OverDrive - Hester on the NFL's Dynamic Kickoff Rule, Ben Johnson's influence on the Bears, and an exciting Super Bowl LX matchup

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Pro Football Hall of Famer Devin Hester joins the guys to chat about the new NFL kickoff return rules, what Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams have done for the Chicago Bears, and what to expect from the Patriots and Seahawks on Sunday.

With corporate traveler, you get a dedicated travel expert and 24-7 support. So business travel feels effortless. Big meetings land. Business grows. With corporate traveler, the booking is just the start. Search corporate traveler today. We've had a lot of people join us over the last few days. This might be the tops.

We get a pro football hall of famer in the house. Devin Hester's with us. What's up, Devin? How you doing? Appreciate you guys having me, man. I got to ask you about the jacket because these guys bother me. that's like the ultimate jacket, right? Yeah. Do you wear that if you go to like a cocktail party or something like that?

No. No, no. Of course not. He's normal. He's normal. You don't pull that out for any kind of occasion, like nothing. So I only really wear it when I get axed and it has to be a special appearance. But other than that, I don't pull this jacket out.

So this guy is a lunatic for starters, all right? So he's a, he played for the Maple Leafs. Toronto Maple Leafs, and they have a rule where if you're an alumni, you get an alumni jacket. Now, it pops. It's a beautiful jacket. It's not a pole football hall of fame jacket. He wears it to weddings, cocktail parties.

The grocery store, you name it. This guy's walking around. They're bowling this out of proportion. I just think it looks nice. And if you got like a wedding in the summer, a cocktail party, I see nothing wrong with firing that jacket on. Nothing at all. Where do you stand on that? Obviously, you disagree. Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I went, I don't. Like I say, I have to get asked to wear it. And it has to be a paid appearance. Exactly. That is a normal approach to a beautiful jacket. I love it. I mean, it's a great looking jacket, but that's exactly how you should approach something like that. No one is going to pay me to wear my own idea.

That's in the safe at home. He pulls it out. Somebody says, bring it out. Yeah. And that's it. Well, definitely. Okay. Okay.

I mean, it does pop, though. I mean, obviously, everyone knows you. We're at the epicenter of the NFL, but what's it been like you walking around here the last few days? It's been an honor, you know what I mean? And it's different when you get this. It's a different feeling. It's a different respect from the peers,

the guys that play the game of football, the guys that's playing now, and the guys that retire. It's just, it's a different vibe of respect once you get this jacket, to be honest with you. Absolutely. Well, you earned it. I mean, in terms of the way you played the game, you know, the highlights, the kick returning, everything you brought to the game. When you look at, like, the kickoff rules today, I'm curious. How do you feel about the way they've adjusted things? I love it. You do? I love the new kickoff rule. I love it because it gets a return, the opportunity to get the ball.

Back when you can kick it out of bounds when I was playing, and there wasn't no rule. Like, you kick it out of bounds and where the ball go at, that's where they place the ball. You kick it out of the end zone, we just put it on a 20-yard line. Now you're kicking it out of the end zone. They're putting it like on the 35-yard line or something like that. So it's forcing the guys to kick it to the return of now, which gives you more opportunities to get the ball. So what kind of numbers do you think you put up with these type of rules?

Probably the same numbers I was having before they changed the rule the first time. Yeah. Massive numbers. Yeah. Massive numbers. In terms of the Super Bowl and, you know, it's an outdoor stadium, the weather can be a little bit predictable. How does that factor into prep? Like, it's one thing to play in a dome stadium.

It's another thing when you're like, hey, it might be cold, it might be windy, it might be raining. Isn't it supposed to be raining on Sunday? It might rain, it might get a little bit colder. Yeah. How does that affect the player, like yourself or anybody that's prepping for a game?

