Speedy Super Bowl TD will score free pizza for many fans

Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI in 2007. It took 14 seconds.

Fast-forward to Feb. 4’s Super Bowl: If anyone scores a faster touchdown to open the game — by kick return or other means — everyone in America gets a free pizza.

Well, check that: Everyone who is registered in Hut Rewards — Pizza Hut’s loyalty program — gets a free medium, two-topping pizza deposited to their accounts for redemption Feb. 8-11. The company says it has “several million” members and wants to entice many more before kickoff.

Guess who’s a member?

“We are trying to get people their pizza as fast as possible,” Hester tells USA TODAY, citing a new lower threshold for free pizza through its points program. “So what other guy can you think of faster than Devin Hester?”

(Don’t say Usain Bolt; it’s a rhetorical question.)

Hester’s Chicago Bears took a quick lead on his 92-yard return in that Super Bowl.

But the Indianapolis Colts mostly kicked away from Hester the rest of the way and won 29-17.

“We started off pretty good,” Hester says. “Unfortunately, we didn’t end it the way we wanted to.”

Pizza Hut says since 2011, including regular season and playoff games, touchdowns have been scored in the first 14 seconds of a game 15 times. Hester’s is the fastest touchdown in Super Bowl history — but not the fastest score. The Seattle Seahawks scored a safety 12 seconds into Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 as the Colts botched a snap on the first play from scrimmage. (But a quick safety won’t work for a free pie in this promotion: TDs only.)

Super Sunday is traditionally the busiest pizza day of the year, and Pizza Hut says it expects to sell more than 2 million pies that day, which it says is enough to give every fan in Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium (capacity more than 66,000) 30 pizzas each. (Pizza Hut is a sponsor of the NBC Super Bowl Pregame Show.)

Hester has the most punt returns for touchdowns in NFL history with 14, and his five kickoff returns for TDs give him the most combined kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns. Many observers believe he belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Hester agrees.

His 5-year-old son likes to watch the Super Bowl TD return on YouTube — and Hester likes to watch it with him. He figures he sees that return twice a day. But that is the camera-eye view. In his mind’s eye, Hester can still see the high arc of the ball on that opening kickoff. He can remember waiting for it to settle into his arms.

“The moment I caught the ball,” he says, “I thought, ‘Let’s set the tempo of the game. Let’s come out and hit them right in the mouth.’ ”

Now he’d like to hit America in the mouth, but only with free pizza.