Devin Hester

BEARS RECEIVER/KICK RETURNER

On kicking to Devin Hester

I don't think I'd take a chance on it. During pregame I'll ask the opponent's punter, "What's your game plan?" The Eagles' punter said, "We're not kicking it to you." Players come up to me after a ball gets kicked out-of-bounds and say, "I'm glad ... because I did not feel like covering you."

On his mentor

As a kid I loved one player: Deion Sanders. The camera was always on him, and that's the type of player I saw myself as. When I was at Miami he heard how I felt and left a voice message: "This is Prime. I want to be in your life. Let me know." Now, not a day goes by without a text from him. He knows the ins and outs, and we talk about a lot outside of football: how to carry yourself, girls, money—all that.

His first TD

I was 11, playing linebacker in Pop Warner [near West Palm Beach, Fla.] and I got a pick on the first play of the game. I wanted to do Deion's thing. My first time playing organized football, and I was high-stepping it!

Life in Chicago

I'm known. When I go to eat, the waitress will say, "The guy across the room paid for your meal. You're taken care of." On the party scene, it's, "Devin, you don't have to wait in line. Come to the door." It's an honor.

On ex-fianc�e Tamara James of the WNBA's Washington Mystics