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All right, happy new year.

Here we go.

Here we go.

It is a brand new edition of the NFL Explained podcast.

Mike M. As always, joined by edition of the NFL Explained podcast. Mike Yam, as always

joined by my Super Bowl champ, Michael Robinson. Are you a big New Year's resolution guy?

No, I'm not yams, because oftentimes we don't get our resolutions, and I have a theory

behind it, but that might be a whole other podcast. You know, this is the Gregorian New Year. Okay, this isn't the earthly New Year. The Earthly New Year's in March during the Equinox. Are you just making up stuff? I've never even heard of this deal. No, it's not. It's not. It's literally for real that the New Year for the Earth starts during the Equinox when life springs back up into existence. You know, when the vegetables grow. Come on, yams. I thought the vegetables are always growing. I am not the person to dive into this topic with you. Here it was. And look, we're going to be, we got a lot of actual football stuff to discuss. In fact, it is the art of the punt return.

Little did I know that I was going to get like a lesson.

I just thought you were going to tell me like, oh, yeah, I'm going to fast or, you know, you do work out. I don't know. Maybe I'm not going to work out as much. No, I'm going to work out. I'm going to keep working out. And yes, I do fast. But again, I'm telling you, that's why people's New Year's resolutions don't always come to fruition, because you're doing it on the wrong part of the year, man. You got to do it when life is coming up. Not when things are getting cold and it's desolate and it's cold and there's no vegetables. Come on yams. All right. I'm on it and I will try to do some Google searching when we finish up this record, but I think so people are like, the punt return. Take me through this year. I actually was pretty excited. I got the text. I was told, hey, this is going to be the topic on this week's episode. And sometimes I think people are like, well, special teams, I don't think they get enough love. I don't think special teamers get nearly enough love. No, we don't. And I'm going to say we, because that was my job for almost nine years in the national football. You know what I'm saying, right? Like it's, it can make her break a game. And when it goes well, it can go great. And if it doesn't go well, it's like a nine situation. You know what Yeah, usually, you know, when you look at highlights, when you're a special teamer or core special teamer as I was with the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks,

oftentimes our plays don't get on the highlight packages of these, you know, shows, right?

Unless it's something really, really bad or really, really good.

If you're just doing your job normal, you don't get any recognition. There are certain players that keep you watching, no matter what, you know, if it's an offensive player, if it's a defensive player, very rarely are there the special performers, the return guys, where you go, you know what, this dude might be able to take it to the house. Like, I'm not going to, this is not the time for the bathroom break because I want to see this

guy and see what he can do.

Demand Hester, for me, is one of those players. But I think we should start with a little bit of the history around the punt return. This is actually something that's been a part of the game. The first punt returned for a touchdown.

Week two of the 1920 season.

1920. punt returned for a touchdown. Week two of the 1920 season.

1920?

Yes.

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