This is great news. Hester should've been first ballot imo, when you are clearly the greatest ever at your role/position then it should see to itself. I dunno how long it took 3-4 attempts(?), but whats important is they've righted a wrong. I think what held Hester back was two-fold: 1- Hester's stats as a returner are obviously impressive, but what the stat-obsessives and casuals who didnt watch every Bears game never got was A- Hester's stats were massively stunted by how few times he actually got to return, and B - Hester's non-stat impact should've actually been more impactful than his TD's/deep returns. Which brings me to 2- People would've understood point 1 enormously more if the Bears Offense wasn't a crime against humanity. I said it every year, the Bears should've had at least a top3 scoring Offense every year Hester was on the team. The amount of times the Bears got the ball between the 40s cos STs kicked away from Hester was crazy. The amount of 3 & outs that followed was peak Bears fan infuriating. If the Bears didn't have a roll-call of shit house OC's, Ron Turdner(mostly), Mike Fartz, Mike Tice, or if Lovie Smith wasn't the most incompetent hirer of OCs we've ever seen, i think Hester's true value would've been appreciated far far more. As it is, most exciting Bears player of my lifetime by a country mile. Never saw Sayers play, could be the only competition all-time surely.
Also big shout out to Mongo for getting in at last. That's great. The shine will always be slightly off since he did go and play for the inbreds. Same thing with Peppers(no brainer decision to induct him), but glad they're both in.
For some reason the news broke early this year. It was being widely reported that Mongo, Hester and Peppers all made it for at least 2 days. I was very wary that it was a false report so when it was officially announced wow how nice to be a Bears fan. Even sweeter than Urlacher who we all knew was getting in just not positive it was going to be 1st ballot. Bears gotta play in the HOF game. Book it.
Great post Ev. Hester is and will likely always be my favorite Bear. The number of points he was directly responsible for (even if they were usually Gould FGs) by gifting our shit offense amazing field position in those years cannot be underestimated. Even in the 2 year stretch where he didn't house one. Whether opponents were kicking away from him or not. He also had dozens and dozens of spectacular returns in the 20-40 yard range where he didn't score that probably get overlooked/forgotten by non-Bears fans. He was unquestionably the MVP of the team from 2006-2012 and w/o him our overall record would have been significantly worse during that era. Happy for Mongo, especially given how much has been suffering as he nears the end of his life. Peppers I don't give a shit about, although he is deserving. I am still salty he went to GB and performed rather well in those years after he left the Bears.
I have been fighting with idiots on reddit, so much hate for Hester just because Gates wasn't a first ballot. Fuck all of those guys. It's well fucking deserved for Hester (and Peppers/Mongo). They even only inducted 7 when they could induct 9, so they just chose to shit on Gates, so they really need to stop pissing on Hester for it. It's like being on CCS for other teams or something.
1st Punt Returns—463 1st Punt Return Yards—4,999 1st Kick Returns—607 1st Kick Return Yards—14,014 1st Kick & Punt Returns—1,070 1st Kick & Punt Return Yards—19,013 2nd All-Purpose Yards—23,316 3rd Punt Returns for Touchdown—9 2nd Kick and Punt Returns for Touchdowns—13 Has 4 seasons as the all purpose yard leader including 3 in a row I think he is 2nd in number of times leading the NFL in all purpose yards for the season think the only guy ahead of him is Jim Brown who did it 5 times
Let me put it this way. Brian Mitchell was a very good returner. I was surprised that he only made pro bowl/all pro once. But being very good at something doesn’t get you into the HOF. Most of your stats are hurting your argument not helping. The fact that Brian Mitchel is first all time in K and P returns shows you how nobody feared kicking to him. He is first in yards because he is first in attempts. He was an accumulator. Anybody who watched Hester play knows that his stats are dwarfed because of how teams would avoid kicking to him. If you looked at TD’s per return Hester would have 32 return TDs if he had as many returns as Mitchell.
