Devin Hester had an eye-opening performance against Atlanta yesterday. Signed just a few weeks back after being cut by multiple teams (his mishandled punt was a factor in Baltimore's loss to Pittsburgh in Week 16), he seemed to be all done. But he had multiple long returns against the Falcons, including a near touchdown and a long one wiped out by a penalty (which turned out to be kind of a game-changer).
After the game, Hester said that was probably it for his career. But we'll see. His performance was impressive enough that no doubt some team will give him a call next August.
If it is the end, Hester has a return TD record that will probably never be topped. He returned 19 kicks for touchdowns in his career (14 punts, 5 kickoffs), not including another in the postseason. Only four other NFL players even reached double-digits.
Total return touchdowns are shown in the table below; every player with more than 5 TDs (kickoffs and punts combined). Lot of great names at the position, but none are close to Hester.
| NFL RETURN TDS, CAREER | |
|---|---|
| Player | TDs |
| Devin Hester | 19 |
| Brian Mitchell | 13 |
| Dante Hall | 12 |
| Eric Metcalf | 12 |
| Josh Cribbs | 11 |
| Darren Sproles | 9 |
| Deion Sanders | 9 |
| Jacoby Jones | 9 |
| Mel Gray | 9 |
| Ollie Matson | 9 |
| Allen Rossum | 8 |
| Billy Johnson | 8 |
| Bobby Mitchell | 8 |
| Desmond Howard | 8 |
| Gale Sayers | 8 |
| Jack Christiansen | 8 |
| Leon Washington | 8 |
| Rick Upchurch | 8 |
| Tamarick Vanover | 8 |
| Abe Woodson | 7 |
| Dave Meggett | 7 |
| Ted Ginn | 7 |
| Darrien Gordon | 6 |
| Eddie Drummond | 6 |
| Emlen Tunnell | 6 |
| Jermaine Lewis | 6 |
| Steve Smith | 6 |
| Travis Williams | 6 |
| Adam Jones | 5 |
| Antwaan Randle El | 5 |
| Clarence Verdin | 5 |
| Cordarrelle Patterson | 5 |
| Curly Oden | 5 |
| Freddie Solomon | 5 |
| Joey Galloway | 5 |
| Justin Miller | 5 |
| Karl Williams | 5 |
| Marcus Sherels | 5 |
| Michael Bates | 5 |
| Micheal Spurlock | 5 |
| Percy Harvin | 5 |
| Ron Smith | 5 |
| Steve Van Buren | 5 |
| Terrence McGee | 5 |
| Tim Dwight | 5 |
| Timmy Brown | 5 |
| Tyrone Hughes | 5 |
--Andy Richardson