Power of Caring
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INSIDE THE NFL

Many, Many Happy Returns

by Peter King

Posted: Wed October 7, 1998
 
Last year 29 punts or kickoffs were returned for touchdowns in the NFL; through five weeks this season, 15 had already been brought back for scores. One of the more scintillating return men has been the Ravens' Jermaine Lewis, who has two touchdowns on 10 punt returns (and a 23.1-yard average), giving him four in his last 24 punt returns.

Lewis, a 1996 fifth-round draft pick out of Maryland, put himself through a clever off-season regimen, fielding about 200 balls a week fed into a punting machine by Baltimore special teams coach Scott O'Brien. "It's so important for a return man to feel confident," O'Brien says. "Jermaine would catch one ball, put it [under his arm]; catch a second one, put it away; catch a third, put it away; and then catch a fourth. He'd have all these balls in his arms and keep trying to catch more. He got so confident catching and taking off by making it hard on himself in practice."

Issue date: October 12, 1998

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