Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Jean Merriman A one hand
Speaker 1: effeck boom boom boom, out go the light. This is
Speaker 1: Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys, Welcome to
Speaker 1: another Lights Out podcast with me Seawan Merriman. And uh,
Speaker 1: we got a great one today. When I mean great,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest guys who's ever done it? Um
Speaker 1: part return to kickoff return to specialists. Throw him on
Speaker 1: the offense side of the ball. I hate it. I
Speaker 1: mean any defensive player let me tell you if you
Speaker 1: don't hate this dude, to play against him because he's
Speaker 1: so damn dynamic. Um. He has had so explosive, so
Speaker 1: creative and just make you know something from nothing. Devin
Speaker 1: Hester man one of the best kickoff return specialists, best
Speaker 1: special teams guys ever. Uh, definitely is a Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer when it's when it comes in time. Broke Dion
Speaker 1: Sander's record. Uh, just so many different things and anyway
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a good one. Devin Hester. You know
Speaker 1: what school we're part of, the What part of the
Speaker 1: world are you in right now? Man? In the Orlando
Speaker 1: you're on the Lando. What what you got going on
Speaker 1: down there? Um? Man, you gotta stay in on Orlando now,
Speaker 1: so you know, just kind of just located here, settled down, man,
Speaker 1: got kids going and school and all that, so making
Speaker 1: it my home now. I would you know what's funny.
Speaker 1: I was in Orlando probably about six months ago. Well
Speaker 1: my boy Mojo, who uh who's in the w W E?
Speaker 1: And so we're out there going around and everything was
Speaker 1: wide open. This was like five Is this like five
Speaker 1: months almost five months ago? Yeah? Yeah, that side, isn't
Speaker 1: that pretty much? This one open? Now? Hey? So so
Speaker 1: that's so you're down there for like permanently, right, because
Speaker 1: I saw your kid. You were just telling your kids
Speaker 1: when I when I seen that the first post that
Speaker 1: social media uh video your son going viral, the first
Speaker 1: thing I I saw my it's probably a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. I think it was. When I saw it,
Speaker 1: I said, man, this world got another another Devin Hester
Speaker 1: like like, come on, it can't be no more. You
Speaker 1: around like so many I'll tell you. That's when we
Speaker 1: used to watch film and do all this, and week
Speaker 1: you always you always gonna try to, you know, play
Speaker 1: your best against the best, right, So you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: you told what he did the week before you're sitting
Speaker 1: there watching like, Okay, he ain't doing that that, So
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do. Man, we go out
Speaker 1: there and still do this. Man, I ain't nobody got
Speaker 1: no nobody got nothing to say with what Man, what
Speaker 1: kind of stuff do you hear like over over the course,
Speaker 1: like when you came in uh in No. Six you
Speaker 1: had I mean, you bawled out your rookie year. How
Speaker 1: did how do people start looking at you and like
Speaker 1: preparing for you now? Because then you already was on
Speaker 1: the map. So at first no one knows about you.
Speaker 1: Then you know they you kind of get put on
Speaker 1: the map, right man, I mean to prepare like like
Speaker 1: what we did. Man. It it's when like film, film
Speaker 1: tells a lot, you know, and when you watch film
Speaker 1: and then you see the guys that you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, hit him for twenty thirty yard point return.
Speaker 1: And then you look at the speed team United Black Man,
Speaker 1: those guys you're hit him for twenty third yards they
Speaker 1: didn't even have as good as we are. We're gonna
Speaker 1: kill them. And so with that right there, it really
Speaker 1: really motivated us when we play against because you at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, when you watched you. You
Speaker 1: can tell who has a good special team unit and
Speaker 1: who has a terrible spec team unit. So I think
Speaker 1: that right there alone. My my speed team coach Day
Speaker 1: told man, you did a hell of a job man
Speaker 1: preparing us man weekend and week out for that situation,
Speaker 1: because you know, and you appreciate that respect, because I
Speaker 1: know we had the respected just watching you. But you know,
Speaker 1: I go into games, I'm looking like, man, this this
Speaker 1: dude is on another level. And I remember when you
Speaker 1: when you broke Dion's record. Was he? Let me ask you,
Speaker 1: because I always always say this, was he somebody that
Speaker 1: you you like you wanted to breaking record? Did you
Speaker 1: ever have it known? I was a person like when
Speaker 1: I played ball, I didn't really look into a ruggers
Speaker 1: until somebody mentioned it to me. Like it wasn't somethinghay
Speaker 1: I googled every week. Okay, let's best most return yards?
