Kickoff curse almost ended before it began

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© St. Petersburg Times
published January 10, 2002

TAMPA -- They say it went something like this:

He waited patiently at the about the 8-yard line for the ball to descend from the heavens. When it did, he safely tucked it away and peeled out for the far end zone.

They say it was those first few steps that did it. After three, maybe four, he was running wide open, galloping wildly as if someone had taped the winning lottery ticket to the goal post.

They say he took it to the house the old-fashioned way. No laterals or fake reverses. No fancy spin moves or head fakes to elude the opposition. After all, this was 1976.

In fact, they say Isaac Hagins barely broke stride those 92 yards, piercing the wedge at precisely the right moment and rocketing virtually untouched along the hash marks, never looking back.

"Ike had great speed," said Tampa Bay's NFLPA president, Harold Hart, Hagins' roommate in training camp. "Man, when he hit a seam, church was out. I mean, when he hit it, he'd take off like a scalded dog."

Be careful these days when you tell people about the albatross the Bucs carry around their necks, about how they are the only NFL team that hasn't returned a kickoff for a touchdown, because it's not true. It's been done.

Twice.

Oh, if you want to get technical, the Bucs haven't done it in a regular-season game. But after 1,545 kickoffs without a return for a touchdown, can't we cut this team a little slack?

That 92-yarder by Hagins came in a preseason game against Chicago. Amazingly, he followed it up the next week in another preseason game with a 102-yarder against Cincinnati.

And ever since, nothing. Nada. Twenty-six seasons. They hadn't even come close until Aaron Stecker nearly took that one back against the Saints three Sundays ago, going 86 yards before getting tackled at the 14-yard line. Before that the longest was a 63-yarder by Karl Williams in 1996.

The optimist in you wants to think it's just a matter of time before it finally happens. That surely it's all going to come together at some point, blocking and timing synchronizing with speed and fate to produce that magical moment when someone in pewter and red takes it all the way to the house.

But the fact is this kick return thing has been doomed from the get-go.

That inaugural season in '76, the Bucs got Hart, the AFC's top kick returner, in the expansion draft. He had returned one 102 yards for the Raiders the previous season, when he led the conference with a 30.5-yard average.

But, as luck would have it, Hart tore up a knee the first day of Bucs training camp and was lost for the season. He would never get a chance to return one for the Bucs because they shipped him off the next season.

Even Hagins' situation was a bit odd. After he took those two preseason kickoffs back for touchdowns, the Bucs were so impressed with him they promptly stuck him on the inactive list, never giving him a shot at taking one back in the regular season.

"We were a typical first-year operation," Hart said chuckling, still amazed at the absurdity of putting Hagins on the shelf that season. "We did some things that weren't normal."

Hagins eventually got his chances over the next four years and led the team one season, but he never again broke the big one.

People like Hart, who know what it takes to be an effective return man, say the great ones usually don't dance. They have one speed: all-out. And they run in one general direction: straight ahead.

Hart has studied the Bucs returners over the years and said he has seen too much dancing and not enough full-throttle running.

He likes Williams and Stecker and thinks both have breakaway ability. But his favorite is Frank Murphy.

"I just think he has speed and he really hits that thing right away," Hart said. "Stecker is a good runner, too, but he has a tendency to work his feet. As you dance, everything is going to close in on you. All of it is timing and reading on the run."

Everyone, of course, has their own opinion.

Rest assured, the Bucs will get one. Maybe not Saturday against the Eagles. Maybe not next season, either. But they'll get one.

But, just to be on the safe side, does anybody know what kind of speed Hagins' son, Shun, has in the 40?

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