Many happy returns

 

Cold, Hard Football Facts provide the ultimate vehicle for evaluating gridiron performance. By road-testing theories, crunching numbers and considering context, definitive conclusions can be drawn about a particular player's value.

 

In general, superlatives like "best" and "greatest" are largely reserved until the end of the ride. It is only after a large body of work has been produced that an individual's career can be given a thorough inspection and properly judged relative to his peers.

 

Dante Hall of the Chiefs is the rare exception to that rule. Playing just his sixth season in the NFL, he has already become the greatest scorer on kickoff returns that the game has ever seen.

 

Hall tied an NFL record on Sunday by registering a kickoff-return touchdown for the sixth time. His 96-yarder gave Kansas City an early 24-6 lead over Philly, but the Eagles rallied for a 37-31 victory. Hall now shares the career mark for kickoff-return TDs with Ollie Matson, Gale Sayers, Travis Williams and Mel Gray.

 

What makes Hall the best of the group? He also returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the playoffs, something that none of the other four ever accomplished. In his only postseason game to date, a 38-31 loss to Indy on Jan. 11, 2003, Hall took one back 92 yards for a score. Combining both the regular season and the playoffs, he has seven touchdowns on kickoff returns, putting him alone at the top.

 

Sayers, the former Bears star who made the Hall of Fame despite a career that lasted just seven years, established the standard for return productivity. His average of 30.6 yards per kickoff return, set over 30 years ago, is still the record today among those with a minimum of 75 returns. In his first three seasons, Sayers scored touchdowns on six kickoff returns and two punt returns – but his combined total remained at eight until his early retirement. However, he returned just 118 punts and kickoffs in his career, giving him an amazing touchdown rate of 6.7 percent (8 TDs on 118 returns). No player, not even Hall (10 TDs on 386 returns, or 2.6 percent), can touch that figure.

 

Actually, Hall's impact on the return game was much less immediate. He entered the league in 2000 but saw limited action in just five games. His playing time increased in 2001, when he participated in 13 games and established himself as the Chiefs' primary return man, but he failed to reach the end zone with any of his 75 chances on punts and kickoffs.

 

Hall played his first 16-game season with Kansas City in 2002, and he quickly became one of the most feared returners in the league. Taking two punts and a kickoff back for scores, he was subsequently named to the Pro Bowl. For his career, Hall has four punt-return touchdowns to go with his six kickoff-return TDs (seven counting playoffs). Including the postseason, he now has played in 62 straight games for the Chiefs, providing the driving force behind their phenomenal special teams.

 

At just 5'8" and 187 pounds, Hall is definitely a compact model, but he possesses great wheels. He is a master at changing direction and weaving through traffic. He has been dubbed "The Human Joystick" for his variety of moves and uncanny ability to stop and start, much like a player in a video game.

 

Appropriately, Hall's career highlights almost seem computer-generated. In 2003, he became the first player in league history to return a kick for a touchdown in four consecutive games. Those record-setting TDs, on two kickoff returns and two punt returns, covered an average distance of 91 yards.

 

Kansas City has progressively used Hall more as a wide receiver as well. In Sunday's game, he also added a 15-yard touchdown reception, which was by far the shortest score of his career. Still, Hall holds the NFL record for longest average length of regular-season touchdowns, for those with at least 10 TDs. His 15 career touchdowns – six on kickoffs, four on punt returns and five on receptions – have averaged 78.8 yards.

 

Counting the first four tilts of 2005, Hall has played in 70 regular-season games. With ten kick-return touchdowns to his credit, the easy math tells you that he has scored on a kick return in one out of every seven games he's played. His return-TDs-per-game percentage of .143 is the best in NFL history. Only the legendary Sayers (.132) is close.

 

For combined touchdowns on kickoffs and punts, Hall now stands in third place on the all-time list. He trails only Brian Mitchell and Eric Metcalf, who played 14 and 13 seasons, respectively. With 1,070 career returns, Mitchell has far and away the most of any player in the history of the league, easily leading both categories. Metcalf, meanwhile, has 351 punt returns, the second-most in NFL history behind Mitchell's 463.

 

Here's a breakdown of the six most prolific scorers on kick returns (active players are denoted with an asterisk):

 

 

In less than half as many full seasons as the other players on the list, Hall has surpassed all but two of them. Mitchell and Metcalf each had one kickoff-return TD in the playoffs, so taking the postseason into consideration doesn't change the differential. It should also be noted that Mitchell and Metcalf reached their levels by logging considerable miles on the odometer, and both continued to add to their totals very late in their careers. Mitchell was still returning kicks for touchdowns in his 11th, 12th and 13th seasons, while Metcalf's last return TD came in his 12th year. 

 

Of the game's most productive return men, Deion Sanders is the only other one who's still playing, but at age 38, he hasn't been fielding any kicks for Baltimore. Meanwhile, Hall just turned 27, so he is still in his prime...and has plenty of time. The Human Joystick occupies the pole position for rewriting the record books when it comes to returns for touchdowns.

 

Coaches may love long, sustained drives, but Hall finds them unnecessary. Whenever he gets his hands on a kick or punt, Chiefs fans can expect to be taken on a dazzling joyride. Next stop: the end zone.