Speaker 1: Who has the most kickoff return touchdown? It was always
Speaker 1: brought to me, so you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: we have like you know, the guys that sold that
Speaker 1: work in the office, They will come up to me
Speaker 1: and say, hey, you know you four yards away shot
Speaker 1: from moving up to the fifth place and most yards
Speaker 1: are this week coming up. You know, if you have
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, physicide yards, you break somebody
Speaker 1: else rek. So I never really looked into it until
Speaker 1: somebody brought it to my attention. So when they got
Speaker 1: closer that time for the record for Den, it was
Speaker 1: more so okay, you three now you three tonsdowns away
Speaker 1: from it. So when they told me that fast when
Speaker 1: it it starts settling, Okay, man, I'm getting closer and closer. Yeah, no, dude, No,
Speaker 1: The thing is no one really want to talk about
Speaker 1: it and be saying okay, that's that's the guy looked
Speaker 1: at and I want to break his record. And even
Speaker 1: though it's not all about records, but I tell you
Speaker 1: when I my first year, when I got to the
Speaker 1: charges to Know five, all I heard is about Junior Say,
Speaker 1: you know, I just heard about out and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: if I can do and break any kind of record
Speaker 1: of Junior say I'll have around here, then I know
Speaker 1: that's how I'm how I'm gonna be judged and looked at.
Speaker 1: So you know what I mean, Like you don't want
Speaker 1: to go out and intentionally just say I'm trying to
Speaker 1: break this Dow record. But you you couldn't help me.
Speaker 1: I got close. You're like, man, this Dion Sanders, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, that's that's for us. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the thing, you know,
Speaker 1: you as flayers, like Flair's that lovely game of football.
Speaker 1: Guys to him that that set the temple, Like we
Speaker 1: honored up to those guys. Those guys are like the
Speaker 1: Chilles and the Chores of the ancient world, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So we we admire those type of guys.
Speaker 1: So and your sis, your situation with Junior said, so
Speaker 1: when you get closer, you know what I mean, accompanying
Speaker 1: something that he had, it's amazing, it's big, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So for me and in that situation
Speaker 1: of breaking Dion, man, it was more so of the
Speaker 1: relationship that we dealt that man. We did it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. We put these these stats up
Speaker 1: on the map, you know what I mean, and have
Speaker 1: players him then at a young age trying to try
Speaker 1: to achieve these these type of records. But at nd day,
Speaker 1: as a unit, Manda came together as as as one
Speaker 1: and said, hey, we did it, you know what I mean, No, no,
Speaker 1: a hundred percent. And then the next step to be,
Speaker 1: to be honest, since we're on that we're talking about
Speaker 1: it is that is that jacket? You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like the next thing is that? And for me, you know,
Speaker 1: when I retired and I got a chance to work
Speaker 1: at the NFL Networks, my first like broadcasting gig when
Speaker 1: I when I retired, and I remember sitting up there.
Speaker 1: I was up there with Dion Sanders, Michael Irvin, Marshall
Speaker 1: Falk and uh and the l T. And the l
Speaker 1: T at the time didn't have it, you know, he
Speaker 1: wasn't enough for his jacket yet. But I was like
Speaker 1: I was sitting up in the company like, damn, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the only one sitting up here without a jacket.
Speaker 1: And I went to uh La Damien's Hall of Fame speech,
Speaker 1: I went to Ray Lewis's and I'll probably be going
Speaker 1: to Antonio Gates and possibly Philip Rivers. If you know,
Speaker 1: if it's up that time, does that ever click to
Speaker 1: you at some point now, like it's that part of
Speaker 1: it is right around the corner. What's that gonna mean?
Speaker 1: It's it's uh, it's it's it's so over women. I
Speaker 1: got an opportunity to Uh, exparience and close close like
Speaker 1: that situation. Uh. We had the ceremony um in Miami
Speaker 1: with the Super Bowl when they announced the top one
Speaker 1: hundred and so um making that list. We uh had
Speaker 1: like pretty much a whole week prior to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: We up to the Super Bowl where we had like
Speaker 1: seminars and banquets and stuff like that where it was
Speaker 1: presenting our jackets and getting opportunely meet a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: So sitting in that room amongst all those guys man
Speaker 1: that made the top one hundred in all long with
Speaker 1: Hall of famers, you know, and then it was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm in that situation that where all these guys right
Speaker 1: here a hall of famous you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And now we're talking about the top one hundred gritist
Speaker 1: with all the time, and I'm in the room right
Speaker 1: now and I don't even have I don't even I
Speaker 1: didn't I'm the only one that didn't made the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame year and I'm sitting in the room amongst
Speaker 1: the greatest top one because the NFL history, And it
Speaker 1: was like I felt like a rookie all over again. Man,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, No, I know what. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you I was. I was in the um.
