Detroit Lions: The NFL's "Special Needs" Team

(pictured above: new Lion Dennis Northcutt, as a competent punt returner for the Cleveland Browns) He’d field the punt, no matter what—even if a swarm of would-be tacklers were surrounding him. The fair catch wasn’t an option. Often, the opponents would have prayed for his hand to go up, as a matter of fact. Then a jitterbug move here and there, a sidestep, and then he’d emerge from the scrum, bursting into daylight. The late sports writer Joe Falls had it right about Lemuel Barney. “Lem Barney was like the National Anthem,” Falls once wrote. “He made people stand up.” Barney was the greatest punt returner I’ve ever seen, mainly because he was fearless. Never was that more evident than during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Tiger Stadium, in 1970. The punt actually had rolled to nearly a stop on the grass, with several Bengals players surrounding it, waiting for it to stop completely. But then Barney snatche...