Steve Tasker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve Tasker
Date of birth	April 10, 1962
Place of birth	Smith Center, Kansas
Position(s)	WR, Special teams
College	Northwestern
NFL Draft	1985 / Round 9
Pro Bowls	1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995
Statistics	Pro Football Reference
Team(s)
1985 1986-1997	Houston Oilers Buffalo Bills

Steven Jay Tasker (born April 10, 1962 in Smith Center, Kansas) is a former American football wide receiver who played for the Houston Oilers and the Buffalo Bills of the NFL. He was drafted out of Northwestern University, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, by the Oilers in the ninth round (226th overall) of the 1985 NFL Draft.

Although he was listed as a wide receiver, and played occasionally at that position during his career (especially in his later years with the Bills), he is mostly remembered for his work on special teams. Despite a diminutive stature by NFL standards (5'8", 183 lb, or 1.73 m, 83 kg), Tasker gained a reputation as one of the league's most feared hitters as he covered both punt and kickoff returns (known as being a gunner), forcing numerous fumbles by opposing return men. Contributing to his success in breaking up kick returns was his great speed; Tasker was almost always the first player to reach the return man, gaining an advantage of several seconds for his team. He was the first player to establish himself as a major star almost exclusively through special teams play without being either a kicker or a return man. Tasker played in seven Pro Bowls (1987 and 1990-1995) as a special-teamer and was named the game's MVP in 1993. Many consider him to be the greatest special teams player of all time with a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame awaiting in the years to come. In his last career game, he was ejected for protesting a muffed Bills punt and bumping an official.

Tasker currently does color commentary for CBS football telecasts as well as play-by-play for the local broadcasts of Bills pre-season games, working along side his former coach, Marv Levy, who also did color commentary until becoming the General Manager of the Bills in 2006.