Doors to Canton Will Swing Open for Bears Trio
It was the middle of the 2012 season and the first-place Bears were getting ready for a big Monday night game at Soldier Field against the Detroit Lions.
Lovie Smith was in full hype mode, and after talking about the offense and the defense, he got to what they'd need from special teams and Devin Hester.
"I'll just say we need him to be, you know, the greatest returner in the history of our game," Smith said. "And I am sure he will be."
He was exactly that throughout his career, and as a result Hester will be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday night at NFL Honors, according to a report by NBC Sports.
It's be a huge night for the Bears all around during NFL Honors because two more players who wore the GHS patch will be named for enshrinement in Canton, according to the report. One was Steve "Mongo" McMichael, the 1985 team's defensive tackle now so tragically suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease. The other was edge rusher Julius Peppers, a Bear for four seasons and Hester's teammate from 20010-13.
Hester's appointment to the Hall of Fame finally produces a victory for special teams proponents who claim those players are overlooked too much when it comes to these votes.
It's really difficult to debate this fact when only three pure kickers/punters have made it and no return men or coverage men.
Hester becomes the first special teams player to make it since kicker Morten Anderson in 2017. Punter Ray Guy went in in 2014 and kicker Jan Stenerud in 1991. They're the only true special teamers in the Hall. Both Lou Groza and George Blanda made it but they were players at other positions who also served as kickers, Blanda at quarterback and Groza at tackle.
There have been many names mentioned as worthy of the Hall of Fame among special teams players, most often Buffalo coverage ace Steve Tasker. And there are numerous players in the Hall of Fame who were great at returning kicks/punts. The Bears had maybe the best in Gale Sayers. He had six kick return TDs and two punt return TDs and made only 118 total returns.
Hester's status is unquestioned among returners because of 21 total return TDs, one on a missed field goal, five on kick returns, 14 on punt returns and then one in postseason on a kick return—easily his most famous return since it came on the opening kick of Super Bowl XLI. No one had ever done this before his 92-yard TD return.
It almost never occurred as Colts coach Tony Dungy kept it a secret all week in Miami what he would do, but all along had been planning to have it kicked in a way so Hester wouldn't get it.
"We had decided all week that we were not going to kick the ball to Devin Hester," Dungy said later told Fox Sports. "That night after the meeting, I thought, 'That's really playing scared. We're not going to do that.' So the next morning, I told the team when we were going (in)to the game, 'I hope we lose the toss, because if we do we're going to kick it right down the middle to Hester and we're going to pound him. And when they know we've taken their best threat, they're going to be finished.
"Thirteen seconds later, he was in the end zone, and everybody's looking at me like, 'Who's (idea was) that?' I looked back and said, 'I told them we'd have a storm.'"
Dungy could laugh about it afterward because the Colts won 29-17.
McMichael's Toughness
Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, McMichael is unable to move or speak and his enshrinement is sure to generate tears among Bears fans and former players.
Known throughout his career and later during a career in pro wrestling as being cantankerousws and bombastic, McMichael has become been bed-ridden and now silenced after it was announced in April of 2021 he had the illness commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
A letter-writing campaign on his behalf to the Hall of Fame was initiated in 2022. When former Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko went into the Hall of Fame in 2023, it became obvious McMichael had the right credentials. McMichael played in 15 seasons, 13 for the Bears, and finished with 95 sacks. Klecko had 78 sacks in 12 seasons. McMichael was All-Pro four times and Pro Bowl twice and Klecko had been Pro Bowl four times and All-Pro twice.
McMichael is best known for his toughness and played in all 16 games in his final season and in 11 of his last 12 seasons. He made 171 starts and played in 213 games.
No better tale about his attitude and toughness has been told than the one about how he stood up during a meeting during Super Bowl week after Buddy Ryan told the defense he was coaching his final game, and threw a desk against a chalk board, causing it to impale.
McMichael, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent were the driving forces on the defensive line that made the 1985 Bears defensive line dominant. Now all three are in the Hall of Fame.
They would often kid the linebackers that they didn't have much to do other than clean up and make tackles after they had done all the dirty work.
Four and a half years ago the Bears held their 100th anniversary celebration and McMichael was as bombastic as ever, hollering at Dent as he entered the media area: "Hey Richard, I'm gonna throw a block on Singletary so all these years later he can actually see what it really feels like to take on a block!"
Even Mike Singletary, standing nearby, had to laugh about that one.
McMichael's 92 1/2 career sacks are the second-most in franchise history behind only Dent's 124 1/2.
Julius Peppers the Freak
The Bears were so serious about signing Peppers in free agency in 2009 that Smith went there to talk to him at night just after the signing period began. Someone had to wake Peppers at night to tell him the Bears coach was at an executive airport. They gave Peppers a $90 million contract and as the 2010 playoffs were approaching, Smith commented on what kind of effect the defensive end's signing had.
"It would be hard for me to say exactly what kind of impact Julius has, without going on and on about it," Smith said. "But whether it's playing the run, playing the pass, everything we ask him to do, everything I wanted him to be coming in, he's done."
Smith said just Peppers' presence had many teams worried.
"He's been a factor of offenses preparing for him," Lovie said. "Each week it's, 'this is what we have to do for Peppers.' So I couldn't be more pleased with what he did throughout the course of the year."
Peppers' play helped the Bears reach the NFC championship game. The 6-foot-7, 295-pounder could run like a back and leap like a receiver, hence his nickname as "the Freak." He played 10 years for the Panthers, four for the Bears and three with the Packers. As a result, he'll go into the Hall of Fame as a Panthers player.
Peppers made nine Pro Bowls and six times was All-Pro and finished with 159 1/2 career sacks, 37 1/2 with the Bears. He also had 82 career forced fumbles, 18 in Chicago, and 21 recoveries, seven with the Bears. He made 175 career tackles for loss and was able to finish his career in 2018 back with the Panthers, who had drafted him second overall in 2002.
NFL Honors airs at 8 p.m. Thursday on NFL Network. Induction ceremonies at Canton are Aug. 5.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
