One last lingering memory of Joe McKnight, fatally shot outside New Orleans on Thursday, is the bright shining moment he provided Jets and NFL fans with his kickoff returns in 2011-12.
"Devin Hester's the best now. Hopefully I can have my name next to his or around his somewhere. That'd be great," McKnight told me earnestly back in November 2012, in the middle of that second season as the Jets' primary kick returner. "I used to look up to him. He wore No. 4 and I wore No. 4 [in high school]. I always wanted to go to the University of Miami.