You know, it always sucks whenever you're playing the rain, especially when it's cold. And right now, you know, the weather's around here's playing around about the 50s and the 60s. you put the brain on top of that, they'll probably drop it another 20 degrees, you know, and so as a player, as an athlete, as a skill player,

more so the linemen, they don't really care. But like as skilled players, we want dry climate, we want the ball to be dry, we don't want the quarterback to have no excuse why hit the ball was late or anything like that. And then as a guy that's silty, you want to be able to play on dry lens

so you can make your moves and you can get everybody slipping. So the famous cold outside, did you put layers on? You said linemen, they'd be out. out there, be snowing. Yeah. Yeah. Would you layer up and would you feel like it would be different for your, not your performance,

but your preparation for it? Yeah, most definitely. Yeah, I think so because any type you put on extra layer, as a skill guy, I feel like it slows me down. Any type of layer, you know what I mean, if it's a strong sleeve or extra tights or whatever the case to stay warm, you know what I mean? You put on hand warmers on your toes and stuff like that. That's extra weight, you know what I mean? So as a skill guy, you wouldn't be light as possible.

But my first year in the Super Bowl, we played in the rain. You know what I mean? But at the end of the day, hey, if you're a football player, you're going to find a way to get it done. Right. Yeah, and that's it. I mean, I guess the ball's going in the air, right? You've got to be ready to play.

Somebody got to make a play. Absolutely. Somebody got to do it. Pro football Hall of Famer, Devin Hester, with us. Are the Bears officially back, in your opinion? I think so. I think what really changed the whole organization is the head coach.

And the minute they hired that guy, I already knew that it was just something special about them because you change around, you think about Detroit Lions. When I played for Detroit Lions, to be honest, we didn't even think about it really, really like, oh, this is going to be a good game.

You know what I mean? Detroit Lions just outside of Calvin Johnson, you know what I mean? You set him down, it's like they're not really irrelevant. Now, the last couple of years with Ben was there. Detroit was like one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL. There was always winning plus 11, 12 games a season when he was there. And now you bring him here to Chicago.

And it just changed our whole offense around. The mentality of the players, man. Like, I go to the Bears games probably about three or four times a year. I always like to walk in the locker room for pregame. And it was just a different atmosphere. Like, everybody was smiling. Everybody was happy from the equipment guys to the training staff. You know, everybody just seemed like they had something special in that locker room

when it came to him. And when you get a coach like him that's fired up, taking off his shirt and pre-game warm-ups and things like that. Yeah. That's the type of, as players, that's the type of coach you want to play for, and that's the type of coach you would run through a brick wall. Especially when he said he just loved beating Matt LaFleurr, and they had those exchanges.

Like the Chicago fans absolutely ate that up, man. Yeah, I love that. You take all his shirt, you got your six-pack popping chest, you flexing on them, man. You're like, this is my type of coach here. That's what you're looking for. And then you brag, you know what I mean? And then after the game, you're like, yeah, Matt, you're doing all that talking.

Yeah. Quick hands say, I'm a part of here. That's right. That's what I want to want. He iced him pretty quickly, man. He iced them pretty quickly. Yeah, it's interesting you say like you could feel the different kind of energy in the building. Yeah.

And it's generally from the coach. There's a lot of people pointed to the quarterback obviously too. And Caleb had a really good year. Yeah, yeah. You know, where does he factor? And is he right behind the head coach? Yeah. quarterback that status?

I think the way Caleb played this year had a lot to do with Coach, Coach Ben. Like I say, he's a unique coach that can utilize his players and their special talents. He's not one of the offensive coordinators where they're like, this is my playbook, learn it, whether you like it or not. You're going to be a sit-back, three-step pass, or five-step pass, or sitting-in-pocket, throw the ball. No, okay, we like you. We know you like to use your legs. This is the reason why you're drafted as a first draft picking the wrong. And in failure, you wasn't drafted to be a pocket passer.

You, when you got, when you guys, when we rated you, you got rated as a number one quarterback in your class and a number one drive pit because you use your legs to make plays. Why take away from it now? We're going to utilize what your strength is, put it in my playbook, and we're going to figure out how we can work together on both parts. What makes you great?

What makes me great? And we're going to combine it. And that's what he did with Caleb this year. Like, you can, the throws that Caleb made this year, you would be like, wow, these are like Aaron Roger Prime passes. Like, you know what I mean? A Tom Brady, no look pass types of. Like these are those type of pass that he's throwing, you know what I mean?

So it's special to see how this guy's going to be four or five years from now. Yeah, he's got to tell. I can see this guy being like a, he's going to be special, man. Yeah. What about the Super Bowl this year? We got Seahawks pass. You got to lean one way or the other? I like CIO.

