Catching up with Devin Hester

By: The Football Girl | Posted:

Yesterday, I paid a visit to Naperville, Illinois where Devin Hester was conducting his Old Spice Football Camp for kids.  I’m working on a piece about Pro Camps, the enterprise that not only runs Hester’s camp but the camps of  top level athletes in all sports (think Dwyane Wade and Adrian Peterson).  But first wanted to share this brief Q and A I had with Hester.  Not sure if he misunderstood my question about a record projection or he was slyly taking it a different direction intentionally. You be the judge.

The Football Girl:  Do you see any young, budding Devin Hesters out here?

Devin Hester:  There’s a couple of them out here (laughs).  There’s always a couple of them; there’s a bunch of them, actually. You know these guys are out here having fun and working hard and that’s the most important thing.  When you’re out there having fun everything speaks for itself.

TFG:   I noticed a lot of girls out here among the campers.  Can you talk about how they perform versus boys of the same age group?

DH:  At that age you really can’t tell the difference.  Except the long hair and other than that.  Around age 5, 6, 7 they all look the same, so right now they’re all looking pretty good.

TFG:  What’s the hardest of these drills for the kids to master?

DH:  Just catching the ball.  Just running and catching the ball.  Most kids are used to standing in one spot and catching but we’ve got them out there running too.  That’s probably the hardest thing for him.

TFG:  The Bears off-season has been one big lovefest. It seems like everyone on the team has talked about everyone else being the greatest thing on Earth.  So based on all the love,  can you give us a season projection?

DH:  This team is really going to be an all-around team where it’s not one single guy that’s standing out.  I like the way the team is looking.  You know, every guy is really going to step up and make plays so teams can’t key in on one person because we have a lot of weapons that have the ability to go out and make plays, and with the offensive coordinator we have in Coach Martz, we’ll be spreading it out for big plays. It’s going to be hard to stop everybody.

TFG:  What about a record prediction?

DH:  Oh, one of our records is to make it to the Super Bowl and win it this time.  That’s the number one goal for us.  That and beat Green bay you know, just have a great season, stay strong, and compete for a championship.

TFG: There has been some talk in the blogosphere about Terrell Owens being a good fit for the Bears?  How would you feel about that addition?

DH:  I really don’t get into that.  That’s up to them upstairs.  If we get him it’s a good thing, but if we don’t I feel comfortable with the guys we have now.  We have a great group of receivers and I really feel we’re going to step up to the plate.