man? I would say so, man. Like, to be honest, I got attached to a guy by the name of Mr. Thompson at first, which was he worked at a boys' girl club. Okay. The boys' girl club was right across the street from me. Okay.

They knew my situation, right? So they knew my situation with my mom. They knew my father passed when I was young. So we didn't have to pay to go. So, right, we just jumped the gate and we just blend in with the rest of the kids. And so we played football and all that from the moment we got out of school to the time to go to sleep, you know. So the passion of football, man, and the neighborhood I grew up in, that's all we did. Right. So that's all I knew was in, that's all we did. Right.

So that's all I knew was football. Football and all we did. Football, played football, and went outside and flipped. Back flips and all that type of stuff. Right. So, obviously, you're a great high school player. You get an opportunity to go to the U. I'm sure you had other opportunities.

What made you decide to go to the University of Miami? Man, a lot of people that was in my situation where your mama made you go. My mama made me go to Miami. You know what I mean? It was a couple of schools I wanted to go to, but my mama was like, listen here, we ain't got no money for no flights. We ain't

got no money for no traveling. Plus ain't got no money for no traveling. And then plus my brother played at FIU. Right. So FIU was like a 10-minute drive from our campus. So we was able to be close to each other. Me and my brother was able to be close to each other. And then, you know, at the same time, there was a winning program. And like I said, it was ranked in the top three, top four in the nation.

So at the end of the day, man, it was a great decision. I feel that, you know, me being close to home and being close to everybody. So that was the reason why I went to the U. You said there were other schools that you wanted to go to. What were some of the schools that Devin Hester wanted to go to, wanted to attend? I wanted to go to either NC State at the time.

They had Phillip Rivers. Right. And they were at the time, they were ranked like in the top 14 15 in the nation and i knew i was gonna come in right there and play right away right i knew that you know what i mean that was it wasn't it wasn't a thought about it you know going to like miami and stuff like that you know with those type of guys you're gonna have to sit out of here it ain't number five star players in that locker room. You know what I mean?

So to go to a top 15 ranked team, they just lost the position that you coming in to fill in and be that main guy. And they already told me, listen, you can't hear your brother coming. Y'all good. So I wanted to go to NC State. That was my number one school. But at the end, Miami offered me like when I was a freshman in high school, man. So I felt like I had to kind of be loyal to those guys.

And I had a cousin that played for them too. So it was in my blood to go there. There's a story, and you can expand on this, that you had to sit out your first year at the University of Miami because they believed you didn't take the SAT. Tell the story. So that story went

down like, you know, like when you start getting notarized, right? Okay, you let that athlete say, oh wow, this kid here got potential. They started making you take the SAT early. You don't wait until your senior year. So I started doing the prep for my sophomore year, took the test my junior year. Right. They started making you take SAT early. You don't wait until your senior year. Right. So I started doing the prep in my sophomore year, took the test in my junior year. Right.

Got a score qualified, GPA, everything qualified. So my whole senior year, now all I had to do was work on my GPA. All my test scores and everything was done. I didn't worry about taking it. I didn't take no SAT or nothing my whole senior year. Right. Got my test scores back and everything. So if your SAT gets questioned, I don't know if y'all know

this, but if your SAT score get questioned, you do not get it back. They send you a letter in the mail saying we found some suspicious things going on. We want you to retake it. I got my SAT scores back. So my whole senior, I was qualified. GPA was like a 3.1,

3.1, 3.2. So I was good. No worry about no school or nothing so on my college visit um i don't know if you know that story but the only school in that alphabet scholarship was sc that's the only school i never i got never got a four right everybody else i could have went to right um so i went on a college visit and um one of the coaches wanted me real bad so i I promised him I would take a visit, you know, because you get five visits. So I promised I would take a visit there, you know, and visit him and really give him a shot

because he really was trying hard to get me. And then when that time got close to announce where I was going, I said, Coach, you know, I say out of all the recruiters, you know what I mean, you was the one that was really, really working hard to get me. I appreciate your situation and what you were trying to do but i'm gonna go ahead and sign with universal mind so he got upset he started calling my phone every every two hours going off so i said you know what this getting out of hand i'm gonna let you deal my parent because at first

i was dealing with i ain't tell my mama about i was dealing with him and so i said you know what i'm gonna go ahead and let my mama do this is for some my mama got phone she went off on him and he called one more time I asked her phone he said you know what if you don't call here I promise you you would never sit down a football in your life so that's when I said man you threatening me so I hung up on them we blocked a phone them all that I get to the University of Miami after signing with them i check in the dorm room everything i'm good everything um the next day for practice my counselor come to me he said devin we got a problem i said what's going on he said some some

leaks some stuff going on with the ncaa about you there's nothing you should have to worry about now you good and so they uh when i got down there we got on the phone with ncaa they said it's been some some phone calls about questioning your sat scores and i said okay well what's the problem they said with your answers man somebody that's sitting beside you answers and i said well what did they get and they they had like a, I think they scored like an 880. I said, well, what did I get? I think I scored like a 970. Right.

So I said, well, who was cheating on who paper then? If he scored an 880, I scored a 970. My score is higher than his. Who y'all think cheating? They said, they feel like you were cheating.

