Devin Hester solidified his status as the greatest returner in National Football League history after setting the record for return touchdown during Atlanta Falcon's 56-14 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday.

Hester took a punt from Michael Koenen in the second quarter of their match and found space to zip around the Bucs' defense, leading to a 62-yard return touchdown, which was the 20th of his career.

Hester officially surpassed the 19 return touchdowns of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. Curiously, Sanders was watching the game from the sidelines, witnessing how Hester paid tribute to him by putting his left hand behind his head while high-stepping, similar to Sanders' signature move.

"It's tough to break the record of the guy who is my No. 1 mentor," Hester said of Sanders via ESPN. "I'm kind of emotional right now."

Aside from the historic return touchdown, Hester's presence was greatly felt during the blowout win as he also scored his first career rushing touchdown and recovered a fumble.

After the match, Hester, who said that Thursday's performance was the best of his career, took a swipe at his former team, saying that he is very happy in Atlanta now unlike in his final four years with the Chicago Bears.

"I'm happy, man," Hester said via the NFL. "You know what, I'm going to say it, man. I wasn't happy the last three, four years in Chicago, because things wasn't going the way I expect. I would always have a great camp, have all the receivers saying and coaches saying I had the best camp out of all the receivers. And once the season start off, I'm not there."

Previous reports indicated that Hester did not mesh well with Jay Cutler, which, he said, is way different from his current situation, praising quarterback Matt Ryan and coach Mike Smith.

"You know, and I got a quarterback now that, he loves even the walk-ons, man. And the coaches know how to get the ball to me, you know, make plays for me. And I'm excited for this season, man. This is only the beginning for our team," Hester said.

Watch Hester's 20th career return touchdown below.

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