Club Shay Shay - Devin Hester says he’s the Michael Jordan of returners

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

In this special rewind episode of Club Shay Shay, revisit some of Shannon's favorite segments from the show so far.00:00 Devin Hester says he’s the Michael Jordan of returners3:00 Devin Hester explains why he said Jay Cutler is the worst leader he ever played with5:44 Devin Hester's football career was almost sabotaged after a college coach alleged he cheated on SATsListen & follow more FOX Sports podcasts: http://sprtspod.fox/applepodcasts#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.

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 Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. This is Jimmy O'Brien from Jamboy Media.

I want to quickly tell you about my podcast. It's called Jimmy's Three Things. Episodes come out every Tuesday, and for 30 minutes, I dive into three stories in Major League Baseball that I want to talk about. Or I do a stat deep dive. Sometimes I create my own stats. It gets weird. It's now your go-to podcast for staying up to date and in the weeds with Major League Baseball.

No topic is off limits or too small. Bad umpires, great pitcher-catcher duos, new rules, old rules, three things that I want to talk about. Listen to Jimmy's Three Things on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Club Che Che listeners. We'll be back soon with weekly episodes featuring brand-new interviews with exciting roster of guests. Until then, enjoy this special rewind episode

with one of my favorite moments from club shea shea so far all my life been grinding all my life sacrifice hustle paid the price wanna slice got the roll of dice that's why all my life i've been grinding all my life thank you don't understand the shock oh you're that so you are you are you saying is Devin Hester telling me he the GOAT? Most definitely. Is that what I wanted to hear? Is that what 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. 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 return, 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, that love football, know when they mention the best kickoff and punt returner, if you're a real, true football player, you're going to say Devin Hester. 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 Jordan of returners. I got to be the Jordan of returners. It's good luck in Chicago when you're 23, man. 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,nerud George Blanda who started a part he was a kicker and a quarterback but you were primary a returner 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 to be honest man it would mean a lot to me man this is is something that um we're just not talking about an award that anybody gets.

Right. 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 days, you're talking about Achilles, Troy, the Greek gods. Those names are among all the warriors that was fighting. all the warriors 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 punt 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. 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, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk

every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL Media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window why

would they trade him away because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl I don't know why Colleen catch the podcast 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 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 of 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 he to me, Jay Cutler had the, he had knowledge of the game was better than anybody. His own strength for the game was better than anybody. His accuracy was better than anybody I ever played with. Like all the tools I've led, he was an athletic quarterback. People don't realize it. Jay can shake, Jay can run, Jay can play basketball,

Jay can do everything. It's just the leadership he lacked. And that's why know i mean you know 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 didn't know how to bond everybody together and be that that leader that a quarterback is why when it comes to vocal and you know picking everybody's spirit up when they're being down or you need somebody you know i mean like quarterback should be that guy that gives you confidence right that's what he comes to vocal and picking everybody's spirit up when they're being down or you need somebody. Quarterback should be that guy that gives you confidence. That's what he lacks.

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 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 That guy, 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. 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 was he's like. Standoffish like he's like, standoffish. Like he's like, what's the only kid in the house. You know what I mean?

Like if you have a kid, you don't have, you didn't have no friends. So I don't know what it was, but he didn't never open up to nobody. But he may have like one, two guys that he talked to. And other than that, he singled out himself away from everybody. Yeah, you know what I mean?

So it was hard, you know what I mean? For a court, for, you know what i mean so it was hard you know what i mean for a court for for you know offense to listen and and and bind in with him because he just kept himself away from everybody man and wasn't wasn't friendly about it 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, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes.

We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? 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. And you can expand on this, that you had to sit out your first year at the University of Miami because they believe 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 down and say, oh, wow, this kid here got potential. Right. They start making you take the 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 school 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.

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 gets questioned, you do not get it back. Right. They send you a letter in the middle saying say, we found some on suspicious things going on. We want you to retake it. I got my SAT scores back. Right. So my whole senior year, I was qualified. Right. GPA was like a 3.1, 3.1, 3.2. So I was good. Just no, no, no worry about no school or nothing. So on my college visit, I don't know if you know that story, but the only school in that ultimate scholarship was SC.

That's the only school I never got a four-round. Everybody else I could have went to. Right. So I went on a college visit, and one of the coaches wanted me real bad. So I promised him I would take a visit. You know, 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 going to go ahead and sign with University of Miami. So he got upset.

He started calling my phone every two hours going off. So I said, you know what? This is getting out of hand. I'm going to let you deal with my parents. Because at first I was dealing with them. I didn't tell my mama about it. I was dealing with them. And so I said, you know what?

I'm going to go ahead and let my mama deal with this. So my mama got the phone. She went off on him. And he called one more time. I answered the phone. He said, you know what? If you don't come here, I promise you, you will never see a downer football in your life. So that's when I said, man, you threatening me?

So I hung up on him. We blocked the phone and all that. I get to the University of Miami. I have to sign him with him. I check in the dorm room. Everything, I'm good, everything. The next day before practice, my counselor come to me. He said, Devin, we got a problem.

I said, what's going on? He said, some stuff going on with the NCAA about you. There's nothing you should have to worry about. No, you good. And so they, when I got down there, we got on the phone with the NCAA. They said it's been some phone calls about questioning your SAT scores.

And I said, okay, well, what's the problem? They said, well, your answers match somebody that's sitting beside you answers. And I said, well, what did they get? And 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 did I get? I think I scored like a 970. So I said,

well, who was cheating on who's paper then? If he scored an 880 and 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 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 well or not or not. Because right now, y'all don't have no proven fact. So Miami was at a point where 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 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 to dug into that situation.

We're ready to take it. There's nothing they can do about that situation. You got your scores. You score higher than to take it it's nothing they can do about that situation you got your scores you score 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 they was like and i told them about the situation and they're like listen dad we just got too much to lose um i will promise you this if you if you 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 Lord

and we'll bring him in next year. And that's what happened. So that was, you believe that that coach at the, or the recruit at the University, 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 full scholarship. Out, they, where USC was the only school that didn't offer me a full 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, you don't want to reveal that college? You've been sitting on that, you know. Yeah, I'm good.

I'm just going to let that go. I did, I went, my first time touching 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, opening kickoff for the game. Yep. I took my helmet off, going in the end zone, looking in the camera,

stared at him, just so he could see my face. That's how I got him back, though. So we good now. You didn't play your entire... 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 regular college student. I didn't even go to school. I didn't even go to school, man. I went home. Wow. I went home. Wow. I went home, man. Listen, that drive home, man, felt like I was getting sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison, man. It was like my whole life was just gone.

And it was like, there ain't nothing I can do about it, man. 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 comes from this area, if you don't go to college, man, you know what's going to happen to you. You finna get caught up. Right. 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, when I, once I walked through that door, man, I went in my room, closed the door. I don't think I ate, 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 feel like, damn, 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 literally, 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. 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 got to train. I got to make sure that when I go back, I'm in shape. I'm ready to go. 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 got to find something for Devon to do until it's time for him to go back. So my coach, man, he was like, hey, man, y'all got to find something for Devin to do until it's time for him to go back. So my coach, man, he was like, hey, man, listen, we need to work. He said, Brian, you show the passion, you help me, and come practice with us. You give us work, and while you're giving us work,

you're going 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.

You know what to do. Hit the subscribe button and become an official member of Club Shea Shea, where we do something before two something. 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,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.