So it was up to the universe of mind to say, you know what, we're going to disregard that. Because it was up to the University of Miami to say, you know what, we're going to disregard that. Because it was up to the University of Miami to say, we're going to set these scores whether or not or not. Because right now, y'all don't have no proven fact. So Miami was at a point when they went to the national championship in Ohio State, and they lost in Ohio State.

So if I would have played that year and they would have kept investigating, if they would have found something that was out of the ordinary, Miami would have been suspended. So they would have found something that was out of the ordinary, Miami would have been suspended. So Miami said, you know what? We can take a risk and just let you play, and then week six or seven, they come back and say it's not right, or we can sit you out and then you just come back the next year and play. And so when that happened, I had a bunch of teams like,

listen, we are ready. You dug into that situation. We're ready to take it. There's nothing they can do about that situation. You got your scores. You scored higher than that person. There's nothing they can do about it. But Miami said, no, we're not going to do it.

And then I told them about the situation, and they were like, listen, Dad, we just got too much to lose. I will promise you this. If you just have faith in us next year and you come in, we will not give your jersey away. So they sent my jersey number four up because everybody was trying to get it. They said, no, we're not going to hand out a jersey. We're going to show him that we're loyal and we'll bring him in next year.

And that's what happened. So you believe that that coach or the recruit at USC, you believe he had something to do with this? No, no, not USC because USC didn't recruit me. Okay. USC never, they, USC was the only school that didn't offer me a scholarship out of all the colleges. Was the only school, but it was a college

that I was, you know, getting recruited by. Right. You don't want to reveal that college? You've been sitting on that. Yeah, I'm good. I'm just going to let that go. I did, I went my first time, I touched the ball in the on that. I'm good, man. Yeah, I'm good. I'm just going to let that go. I did – my first time I touched the ball in the Orange Bowl, I took it 92 yards back for a touchdown, right? I took my helmet off, stared in the camera, right?

I just wanted him to look me in my face. That's all. That's why I did that. If you go back – my first time touching the ball in the Orange Bowl, I took a 92-yard kickoff back. Open the kickoff for the game. Yep. I took my helmet off,

one of the hands on, looking at, looking in the camera, stared at it just so he could see my face. That's how I got him back though. So we good now. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL daily with Greg Rosenthal.

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Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You didn't play your entire, you didn't, so you weren't allowed to practice. Were you allowed to meet?

Were you allowed to go in the cafeteria with the players? How did you stay in shape? So basically you were like a just regular college student. I didn't even go to school. I didn't even go to school. I didn't go to school man. I went home. Wow. I went home.

I went home man. Listen, that drive home man felt like I was getting sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison man. Like, it was like my whole life was just gone. And it was like, it ain't nothing i can do about it man when i pulled up to my driveway man and looked at the front door and just thought about like man everybody that come from this era if you don't go to college man you know what's gonna happen to you you finna get caught up right you finna get caught up man and. You finna get caught up, man, and just looking at that door, I said, boy, it's over for me.

So I literally, like, I literally, like, when I got in that, once I walked through that door, man, I went in my room, closed the door. I don't think I ate or slept for, like, two, three weeks straight. I did not come out the room for a whole month. My mama made me shit like that. You got to get up, man. You got to get up, baby. You can't do this.

You cannot do this. You got to fight, man. Like, I get up, baby. You can't do this. You cannot do this. You got to fight, man. I stayed in the room for two, three weeks straight without eating. And then come out the room for a whole month. I was sick, man.

Everything I worked for got taken away just like that, that easy. Right. I was hurting, man. So your mom said, Deb, you can't just give up.

You gotta fight. So once she tells you that, now what's your thought process? I gotta train, I gotta make sure that when I go back, I'm in shape, I'm ready to go. To say, let them know that I haven't been just sitting around. Right.

So what happened was my mom called my high school coach and was like, man, y'all gotta find something for them to do to the time for them go back so my coach man he was like hey man listen we need to work you say brain you so god kept everything brain you so the president you help me and come practice with you give us work and while you give another work you're gonna get to keep yourself in shape so i started going back to my high school and being on the scout team to make those guys better man. And not only did I make them better, I was able to stay in shape. Right.

And that's how I really stayed in shape, man. I went back to high school, man. I had to graduate and went back practicing with them being on the scout team man. So what's the best feeling? Pump return touchdown, kick return touchdown, interception, rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown.

But I said, Devin, this is one. You will have one of these today. Which one you want? Punk return. Punk return. Punk return touchdown. That's your bag, the Punk return TD. Yeah.

Punk return touchdown, man, because, you know, in a sense, you can pick it and ramp 12, 13 yards at the end of the punt return, man. You out there in the middle of nowhere by yourself, and when that ball get in your hand, there's a thousand people around you. And when you come up out that hole and you hit that sideline, and then you show them folks how really fast you will, and you open up while somebody's sitting up in the hot stand, and they see how fast you're really running.

Oh, yeah. That's what I like to show. You told the story earlier about how you didn't get an opportunity to play much your junior year on the defensive side of football. You were mainly a returner because the coach didn't like some of the things that had transpired your sophomore year with the accolades that you had started to receive. So you make the decision that you're going to come out.

