Opinion: Broncos shouldn't have kicked to Hester

CHICAGO - Devin Hester resides in a higher realm, far above the mere mortals he dances past on punts and kickoffs.

But there’s a solution to his mastery. Kick the ball out of bounds, out of the end zone. Kick the ball anywhere. Just make sure it doesn’t arrive in Hester’s hands.

Forget field position. Forget the macho rules of football. Kicking to Hester, the Bears kick-return specialist, is as wise as sticking your hand in a tank filled with piranhas.

The Broncos should have embraced cowardice and surrendered to the kick-return king.

Right?

Wrong, said Nick Ferguson.

“No, no, no,” said Ferguson, who plays on Broncos kick coverage teams. “Do I really need to answer that question?

“...Don’t be fearful of anybody in this league. Don’t be fearful of your opponent. You know what I’m saying?”

Ah, no, Nick.

Ferguson is brave and bold. He’s also absolutely wrong.

Against Hester, all the traditional rules must be tossed. If the Broncos had refused to kick to Hester, they would have departed Chicago as victors. It’s that simple.

Without Hester’s 75-yard punt return and 88-yard kickoff return — both in the third quarter — the Bears would have been vanquished.

Yes, the Broncos defense suffered an inexplicable collapse in the fourth quarter, letting Rex Grossman resemble the second coming of Joe Montana.

But Grossman and the Bears would never have remained within sight of the Broncos without Hester. This game wouldn’t have been close.

Todd Sauerbrun knows this. After launching both the kicks Hester carried to the end zone, Sauerbrun has seen the light.

“He’s good, man,” Sauerbrun said. “He won the game for them today....He killed us.”

Last week, Sauerbrun talked with the same bravado displayed by Ferguson. He said the Broncos were not “worried at all” about Hester. They would kick to the most dangerous kick returner alive while refusing “to go out there tiptoeing around.”

On Sunday, Sauerbrun discovered tiptoeing is sometimes the wise choice. He admitted the Broncos should have kicked the ball anywhere but to Hester.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I hate to admit that, but probably yeah. The guy is great.”

Sauerbrun showed class in defeat. He bowed to his opponent, confessed to his greatness, declined to offer lame excuses.

That’s the proper approach. Hester is rolling along with the greatest returners ever. He’s scored 10 return TDs (six punts, four kickoffs) since last season and brings back memories of the Broncos’ Rick Upchurch in 1976 and the Chiefs’ Dante Hall in 2003.

Upchurch and Hall were spectacular showmen, dodging tacklers and reversing field as they made wild, winding runs to the end zone. They offered scintillating drama nearly every time they touched the ball.

Strange as it sounds, Hester is a little boring to watch. On Sunday, Hester was barely bothered on his journeys to the end zone. He’s so fast, so decisive, he seldom dodges anyone.

He makes his perilous task look as easy as a leisurely jaunt around the block. The Broncos might not have stopped him if this had been touch football.

Off the field, Hester talks in a whisper. As he departed the Bears locker room he declined to question the Broncos’ decision to kick to him.

“I’m just a football player,” he said. “I just try to do my job.”

Still, this quiet man is blessed with a massive reservoir of self-belief. Hester had just shredded the Broncos, delivered a victory for the ages to throngs of Bears fans, but he didn’t surprise himself. He expects to arrive in the end zone.

“I’m just playing with God-given talent,” he said, “and God blessed me with a lot of great things.”

Amen to that, Devin. Amen and amen.