Speaker 1: I was in the room with Ray Lewis while they
Speaker 1: knocked on the door and your your your time coming up.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go ahead and break. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: a little spoil alert. Man. That knock. That knock is
Speaker 1: different that you know, like you get a regular knock
Speaker 1: at the door, like somebody coming to you know, you know,
Speaker 1: turn your bed over and clean your room. You might
Speaker 1: get somebody to come up. But that knocked, man, when
Speaker 1: they're coming knock on that door, dude, is next level.
Speaker 1: It's one of them. It's almost I think that that
Speaker 1: right there is almost a knocker. Getting that phone call Drift,
Speaker 1: it feels like that's high phone be that that phone
Speaker 1: call you get when you're sitting that way in the
Speaker 1: room for your drugs and then get called for draft.
Speaker 1: That's like I would say, ten times more extrange and
Speaker 1: more pressure and the draft with just up, the draft
Speaker 1: with just up, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 1: got a great story, man. I remember when your name
Speaker 1: came up and I was with the Chargers and obviously
Speaker 1: we got you know, we had during sprows there with
Speaker 1: episode I knew that I was when I was in
Speaker 1: the draft room and they were talking about you your name,
Speaker 1: it came up. But they were also talking about different
Speaker 1: positions too, So what what what what was that like
Speaker 1: when you kind of were you always asking to get
Speaker 1: on the other side of the ball and play, you know,
Speaker 1: play different positions and stuff too. Well, that's something they
Speaker 1: just that kind of came along, because I don't think
Speaker 1: it would have came along moved me to the office
Speaker 1: side of if I didn't do what I did my
Speaker 1: first year at kickoff and return um aspect. It was
Speaker 1: it got to the point where it was like that,
Speaker 1: like you said, coaches, coaches read by into like new stuff,
Speaker 1: like they what they here, like like all of coaches
Speaker 1: doing they see something the news paper, people talking about
Speaker 1: why this is the best weapon they got on offense,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, on the office side of
Speaker 1: the ball. This is the best bird. So it started feeding.
Speaker 1: They start feeding too and saying, man, we got a
Speaker 1: moved that got offense. You know, it was something I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do. I didn't want to move offense.
Speaker 1: I wanted to dB, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 1: settle and make a name for myself at dB. But
Speaker 1: when teams started kicking the ball away from me and
Speaker 1: taking me out of the game. For us me getting
Speaker 1: my hands on the ball, the coaches said, we don't
Speaker 1: have no choice but to move your offense. And so
Speaker 1: that's why I got pushed it offense out of the ball.
Speaker 1: That's always crazy to me, Like I would sit back
Speaker 1: and why the hell teams are still kicking to this dude.
Speaker 1: That that was the That was the first thing that
Speaker 1: came to my head, like this, these people are crazy.
Speaker 1: They're still kicking and you already took one or two
Speaker 1: to the crib. There's no way you're touching that ball
Speaker 1: again for the rest of the game, right man. I
Speaker 1: mean that's that we we kind of deal with, you know.
Speaker 1: And then the more I got talked about, I guess
Speaker 1: teams started realizing that a man, we gotta kick it
Speaker 1: out of We gotta kick this ball away from this guy. Man,
Speaker 1: It's no it's no no other scenario. Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: has the best sports talk lineup and the nation. Catch
Speaker 1: all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
Speaker 1: and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s
Speaker 1: R to listen live. And last thing though, before we go,
Speaker 1: because I got I got an eleven year old son.
Speaker 1: Because I always asked other other guys that I either
Speaker 1: play with the played against and then my son played
Speaker 1: quarterback and they play safety, right and what And I
Speaker 1: saw the social media post that went viral on your son?
Speaker 1: Does he do you how much pressure? Because you obviously
Speaker 1: played at the highest level possible, you're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: hall of famer. You know you've you've done your thing.