You go to the combine. You run 4-4 and some Nike Air Max and you pull a hamstring. You're like, damn, of all the things that could have happened. I didn't really play. I didn't play at all on the defensive side of football. And now here I am at the combine and I pull up. No, no. I pulled up. I had a poor hamstring am at the combine and I pull up no no I pull I pulled up I had a poor hamstring going into the okay so that's why I wasn't supposed to run right that's why I didn't

bring no cleats okay because I won't I told him that you know my pro days in two weeks man I just tweaked my hammy man I'm not ready to run and when i got him aboard the press conference and you know we had i had my interview with all the teams and um the biggest thing with me what is he going to run in the 40 that was my biggest that was everybody wanted to really see me going into the drive right was how fast this this kid is really is and so when i told them i wasn't running at the combine boy it got so quiet and there they're like but this is not this is not good news so after leaving the press conference my agent blowing me up he said listen man i don't know what you're gonna do but listen these folks want to see you run man i don't i

know i don't know how bad it is but listen just do it so i said you know what all right i'm just i'm gonna have to just come out come out slow and just roll into it. Right. And that's what I did. I came out slow and rolled into it and just tried to kick it at the end. And I ended up running like 4-4 flat and then two weeks later I ended up running a 4-2 son at the pro day. So I was able to

make it up. So if you had run at the combine and Devin Hester is fully healthy, how fast do you believe you ran that 40 that day? Oh, and it'd be the 4-2. And it'd be the 4-2. So if I take Devin Hester at his prime

and I take Tyreek at his prime, who went in the 40? Man, Tyreek ran what? 4-3 side? See, Tyreek is a track guy. He's a track guy, right? I'm a football speed. I ain't no track guy, but 40-yard

guy? Man, listen, man. I ran the fastest 10-yard split in Miami history. I ran a 1-3-4 in a 10-yard. My freshman year, bro, they would not tell me my time in the 40 because they said I was too young. DJ William, if you know DJ William. We was getting my time in the 40 because they said I was too young. I used to be DJ William if you know DJ William.

We was getting clocked running the 40. They told me that the time that I ran was never ran as a true friend, so they did not tell me what my time was. I was running 4-3-3s at a sophomore high school at a nightclub. Man, I knew I would have ran every bit of 4-2. So you believe

in your prime you to beat Tyreek in the 40? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Man. That would have been a good one right there. Oh, yeah, man. Every bit of 4-2, man. So, you get to the league. Obviously, you wish you'd had

the situation now where you could have had any number you want through 1-49 because you'd have had number 4 and the Chicago number. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was going to get that four. So your TD celebration,

what goes into a debit? Because you did a lot of the celebration you did with Deion was the imitation of Deion. What made you decide to do that dance? Time with Deion Sanders, went to Florida State, the Seminoles. Correct.

You go to Florida, you got – had some serious – that was a serious rivalry. Back in from the 80s to the 90s, y'all don't even really play each other. Both teams are falling on hard times now. So what made you decide to do that celebration? Man, like at the end of the day, like, true Florida football players, we just respect the OGs that play the game the right way. Okay.

So, D was a person that was from Florida that everybody respected, regardless of what team he went to. D actually started mentoring me when I was in college. Okay. You know, like, we was texting back and forth when I was in college as a mentor, you know what I mean?

So this wasn't something that happened once I got in the league. Right. My first part one touchdown, I was high-stepping. So this was my favorite player from part one, you know what I mean? So it was only, you know, it only fell for me to continue to do it, man, because that's why I wanted to be grown up. Obviously, you go to the Bears, your rookie year, they have an outstanding season, end up going to the Super Bowl.

Did you, when you're on that team and you're in training camp and you're going through the season, did you think you guys had a Super Bowl caliber team? I would say when we start feeling like that, it had to be like week eight eight or nine I think we had we we went in like week eight or nine we were like eight and one like we were rolling defense I never seen the NFL where at halftime starting defense take out their shoulder pad and it's a regular season game right now preseason I have have regular season game and you put up 48 48 points on the team 48 0 and at halftime you

taking all your shoulder pack. You know, you had something special. Did were you surprised that coach Dungey kicked actually kicked you the ball in the Super Bowl knowing what you had done in the

regular season where you like I know I know good and well they just didn't kick me this ball. I think it was a pride thing with that situation. I think they were just prideful. You know, because it was in the paper all week. You know, we read

papers a lot about what teams are going to do as far as kicking the ball because that was always the number one key to success of being the Bears was kicking. What are they going to do? what they're going to kick it or not. So we read the papers the whole week. And, you know, like one day they said they're doing it. Then the next day they said they decided not to. They didn't have a good day in private on special teams.

