Catch-23: Hester thinks too much
''Obviously,'' Bears special-teams coach Dave Toub said, ''after the catch, there's nobody like him.''
Yes, but Toub said two things there, didn't he? ''Nobody like him'' and ''after the catch.'' We've seen the problems with that second part lately, the catching part. Hester has become the scariest Bear, scaring us before the catch, scaring opponents after.
What has happened? For most of the season, Hester has been touchdowns and spotlight, NFL return records, endorsement options and even Deion Sanders, the mentor, showing awe.
And now he can't catch the ball cleanly? Did it all distract him?
That was my theory, anyway. But after talking to Hester, to Toub and to Bears special-teams king Brendon Ayanbadejo, a more elemental problem became clear. The way Hester returns, he could glide right through ''Dancing With the Stars,'' but when it comes to catching the ball, he's still back putting foot-shaped cutouts on the floor and counting one-two-three, two-two-three. He is part Pro Bowler, part Pop Warner.
''He's a work in progress,'' Toub said. ''He's still having the ball chase him instead of him chasing the ball. The ball's bouncing off his chest because he's moving forward.
''It's a matter of getting square, shoulders in, good fundamentals.''
Someone should have taught him this stuff a long time ago. After Hester's big game against St. Louis, everyone wanted to know what he's thinking when he's running. We should have asked what he was thinking when looking up at the ball. So now, a guy who has been a big part in why the Bears are playing the New Orleans Saints today in the NFC title game is thinking, ''Keep my elbows in, square off my shoulders, adjust my weight ...''
That's too much thinking.
Before Hester's reputation took over, teams were kicking right to him, so fundamentals weren't hard to keep right.
''Now, there's a lot of squib kicks, people just trying to not kick to the middle of the field,'' he said. ''It gets kind of frustrating to the point where I wasn't getting any punts or kicks at all. So I was just ... whatever they kick, I was just trying to force myself to catch it.''
He's trying to force it.
This isn't a knock on Hester's intelligence, but you put too many thoughts in any athlete's head, and it starts to interfere with the natural side of things. A pitcher can't be thinking about when to twist his wrist for a curveball. Not while pitching. A tennis player can't be running to the ball and also thinking, ''Continental grip, continental grip now!'' Those decisions have to be natural by game time.
Toub agreed with that. But he also said that for now, Hester has to be thinking because those basics ''aren't being done.''
This happens to hugely talented athletes way too often. Coaches see hugely talented kids and rely on them to do everything but don't actually coach them. It's amazing Hester can break records with such flaws in the basics.
In college at Miami, the coaches couldn't figure out where to play him. He'd break an amazing play, then do something so fundamentally wrong.
Toub scouted Hester in college and said he was an amazing runner, but he let too many balls hit the ground when he could have caught them. Maybe Hester wasn't comfortable with that part?
On Thursday, Toub took Hester to the Bears' indoor practice facility to take 105 punts, some from punter Brad Maynard and some from the JUGS machine.
Meanwhile, Ayanbadejo said some of Hester's problems come simply from being overly excited to make a big play: ''If he has a good run, we don't try to overhype it. We just pat him on the butt and say, 'Good job.' We want to keep an even keel with him.''
Hester always was spread too thin for a rookie. When Peanut Tillman got hurt, Hester had to spend practice time as a defensive back, which took focus away from returns.
Another potential distraction was the endorsement opportunities. Hester said he's putting them off until after the season.
''If they're there now,'' he said, ''they'll be there after the season.''
Remember Hester's runback last week against the Seattle Seahawks, the one called back because of a penalty? When the ball was in the air, Toub saw he was lining up in the wrong spot. He started waving his arms, yelling to move back. Hester caught it over his shoulder, then turned back and started flying through the colors.
A beautiful thing.
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