Hester or Tasker ... Which? Neither? Both?

by Jeffrey J. Miller  
    

    Let me start by saying I am a small-hall guy. In my estimation, enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is an honor that should be reserved for the best of the very best players the game has ever known. In looking over the complete roster of HOF enshrinees, I see quite a few questionable names (out of respect, I won’t mention any here). Though I am sure my list of undeserving HOFers would differ greatly from, say, Deion Sanders’, I must admit I agree with him that the Hall is bloated with guys who in retrospect might not be enshrined today.  But the fact that the HOF seems to have widened the door in recent years, allowing some suspect candidates to enter leaves room for consideration of a few other players who have had that same door slammed on them for whatever reason. I wish to talk about one who should be a slam-dunk, and another who I feel has gotten a raw deal for lo these many years.   

    I have been reading many comments lately about the Hall-of-Fame worthiness of Devin Hester, probably the greatest return man in NFL history. Hester’s numbers are simply astounding.  He holds the all-time record for combined returns for touchdowns (punt, kickoff and missed field goals) with 20, and most punt return touchdowns with 14.  He also once had six returns for touchdowns in a single season (2004), which tied the previous record. When his Chicago Bears faced the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI, Hester returned the game’s opening kickoff, the first time that feat had ever been accomplished in a Super Bowl. Clearly, if there was ever a return man who deserves enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame, it is Hester.

    The primary issue keeping Hester out of the Hall seems to be the fact that he was not a full-time positional player. Being primarily a return man (though he did have a handful of nice seasons as a WR), detractors believe he did not wield the same impact game-in and game-out as, say, a quarterback, cornerback or full-time wide receiver might. This writer says fishpaste!  I would argue that the impact of a kick being returned for a score, or even the fear instilled that something like that was always a possibility, was undeniable. It forces punters and kickoff men to angle their kicks away from a guy like Hester, or simply punt the ball out-of-bounds to prevent a return from erven happening.   

    

    Put the man in, I say! There have been plenty of outstanding return men over the past 50 years (Billy Johnson, Rick Upchurch and Donte Hall come to mind), but none like Hester. And that brings me to the other guy in a similar, though different, situation. That man is Steve Tasker, the long-time special teams ace of the Buffalo Bills.  Tasker, like, Hester, was arguably the best at his position in league history. And also like Hester, detractors insist that a special teamer participates in a low percentage of scrimmage plays on the field, so his level of impact in comparison to a regular offensive or defensive player is therefore very small.    

    A few years back, I had the opportunity to speak with the man who coached Tasker for several years with the Bills, Marv Levy, himself a Hall-of-Famer. Admittedly, Levy is biased regarding the kicking game. He was a pioneer of the discipline, having been the second-ever full-time special teams coach in the league upon joining the Philadelphia Eagles’ staff in 1969 (Dick Vermeil was the first). One year later, Levy was hired away from the Eagles by George Allen, head man with the Washington Redskins.      

    Levy had calculated that about twenty percent of all plays in a game were special teams plays. He noted that he and Coach Allan that the kicking game impacted the outcome of a game more heavily than the twenty-percent stat might imply.  Levy listed three ways a special teams play can have an impact well beyond that one individual play:
            

    1.  There is a change of possession (either punt or kickoff).

    2.  There is a considerable change in field position involved.
    3.  There is a specific "yes" or "no" involved as to whether points will be scored on that play (field goal, PAT, two-point conversion).

    Not to mention the change in momentum resulting from a blocked field goal or punt, a successful onside kick, a bad snap, or a kick returned for a score.          

    So, what is the prevailing sentiment? Do kick returners and special teamers belong in the Hall of Hame?  One or the other? It seems the prevailing sentiment would, if it came down to a choice between the two, favor Hester over Tasker. But if so, why? 

    There are few who believe a better kick returner than Hester has ever played the game.  There is also little doubt that a better special teamer than Tasker has ever played. And while a kick returned for a score is unquestionably more exciting than a gunner slamming into a returner at the very moment the ball reaches his hands, being the best at your position should mean something. The HOF voters finally figured that out when they finally started putting tight ends in the Hall back in 1988 (Mike Ditka). Kickers too were once denied enshrinement (for the very same reasons Hester and Tasker have been) until Jan Stenerud became the first pure kicker inducted in 1991. Punters too experienced sneers until Ray Guy got was honored in 2014. 

    Hester’s stats and accomplishments are eye-popping indeed, but so are Tasker’s:  Five first-team All-Pro selections (compared to Hester’s three), seven Pro Bowls (compared to Hester’s four), being the only special teamer ever to be named MVP of a Pro Bowl game, 204 special teams tackles, seven blocked punts in regular season plus another in Super Bowl XXVII, six fumble recoveries. In 2000, a committee at the Pro Football Hall of Fame selected him one of the 26 “Best of the Best ALL-TIME Players in the History of the Game." In an admittedly unscientific poll conducted by the NFL Network in 2008, Tasker was ranked ninth among players who are Hall-of-Fame worthy not yet enshrined.    

    I hereby open the floor to debate.