So leading up to the game, apparently Coach Dunning got in the locker room and the players told him that, you know what I mean, if we don't kick it to him, you I mean if we don't kick it to him you just if we don't kick it to them you just telling us that you don't have faith in us so they put his back against the wall. So they gassed him up. Yeah they gassed him up. I appreciate it though. But after that I appreciate it. But after that they didn't kick it to you again. No more man. So you you get the opening kickoff you take it back what's going through your mind you like you not only we win this game I'm gonna be the MVP I just took

the opening kickoff back that ain't happened before ooh I'm about cause you know once you get that first one early you thinking I might get two of these things I might get three of these things now listen I ain't got to the sideline and the media do it I say how much is didn't you

pay for the MVP I'll get ready go to dinner or said hey I'm sorry I'm what they pay for the MVP so now all of a sudden they start kicking the ball away so when team will start kicking the ball away, did you get frustrated? How did you remain composed? How did you remain like, well, and not force it? Because a lot of times guys try to do too much. You see all of a sudden they start, they don't punt the ball to you,

they don't kick the ball to you, and then all of a sudden in a situation where you should fair catch it or you should let the ball go into the end zone, you start to press trying to do too much. Yeah, I did. I went through that phase where I started doing that, and I caused, like, one or two fumbles, one or two turnovers, you know what I mean? And then I got pulled to the side of my coach,

like, listen, man, you got to take what they give you. You cannot force nothing in the NFL because you're going to cause us to lose a game. And that was hard for me because I'm used to, you know what I mean, these kick-off knee punts, man, and then all of a sudden, you know what I mean, you just take me out of the game. I go in the locker room after the game with a clean uniform on. I ain't like that.

I want to see some dirty things on my pants, man. So you end up transitioning. You're doing some wide receiver, doing your full-time duties. How difficult was it? Or were you getting some wide receiver? Because I'm assuming that on scout team, you were a wide receiver because that's the way it normally works.

Guys that are not starters, they're the show team or what we call the scout team for the starting offense or the starting defense. So did you, I'm assuming that you played wide receiver or were you playing defense on the scout team? Listen, Coach, you gotta realize, back in the day, I was

Chicago's secret weapon. So, scout team was a way of me getting hurt. So, when that temperature, you know I'm from Florida. So, when that temperature dropped like 50 degrees and the team warmed up, I'm in the bubble catching punts the whole practice. What? And when that whistle blew, I come out there and we break it up

and I go in the locker room. That was – hold up. Man, what kind of job you had? How you going to be in the bubble catching punts? Then they call you out there to catch punts when the special teams are up, and then you're in the locker room. But listen, I was a secret weapon back in the day. Listen, honest truth.

We did team warm-up, team stretch. Once it hit 50, once they break it up, the individual, me and like two other little equipment, ball guys, we going straight to the bubble. And then he, I catch about 200, 300 punts. So then I tell him, man, listen, give me a heads up when 15 men left over with practice. They call on the walker, talk.

Hey, we got 10 more minutes left. We start making our way back to the field. So that was what you – man, you – so that's why you was fresh on Sunday. You ain't do nothing but catch points and kick off in the bubble and then come Sunday, your legs super-duper fresh. Fresh. Catching points and doing them sit-ups, man, in the bubble.

So, Dev, you mentioned your mom, and I think you said you have two other brothers, right? I got one. I got an older brother and a younger sister. Oh, your older brother and younger sister. So you get this big contract. Obviously, coming from the situation, a lot of us professional athletes come from very similar situations. What was one of the things that you say, you know what,

if I ever get me some money, I'm going to get this. And when you got that money, you got that. Yeah. First thing I did was I built my mom a house. Okay. Because I knew at the end of the day, boy, all this money running out, I got somewhere to stay. I got somewhere to go.

Yeah, yeah. You got to get mama and granny a place. place i go hey come to show up i go on back in that back room granny exactly listen i bought i built my mom my house and i built a special stair staircase stairway up to my room i had a i built a room just for me in that house just in case just in case I built a room just for me in that house. Just in case. Just in case. What was the worst thing? You like, you wanted it and then you got it.

You like, man, what the hell was I thinking getting this? Man, a motorcycle. Hey, don't nobody know it, but hey listen, I got a motorcycle my second year in the league, man. Snuck it. I had it in the garage. Me and two other teammates. I ain't going to say no name because I don't want to get nobody in trouble.

But really, they can't do nothing right now because we ain't get hurt or nothing. But I bought a motorcycle, man. Listen, I used to set my alarm for like 3 o'clock in the morning. Straight to the highway. One, one. I was just, I was adrenaline, man. I just love speed, man. Right. You all were on a motorcycle when you were young?

Yeah, because that's all we did. In the neighborhood I grew up in, they all, everybody had dirt bikes, go-go cars, you know, four-wheelers. Right. I said, bro, if we get some money, I'm finna get me a dirt bike or a four-wheeler, a motorcycle or something.

You mentioned that, back to the field, you mentioned that Lovey Smith, your head coach at the time, said, Devin, they're not kicking the ball to you. We need to find a way to make sure that you get an opportunity to get the ball. So he says, you know what, would you be, probably ask you, like, would you be interested in trying to get wide receiver? What was the most difficult thing?

Because as you mentioned, you were mainly just catching punts in the bubble, catching kickoffs in the bubble, and then when practice was almost over, you'd go back out there. So what was the toughest part about transitioning? Because playing college wide receiver is one thing. Playing wide receiver in the NFL is a totally different ball game. It's totally different than game. It's totally different than PC. People don't know

that. If you haven't played a game of football, then you don't know how. You just think you can just transition all of a sudden. That's like Tebow trying to transition tight end. You've got to be doing this stuff since Park Warner, man. At least high school. You know what I mean? I didn't play

no wide receiver in high school or Park Warner and maybe two games in Right. You know what I mean? So I didn't play no wide receiver in high school, and maybe two games in college. That's all I played wide receiver. So me going over to wide receiver was like me transferring over to playing hockey. I had no clue where to line up at. Right. You know what I mean?