Speaker 1: How much pressure do you put on your because and
Speaker 1: I'm curious because I don't you know some of these
Speaker 1: cases like I don't know, I don't know whether to
Speaker 1: stay back and you know, let the coach doul to
Speaker 1: step in there and sometimes his coaches black Man Sean
Speaker 1: go you know, do you know do you think go
Speaker 1: go talk to the team and coach And I kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to sit back because I already know the
Speaker 1: pressure is there for him to go out and do
Speaker 1: what I did on the football field. Do you do
Speaker 1: you know your son ever had that conversational just like, yo,
Speaker 1: he's a freak athlete. Let him go and do his thing.
Speaker 1: To my son, he was he was I got three boys, right,
Speaker 1: So my oldest son, I don't want to do anything
Speaker 1: with the ball. Nothing with anything with the ball. He
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. And you know, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna be that that father that
Speaker 1: because I grew up with kids, a lot of friends
Speaker 1: that fathered pressing him into doing this and being trying
Speaker 1: to be like they wanted to be in life, say
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna do that, because I've seen
Speaker 1: the relationship those kids be at what their father in
Speaker 1: their dad. But my middle one was he was just
Speaker 1: he was just specially like for Christmas at the age
Speaker 1: of two or three years old, like all his gifts
Speaker 1: from Christmas came from Dick's, Dick's and Sports Cada type
Speaker 1: of stores. That's all he wanted. That's all he wanted.
Speaker 1: He don't want tout a no trains, no trucks, no car.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to watch, no TV, none of that.
Speaker 1: All he wanted to do and play with balls and
Speaker 1: go outside and play. That's all he wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And so he got to the point where we was side.
Speaker 1: If I would find myself now outside just playing kiss
Speaker 1: with him, start coaching him up on you know, shape
Speaker 1: moves and how to do the cone drives and how
Speaker 1: to do the lodder drills. And stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: I I stepped to him one day and I say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: if you really want to be special, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, let me know and I can coach you.
Speaker 1: Because I was. I was, I'm in his coach, so
Speaker 1: I always was his coaching every sport he played for
Speaker 1: much and so I actually like men him. Were driving
Speaker 1: home one day for practice and I say, um, do
Speaker 1: you feel like i'd be hard on you like when
Speaker 1: I'm coaching you? He said, I feel like you don't.
Speaker 1: When when when I make mistakes, you you you more
Speaker 1: and more mad and you get more louder than I
Speaker 1: for another kid beside me do the same thing. You
Speaker 1: don't really ask, you know, you don't really really get
Speaker 1: on him like that, But when every time I make
Speaker 1: a mistake, you get on me. I say, man, it's
Speaker 1: a point. It's a time and the point where it
Speaker 1: coaching has to decide who to get on, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, who can handle it or at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, that's really not my kids. So
Speaker 1: I can't really get hard on him. I say, but
Speaker 1: you know what you still you are right now, right,
Speaker 1: so you let me know, and I promise you I
Speaker 1: won't be mad, I'll back away a little bit. I
Speaker 1: stepped back a little bit if you want me to
Speaker 1: back away from you, But if you want me to,
Speaker 1: if you want to be great, I gotta continue to
Speaker 1: coach you like this. And I said, you make it
Speaker 1: to say. I say, listen, this is a dad Is
Speaker 1: this a dad and side talk? It's not a coach
Speaker 1: coach coach has and drake and talk this right now.
Speaker 1: It's it's a dead and father sign talk right now. Okay.
Speaker 1: So I promise you I won't be mad as I
Speaker 1: if you want me to just come down a little bit,
Speaker 1: back away, because I understand you still young. He looked
Speaker 1: me in my eye and said, Daddy, I want you
Speaker 1: to coach me hard. I want you. I said this, aw,
Speaker 1: you really really won't dred. I promise you I won't
Speaker 1: be mad. He said, Dad, continue to coach me this way.
Speaker 1: And tears ran from the top of my head all
Speaker 1: the way to the tip of my pinky toe. And
Speaker 1: he looked, man, his eyes got watery. That's when I
Speaker 1: knew here for real. He said, don't let up on me.
Speaker 1: Do not let up on the coach me the way
Speaker 1: you've been coaching me. Because I want to be great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got chills right now, man. That because that you know, honestly, man,
Speaker 1: and you know it too when you when you hear that,
Speaker 1: that's different because that's that's not talent no more. That's
Speaker 1: not him being a freakish athlete. That's him actually wanting
Speaker 1: to be really like wanting to be wanting to be great,
Speaker 1: wanting to be great. Man, I I do. I have
Speaker 1: a quarterback coach that comes trained him once a week, um,
Speaker 1: just to work on his fundamental is a little bit.
