Devin Hester is the greatest return man in NFL history. That is established and unlikely to ever change. His signature moment will forever be Super Bowl XLI when he became the first man to ever take the opening kickoff back for a score. It was a thrilling moment that everybody wondered might happen. The Indianapolis Colts knew about Hester. Their kickoff coverage hadn’t been great most of that year. They had no reason to give him an opportunity. Until head coach Tony Dungy talked himself into it.
The Hall of Fame coach will be the first to admit he’s not perfect. He’s made some bad decisions in his career. Kicking to Hester that night was among his worst. As it turns out when Super Bowl preparation began he was firmly committed to not doing so. He had great respect for Hester and knew his special teams’ limitations. It was a logical decision. What happened next though had no basis in logic.
Dungy is a devout Christian man. He attends church and uses the Bible to help guide his life decisions. It’s why he is such a respected and liked man among peers. According to Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune, it was a visit to church before the big game that began to sway his thinking on the idea of kicking off to Hester. It wasn’t so much confidence his team could easily stop him. It was more about not playing afraid.
Tony Dungy learned fear and respect aren’t the same with Hester
This is a classic case of a coach making a decision with his heart rather than his head. One can understand the idea behind it. Dungy wanted to see if he could give his team a big morale boost by covering the best return man in the business on the first play of the Super Bowl. It would’ve really set the tone for the contest. He didn’t want to coach afraid. Then Hester did what Hester does. Dungy realized a little too late that fear and respect are two different things.
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Fearing Hester is an irrational emotional response.
Respecting him is just common sense because he was that good.
In the beginning, Dungy approached it from the latter perspective. Then a famous Bible story convinced him to look at it from the former instead. This is what lead him to change the right decision to the wrong one. He’s hardly the first man to ever do that but he’s fortunate he had the better football team that night. Had the Bears had an offense even remotely comparable to Indianapolis, the Colts could very well have lost that game.