I ain't no two yards split outside the number is what you run when you line up when you run the curl route. These are the things that people do. They learn this in high school. I had learned the basics of yrc so me trying to do that at the highest level of football you know i mean i was like that my head was spinning man right and then people don't realize bro when i when i moved to yrc i went through like i like eight years we had like six new offensive coordinators right so I couldn't for me trying to figure out where to line up the other part was learning the playbook right you know I mean the basics because like I said out of eight years in Chicago playing wide receiver we had like six

different offensive coordinators so every year you got a new offensive playbook coming in right and you're way behind and guys if people don't understand. It's a different game. They're putting hands on you in the NFL. They're not just letting you run down the field. Exactly. Now that you're not used to press release and all that. You know what I mean? I was able to put a little bit because

of the speed and the talent that I had, but shoot, man, it was a nice dogfight for me out there. You once said Jay Cutler is the worst leader you've ever played with. Why would you say that? I think just because his leadership, you know what I mean? I had an interview with this earlier, about three, four years ago. And what people didn't say, they said what they wanted to say about the situation,

how the interview went, but they didn't say the part where I said, to me, out of all the quarterbacks I played with and experience being around, to me, Jay Cutler had the – he had – knowledge of the game was better than anybody. His own strength of the game was better than anybody. His accuracy was better than anybody I His own strength for the game was better than anybody. His accuracy was better than anybody I ever played with. All the tools, athletic-wise, he was an athletic quarterback. People don't realize it.

Jake can shake, Jake can run, Jake can play basketball, Jake can do everything. It's just the leadership he lacked. And that's why, you know what I mean, people judge him off what he is right now, because the leadership, he just didn't know how to associate with the player. He did not

bond everybody together and be that that leader that a quarterback is what when it comes to vocal and pick, you know, picking everybody's spirit up when they've been down. I need somebody like quarterback should be that guy that gives you confident, right? That's what he'd like. It seems to me from the outside looking in, and it might not be true, but he looked like a guy that didn't love the game of football.

And if you don't, I'm sure there have been guys, but you got to fool them. Those guys in the locker room that are around you every day, Dev, you know this. You can't fool them. Now, they might can fool the media. They might can fool the fans because the media only gets access to you 30 minutes a day. The fans only see you on television if they come to the media. They might can fool the fans because the media only gets access to you 30 minutes a day.

The fans only see you on television if they come to the stadium. But when you around a guy 9, 10 hours a day, 6, 7 days a week, 3, 4, 5, 10 years, the guys know you. And you can't fool them. You can't fool them. You can't fool your teammates.

You can fool a lot of other people, but you can't fool them. Yeah. I would say he didn't... You can't fool them. You can't fool your teammates. You can fool a lot of other people, but you can't fool them. Right. Yeah. I would say he didn't – I feel like he loved the game. But like I say, I don't know how he was raised. Right. But he is like – he's like standoffish. Like he's like was the only kid in the house.

You know what I mean? Like if you have a kid, you didn't have no friends. Right. I don't know what it was, but didn't never open up right to nobody but he made like one two guys that he talked to right and other than that he he singled out himself away from everybody right yeah you know what i mean so it was hard you know what i mean for a court for for you know offensive to listen and and and and bind in with him because he just kept himself away from everybody man

and wasn't wasn't friendly about it but his relationship he knew Brandon Marshall from Denver and he threw Brandon a lot of balls

when he was in Denver Brandon comes to Chicago he throws me the more balls did you feel that had some impact? Oh, yeah, most definitely. That relationship they had, man, it was like they had a relationship where, what I can say, they was almost like brothers.

You know what I mean? They, he was, Jay was used to Brandon Marshall, the type of ways he was. He was, I think they was, Jay was a little afraid of Brandon. They would get in arguments in practice and be Marshall and get a certain amount of balls in practice. And he would go off on Jay and they would sit down or I go back and forth and cause a big scene it's crazy ever had a bit and price was one day you know cuz all I did

at that time I was just doing kickoff a pun return so I'm gonna I'm on the defense sideline watching and I say Julie's you want to make a bet so he looked at me you know Julie kind of quiet he looked at me. You know, Julie's kind of quiet. He looked at me. What's up? I said, listen, if Jay Cutler throws Brandon Marshall the ball, because I seen him arguing before practice. I already knew what time it was. Jay was throwing him the ball the whole practice. I said, if Jay throws B. Marshall the ball, I'll give you $100.

Every time he's throwing the ball, right? No, I said, no, no, no, no. I said, if he don't. No, I said, Drew, if Jay throws B. throwing the ball, right? No, I said, if he don't, no, I said, if Jay throws B. Marshall the ball, you got to give me $50, right? If he don't throw it to B. Marshall, I give you $100. So now you got the upper hand. If he don't throw it to B. Marshall, I'm going to give you $100. But every time he throws it to B. Marshall, you got to give me $50.

He looked at me and he said, okay, I like that bet. But this jugger threw to B. wash over 20 times in a row. It got to the point where the whole, like, down to the height, the receiver to the other side didn't even wanna route. We just looking. He just looking at the beam wash. Beam wash ain't even open.