Speaker 1: And um, the guy that does it, he does like
Speaker 1: the top top ten. I think they have like an
Speaker 1: episode every year for the top ten quarterbacks and he going,
Speaker 1: he does training for all the quarterback and he goes
Speaker 1: around to a couple of colleges and work out with
Speaker 1: some of the kids. But he's actually training my my son,
Speaker 1: like once a week. And he said, you know what,
Speaker 1: he said, you're a son. I only coach two kids
Speaker 1: that's under eight, your son and another son because he's
Speaker 1: my close friend. He said, it's hard to coach eight
Speaker 1: years because way I coach. After the first day they
Speaker 1: break down crime and they said they don't want to
Speaker 1: do it no more. It's too much precious, too much thinking.
Speaker 1: He said, I was so shocked. He said, I did
Speaker 1: all I can to break your son to make your
Speaker 1: son said he's not ready for it, and he didn't.
Speaker 1: He said, all your son did with pout, but he
Speaker 1: never quit. He said, that's that's that's shocking right there,
Speaker 1: that he really really wants to do it at the
Speaker 1: early age and you know early too, man, because that
Speaker 1: because because that you can't teach them that there there's
Speaker 1: no way for you to make him tough, no made up,
Speaker 1: but no way to make them want to go out
Speaker 1: and do that. So if he got if he had
Speaker 1: that mentality now and when he was you know, eight
Speaker 1: years old, Yeah yeah, man, Hey, So so what else, man?
Speaker 1: What else you got going? You're coaching, you got you know,
Speaker 1: some business, some businesses going. Uh. Man, I'm really really
Speaker 1: like you. We both know when you in the game
Speaker 1: of sports, man, it's really no faminize. So the minute
Speaker 1: I returned, Man, I said, you know what it's is
Speaker 1: for me as the fartherest time of me to have makeup.
Speaker 1: Tip says, I wanna make up time, like I want
Speaker 1: to really really be able to see my kids go
Speaker 1: to school, like when I played ball. I've never seen
Speaker 1: my kids go to school on the first Dale school.
Speaker 1: I never seen him get dressed for school, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Only little school classes and little shows
Speaker 1: that I devil got a chance to attend. It. I
Speaker 1: say no. For me, it's more makeup time. And I
Speaker 1: just had another one. He's three now. But I'm at
Speaker 1: the point right now where I'm just it's it's it's
Speaker 1: all that that. It's all about the kids now, so
Speaker 1: I'm more relaxed. I got to own a couple of
Speaker 1: commercial spots, a couple of running properly home. But other
Speaker 1: than that, I'm just shipping back. Man, just and join
Speaker 1: my family. Doe doe, he my dude. Man, appreciate you
Speaker 1: for coming on. I'm gonna be out there too that
Speaker 1: when that jackets, so look in the crowd. I'll come
Speaker 1: find you, okay. Man, appreciate you, guys, have me man
Speaker 1: my dog man appreciate you. Okay, y'all gotta take it easy.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys for listening. Then to another lights out podcast
Speaker 1: with me Sean Merriman. Uh and that was dope. Man.
Speaker 1: You're a couple of things right. So the cool thing
Speaker 1: about me doing this podcast is you know you you
Speaker 1: play with a lot of guys. You play against a
Speaker 1: lot of guys. It's some some guys here and there.
Speaker 1: You don't get a chance to be around that much
Speaker 1: because you don't get a chance to talk to him.
Speaker 1: And you see what they're doing a football field, You
Speaker 1: see how great they are and what they do in
Speaker 1: their craft. But to hear what they got going on
Speaker 1: and and uh, Devin Heston has a ton of going on,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad he's getting that chance to spend with
Speaker 1: his kids. Uh right after they finished going FIRA. I
Speaker 1: mean he he has some explosive athletic kid. Man. It's
Speaker 1: all in the gene, so defensive players, ten fifteen years
Speaker 1: from now, you're gonna be hating another Haster out there
Speaker 1: in the field. So I appreciate Devin Haster for coming on.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for listening. Then to another Lights Out
Speaker 1: of podcast, meet Sean Merriman. Uh and keep turning in
Speaker 1: uh leaving these great reviews subscribing. I get a chance
Speaker 1: to read them here and there. I try to comment,
Speaker 1: but most important lead Bell's reviews. Man. It helps out
Speaker 1: a lot. Thanks for following us. Next week we're back again.