IStock Photo 4267491 © Brandon Laufenberg

Too easily forgotten amid the excitement and surprises of the 2009-2010 NFL playoff season is a remarkable record set by Josh Cribbs of the last-place Cleveland Browns. Against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 20, weeks after any playoff hopes for Cleveland had been crushed, Cribbs scored his seventh—and then, the next quarter, his eighth—career kickoff-return touchdowns, a feat no other NFL player has accomplished.

The kickoff return is one of those moments in NFL games when everybody has their eye on the football. Nobody (well, almost nobody) is checking out the cheerleaders or trying to flag down the hot dog man. The ball leaves the kicker’s foot and hurtles through the air, and the fans wait in anticipation as the receiver readies himself to catch and run. A long kickoff or punt return can both excite the crowd and swing the momentum of a game by giving an offense good field position—or even putting 6 points on the scoreboard. The odds that an NFL punt will be returned for a touchdown are 1 in 165.1, while the odds that an NFL kickoff will be returned for a touchdown are an even lower 1 in 269.7—the same as the odds that a given person in the Northeast will be the victim of a reported violent crime in a year (1 in 269.7).

The 2009 season has brought us a record-breaking set of kick returns. Besides Cribbs’s feat, on October 19 Eddie Royal of the Denver Broncos became the eleventh player in NFL history to return both a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown in the same game. Also during that contest, Darren Sproles of the San Diego Chargers returned a punt for a touchdown. Those 3 combined scores tied an NFL record for most return touchdowns in a single game.

More NFL history was made on November 1 when Ted Ginn Jr. of the Miami Dolphins returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, one for 100 yards and another for 101 yards. Not only did he become the first player ever to score two touchdowns in one game of over 100 yards, he also became the first player since 1967 to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same quarter of one game. Ironically, Ginn Jr. had been a starting wide receiver all season, but because of underperformance had been replaced in the lineup before the game and limited to kick-returning duties.

The current NFL record for most career kick-return touchdowns is 13, held by Brian Mitchell, who returned 9 punts and 4 kickoffs for touchdowns during his 14-year career with Washington, Philadelphia, and the New York Giants. Mitchell, who returned 463 punts and managed to score on one in 51.4 returns, was over 3 times more likely to score than the average player. He also returned 607 kickoffs during his career and was able to find the end zone on one in 151.8 kickoff returns—nearly twice as often as the average player.

Since Mitchell’s retirement, a new wave of return specialists has taken aim at his record, led by Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears. When Hester entered the NFL in 2006, he quickly became one of the most dynamic kick returners the league has ever seen. During the 2006 and 2007 seasons, Hester returned 7 of 89 punts—one in 12.7—and 4 of 63 kickoffs—one in 15.8—for touchdowns; however, in 2008, he failed to take any of his 32 punt chances or 31 kickoff chances all the way to the end zone. Hester has been slowly phased out of return responsibilities as he has become a bigger part of the Bears offense as a starting wide receiver, but he remains the most likely candidate to break Mitchell’s remarkable career return touchdown record.

He might start looking over his shoulder at Josh Cribbs, though.