10 seconds go by. He throw it to him. This 10, this like, really 10 seconds. I ain't saying like over exaggerate. Like jammed up. He covered. He coming back to the B-Martial. Like it got to the point where we looking at the coach like,

are y'all really letting this go on? Y'all not going to say anything, huh? Y'all just going to let this happen. Y'all just going to let this happen. And it was one of the moments where him and B-Martial got into it before Pride and that's how Pride just went. So it's almost like B. Marshall was doing that on purpose, getting

an argument, knowing that Jay gonna feed him. He gonna feed him. He gonna feed him. You played with Matt Ryan, you went to Atlanta, played with Matt Ryan and Julio? Mm-hmm. What do you think of their combination? Play with Jay

and B. Marshall, Matt Ryan and Julio. Who had the better combination? I think Matt had the better combination with Julio because both of them had that mentality where they had issues, right? With B. Marsh again, man, he ain't getting a certain amount of ball. Julio was fine. As long as we win the game, you know what I mean? I know sometimes I'm going to get double covered.

I need some of these other receivers to eat. So, next game, I can get my shot. Right. B. Marshall was the type where I don't care if I get double covered. You better throw me the ball. Right. And then Jay had his, the way he was, and would just open himself up with people. And then Matt was a person Matt Ryan was a person he didn't give it down

Who thought he threw the ball to I'm gonna take what a defense give me, right? So that's why when I got the Atlanta like shoot I had to split Rick Russ with the slot receiver man Harry Douglas was spitting reps and Both of us had over 600 yards a year So imagine one of us would have been playing with a he had over 600 yards a year. So it matters. One of us would have just been playing. We would have easily had over 1,200 yards just in the slot position, the third and two. Right.

Because he was the type of quarterback. I'm going to throw it to what they give me. So what do you think Julio is going to do? Obviously, he's no longer in Atlanta. It was a big situation. He no longer wanted to be there. He felt like they didn't want him there. They felt he didn't want to be there.

What do you expect from Julio in Tennessee this year? I it's hard to say because you sit down watch the game, you know what I mean? And he I don't think he's getting targets like he was and Alana, you know what I mean? And then you got your other receiver, Joan, AJ, AJ Brown, Brian, he hurt. He hurt right now, too, man.

So I thought that Julio was going to get off this year, especially with him having Darren Henry. Yes. They got to drop that eight-and-a-half to stop that run. You got to stack the box with him. I mean, like, everybody's kind of disappointed and surprised about that situation over there. Everybody thought both of them receivers were going to get off this year.

Let's go to Chicago. The situation that they have going on now. They've been, they haven't been, they've gone to the playoffs a couple times, but they're not what we expect the Bears to be. They got a situation where they signed Andy Dalton in free agency. They trade up the draft, Justin Fields, and they have a former Super Bowl MVP on the roster, Nick Foles. Do you think they're handling this situation correctly?

Who do you believe should be playing? Say that one more time. Sorry about that. Say that one more time. Look at the Chicago Bears situation and the quarterback situation. You sign Andy Dalton in free agency in the offseason. You trade up in the draft to get Justin Fields. You also have a former Super Bowl MVP

and Nick Foles on your roster. Now, you're looking at the offensive line. It isn't very good. I like Robinson. I like Robinson. He's okay. You got tight end. You got Jimmy Graham, who's I like Robinson. He's okay. You got tight end, you got Jimmy Graham,

who's at the tail end of his career. You got Gmet, who's a very good tight end. Of the three quarterbacks, who do you believe should be starting right now? Justin Fields, Andy Dalton, or Nick Foles? It's tough, you know what I mean, with that situation, man, because for one, you put too many quarterbacks in one pot. You know what I mean?

You got to pick one and then have the other one be really, really true backup quarterback. Right. When you bring in two quarterbacks that have potentially showed that they're starting quarterbacks in the league, and then you move up and draft your first draft pick, a high draft pick, and a quarterback right it's like putting a cat in the room with with six pit bulls you know what i mean right it ain't gonna be pretty you know what i mean so that situation that it it it it it caused a controversy you know what i mean from the start right and so like now you you have the

fans that have their favorites you know what i mean So when you go to a preseason game, you get Nick Foles coming up, and he throw a pass to the running back, and they want to see a pass down the field, and the running back catch the ball, and they steady booing him. Right. So how do you think he feels? You know what I mean? And then you got the fans, which seems like they love fields better.

Right. So now, as a coach, you don't really know what to do. You know what I mean? Today you throw Fields against a defense that pinned their ear back and said we're going to rush him all game. Right. And now he have a terrible game where he give up nine and a half sacks. And, you know, at the end of the day, you know what I mean?

Now you stop. Right. Like, as a head coach, I don't want no quarterback controversy. Like, let that be like training camp first week of second week but after that i need my locked in quarterback i don't want nobody bad for quarterback right spice out of you play spice adams was a teammate of yours and we know he's an internet sensation now was he like that in the locker room like he is now? Yeah. Yeah. Double A, what you see with Double A, it's how he is.