I just like Cial. Seattle. What Seattle is doing right now, the offense is playing good, the defense is playing incredible, and they got a great special team. And it's like they're hot right now. And it's always like that every year in the NFL you have one or two teams that you're like, wow, they play a good football. You know what I mean?

And I would say like the last eight games of the season from playoffs to regular season, you can tell who is the team that's just playing good football right now. Like a team like you would say like Seattle would be a team that you'd be like, I don't want to play these guys when they playoff time. and I'm pretty sure, like, a lot of teams would have said that. Like, Seattle is a tough team to play when it's playoff crunch time, and I don't want to face those type of guy, and that's how I see y'all playing. Yeah, that seems to be the everyone's lead in Seattle right now, Matt.

Like, do the patch feel like a big underdog to you, though? They do. They do. I appreciate it. Like, as players, you read this type of stuff. You look into it. When you're in your hotel room and you prepare for the Super Bowl, and I play for the Patriots, I want to hear what fans are saying.

I want to hear what the reporters are saying about us. You know what I mean? So, like, they're reading it. They see it, and they know right now they're the underdog. You know what I mean? And they feel like they have something to prove. So we're going to get their A game. You know what I mean?

It's not going to be a blowout game. They're not going to lay down. Now it's up to us whether or not we capitalize and do what we need to do to win the game. Right. Players, do you guys know the spreads? Yeah. And you take issue with them sometimes? You're like, how are we a four and a half point dog?

We're better than that. Yeah, most definitely. Like, you know, the big. The points bet, you know, you know everything, the odds, the favorites, who's going to score this, who's supposed to score this many points. Like, I knew the bet when I was going in the Super Bowl. Like, I knew the odds of me taking it to the house was like, like 100, like, no, I think it was either 100 or 1,000 of 1. Yeah. Like, I knew that.

You know what I mean? So, it's like, sure, I got a lot of money on them. I got. You know, motivation. Yeah, motivation. And, sure, you know, at the end of day, you, when you had those type of odds and those bets going against you, man, it's like, it makes you want to accomplish them. Absolutely.

Pro Football Hall of Famer, Devin Hester, with us. And so you've been doing the rounds here. Porkrines.com. You're working with them? Uh-huh. So what do we got here? So they're 17 anniversary, right? And they started up 17 years ago.

Mike Decker kind of started it up. And it came from a lot of guys in his era, right? They played football. And we know back in the days that guys wasn't making the type of money they're making now. And for guys that don't know, after five years are retired from the NFL, they take away your insurance. So you're like, it's like, you know what I mean? You work at a job, and then after five years you get fired from it.

You don't have no pension or no insurance. So those guys back then, they're struggling right now financially. You know, and I was able to sit in the room when I got inducted to the Hall of Fame, and we had a room where it was just only Hall of Famers. And all the older guys were just so frustrating on how the league is stepping in, helping out. benefit-wise when it comes to insurance and health problems. And there's so many guys when you're in the Hall of Fame, all those guys play in about eight years on up.

So you know injuries occur. And they didn't have the technology back then to fix a knee or to replace a shoulder. You know, we just didn't have the technology back then. And so those guys that had the surgery done back then, it was probably open it up, put a piece of tape on it. Right. Try to stitch it up the best you can and stitch it back up. You know what I mean?

And now those surgeon injuries and the surgery is coming back up. Well, man, I got to get my whole knee replaced now. And so now you're talking about a guy that's saying, man, and it costs $15,000 to $20,000, replace the whole knee with no insurance. So now they're pouring up and they're raising funds, reporting Ryan, selling them, and try to raise fun and it's benefiting to give back to those guys. And I feel like right now in the situation if the league would just step in and say, hey, man, the best we can do is to give retired players.

insurance. No kidding. That's incredible. That's the least you can do. You know, this is a billion dollar industry. All players that least pay, just say for five years, you qualify for life insurance. That's a big help for everybody. That's amazing.

That's great stuff. Porkrines.com. Oh, Devon's great seating, man. Thank you. We can't thank you enough. And rock that jacket more. Take it out. We're riding a little bit more. Talktail parties, whatever you got. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you, guys.

man. There he is. Safe trial with two, Max. You too. That's Devin Hester. Pro Football Hall of Famer. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith.

We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charm Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator. Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years.

And you can find Bromance on the IHeartRadio Network or wherever you get your podcast.