Double A don't put on no show for nobody. That's just how he is. He always been like that. Whatever you see when he put on these videos and stuff, that's just the person he is. Like, certain comedians, they got to act to be comedians. And then there's certain ones that just talent, that's who they really is, so they're not

putting on a show. That's how Double A was. He was like that in the locker room, on the field at practice, every single time you seen Double A. He was making people laugh. Why do you wear the number 23? I wore 23 because that was the number I was given in high school.

I was given, well, my freshman year, I played varsity football my freshman year. And so I couldn't get a single digit. You know what I mean? Because all the seniors in junior day got single digits. Yeah, seniors get pretty damn on the single digits. The crazy thing about it was I really got number seven. Okay.

But the old head, he was a senior. And he wore number seven on JV. So he moved up to the senior and he looked at me here like, yo, yo, I know Coach gave that seven, but I need that seven. And I'm like, dang, but here you go, bro. I had to go back up to the counter. I said, Coach, man, y'all got another number back there for me.

Oh, wait a minute, he said, you got 23, get in here. And so at the end of the day, I say, listen, man, the number don't make you. You make the number. And I just stuck with it. Well, you know in Chicago, if you got the number 23, you know what that is. So in other words, you're trying to say you're the Joyner returner. I got to be the Joyner returner. It's good luck in Chicago when you're 23, man.

When you look around today and you look at some of the returners of the day, and even though they don't return the ball, Corderell is still doing that because I think he was in the league when you were in the league, and he was at Minnesota when you was at Chicago. When you look at some of the guys as far as explosiveness, you look at Lamar Jackson, you look at kyler murray you look at tyreek are do you wish you could have played in an era like this as a wide receiver witness with so much space and all the rule changes with you can't hit the defensive receiver and the five yard

illegal contact and they can't attack the quarterback. Listen, man, right now, all the old heads that played in the National Football League back in the day, I already mad about these pay grades. You know what I mean? We get paid peanuts for what these boys are making. That's the one thing. They're making big boy money, man. Then, you know what I mean, with the offense, it just seems so much easier now, man. It is.

It's so much easier now. Like, we not running these old- much easier now, man. It is. It's so much easier now. Like, we not running these old-fashioned plays, man. Everything, like, the way the offense coordinator, all these offensive coordinators are young-minded, young guys, man, and they coming up with great schemes to get guys open, man. If you were the punt returner and kick returner, I mean, you see C.D. Lamb now. He returned some punts.

But most guys, once the guy gets established on the offensive side or the defensive side, they move away from the returning game. I remember, you probably don't remember this guy, but Roy Green, he was a tremendous returner and a wide receiver. But once he got really good at wide receiver, he moved away. Tyreek is a prime example. Right. Even D-Jack.

Right. Once they got really good on offense, they're like, nah, y'all need to stay away from this. Do you? Yeah. Do you think that's a good – do you like that or do you just like, man, they still got value back there. But I think it just for me, from my perspective,

is that it seems like the team is is like you're too valuable on offense for us to risk it. There's a greater chance. You're going to get dinged on punt return or kickoff return than you are on offense. Yeah, I think it does play a factor because I can remember like my fourth year in the league where I was two years in the system. So I started getting comfortable with the play calling, you know, I mean we were two years in with years in the system. So I started getting comfortable with the play calling. You know what I mean?

We were two years in with the same offensive coordinator. So I started getting comfortable with play calling where I can go out there and listen to half of the play and break the huddle. You know what I mean? Know what I got to do. Right. And trying to do both of them and being a full-time receiver, like it's impossible.

Okay. Like it's impossible. Okay. Like, it's impossible. Like, I was at the point where I was, when I was a four-time wide receiver, I was praying that they didn't kick it to me. Because I didn't have no juice in the legs, man. So, I don't care how hard you train in the offseason, man. When you out there with them flying bullets, man, you running, man. And so, that second, that middle of that second, third, fourth quarter, man. When you out there with them flying bullets, man, you running, man. And so

that second, that middle of that second, third, fourth quarter, man, when you don't rant no huddle, man, and you don't went on the go route twice or nine, you turn around and defend three and nine, it's punt return called up. You ain't got no juice in them legs, man. So I don't, it's impossible

to do it, man. I'm looking at this. You've had something that I don't know if anybody else has ever had. You had a perfect speed rating of 100 in 2008, making you the fastest player in the game. I don't know if it – there have been a lot of 99s, and that seems to be the standard now. You get to 99. Travis Kelsey is a 99.

Patrick Mahomes is a 99. Jalen Ramsey is a 99. Aaron Donald is a 99. We've had players 99. I don't know if we've ever had a player with a hundred so when you think about like man everybody love man you guys love Madden but how many y'all had a hundred I had that honey yeah that that that that's a lot of kids grew up now that's what they know me from you You're the only guy on the man that has 100 speed. You know what I mean?

That's where all my popularity comes from, that man game, with me being the first guy to have 100. To be honest, that was a big accomplishment and a lot of respect from Matt, you know what I mean, for feeling like I should get up to 100. If I took Devin Hester outside right now and said, run me a 40, how fast do you think you could run it? Listen, man, last time I tried to sprint, I pulled the hip muscle.

I'm scared to sprint right now. I pulled the hip muscle. I'm scared to run. I'm scared to kick it in that field gear. I don't know what's going to go out. So how do you stay in shape? You ride in the bike? You do an stay in shape? You riding the bike? You doing elliptical?

You doing a little jogging, a little here and there? So my middle son plays football. OK. And so, yeah, I coach. I coach the team. And me going out there to practice and running gasses with them boys and running through plays. And see, I got eight-year-olds.

So it's like a teacher was struggling with a bunch of kids that just don't want to listen. So me running around, jumping up and down, yelling and all that, and then I get about three days a week in the weight room. Shoot, my conditioning comes from chasing them little kids and sprinting with them during the daytime. Right. The Bears have the most Hall of Famers.

And your first year of eligibility, you talk about some of the all-time greats. You talk about the Buckuses. You talk about Coach Hallis, the owner, the Bears. Gale Sayers, Richard Dent. I mean, Walter Payton, Mike Singletary. The list goes on and on. What would it mean for Devin Hester all of a sudden?

And probably you're going to have your name up in the stadium. I mean, that's what they do with the greats, the Chicago Bears, the name go up in the stadium. What would that mean to a kid from Palm Beach, Florida, to all of a sudden he's a pro football Hall of Famer, and when he go back to Soldier Field, it looks like they're going to be moving, but when he go back to get that ring,

and one day you look up in the stadium and like wow. My kids looking up there like man, that's my dad. My dad's names up there with that Hall of Fame logo next to it. See that and that's that's the thing. You know what I mean? Like everybody want to be we be remember, you know what I mean? And the only way to be remembered man is to is to achieve them accolades, man. Right.

To make that Hall of Fame, you know what I mean? And to have your name up on that stadium. Because once that name goes up, though, man, unless that building burned down, your name ain't going nowhere. Correct. So it's just like getting a degree. Once you get that degree, can't nobody take that from you. Exactly.

Right? So once you get that Hall of Fame, man, man, that's for your age. That ain't just for you, man. That's for representing the name on the back of the jersey, man, for your mom to say. My mom is like my number one fan. Like, she brag on me to the point where it embarrasses me when I get around people.

You know what I mean? And it embarrasses me sometimes. Like, mom, come on, Ma. Chill out, man. Don't tell him that. But she's just a proud mom. And for me to make that Hall of Fame, man, that's my whole family, man. And what we went through, you know what I mean?

Like, from what we talked about in college and all that, man, you know what I mean? Like, for me, well, listen, that's it for me. That's all I want right now. I'm going to give you a choice. You got one choice. Would you rather play DB and pick off Tom Brady or catch a bomb or go rob from Patrick Mahomes?

Pick off a pick. Are you going to pick Brady? Pick Brady and take it to the house, and I'm going to hit the D on him. Are you going to hit the time on him? I'm going to hit it on my eyes up from the 40 on him. Are you surprised that

Tom Brady has been able to play this long and been able to play this well? I mean, you know, we normally guys don't play this long. But he not only playing long, he's playing great. This dude 22 years in. I had to let that thing go at 14. I don't know how long you played there, but I had to let that thing go at 14.

Them legs started hurting. And that's what I tell people. I say, man, as you get older, those legs hurt. I'm young. I'm lowering my shoulder. I'm running over. I'm looking for guys to run into. Man, you start getting to year 12, 13, 14, you like turn that blink on.

Blink on, blink on. Hit that out of bounds on them. Man, and when you get hit, and the injuries last longer too. Yeah, you don't recover as quick as you once did. Uh-uh. It don't, man. So for Tom, man, there's so much technology going on right now. You don't know what's going on over there, man, with Tom, man.

For him to still be playing what he playing, he got to be spending a couple million dollars on his body. Oh, ain't no question. Yeah, he's probably sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber. He might have his whole house is a hyperbaric chamber. He eating the best food. He eating the best food. He got the best chef. He got the best staff, medical staff, physio staff, PT.

He got the best of everything. Everything, man. And you don't never see him hurt. That's the great thing about it. I can't remember the last time Tom Brady was hurt. Right. Well, you know, they don't allow you to tag the quarterback like they once did now.

They usually let you blast the quarterback, but you can't blast the quarterback. Now they're going to throw the laundry on you. You hit the quarterback too hard. Yeah, but he don't take a couple of hits and he get right back up. Now, there's still quarterbacks out there that shoot. They getting hurt. I don't see Tom getting hurt.

I mean, I know it's a Tom Brady rule, but I don't see him get hit a couple of times and he get right back up. Yeah, see, but Tom ain't trying to prove. See, a lot of times guys get in trouble when they try to prove how tough they are. Well, I'm going to run over this linebacker. I'm going to run over this guy. Tom's like, no, I'm good.

Just touch me, and I'm going to come and get you the next play. Exactly. Exactly. Tom played baseball before. He know how to slide. Dabby, man, congratulations on the Hall of Fame. Appreciate you giving me a couple of minutes of your time today, bro.

Good luck with the family. Hope all's well on your end, bro. All right. Appreciate it, Shannon. Nice talking to you again, man. All right, bro. Have a good one. All my life, been grinding all my life.

Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price. Want a slice, got to roll the dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. All my life, been grinding all my life. All my life. Been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle pay the price. Want a slice.

Got to roll the dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolfe. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app,

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