MIAMI – Devin Hester got the Super Bowl off to a lightning-quick start, becoming the first player to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown.

Hester ran the opening kick back 92 yards Sunday night, staking the Chicago Bears to a 7-0 lead over the Indianapolis Colts.

It was the eighth time in Super Bowl history that a kickoff was returned for a touchdown. Desmond Howard has the longest kickoff return in the game’s history, a 99-yarder for Green Bay against New England in 1997.

Hester, who played college ball at Miami, set an NFL record with six kick returns for touchdowns this season and was the only rookie on The Associated Press All-Pro team.

Hester caught the ball near the left sideline, cut back to the middle, made a slew of Colts miss and then outsprinted three Indianapolis chasers to the end zone. Bears coach Lovie Smith followed Hester down the sideline, his hands raised in the touchdown symbol, while Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri knelt on the turf, throwing his hands up in disgust.

The next time the Colts kicked off, they went with a squib kick.

Hester’s runback matched the feat of Ohio State’s Ted Ginn Jr. in the Bowl Championship Series title game a month earlier. Ginn took the opening kick back 93 yards for a touchdown against Florida, but the Buckeyes wound up losing 41-14 to the Gators in college football’s national championship game.

Injury ends Benson’s Super Bowl early

Cedric Benson’s star-crossed Bears career continued Sunday night at the Super Bowl.

Benson left the game against the Colts for good with 1 minute 33 seconds left in the first quarter after twisting his left knee at the end of a 4-yard run. He walked off the field under his own power and tested the knee on the sideline by trying to cut on it before the Bears’ training staff ruled him out.

It ended a bad night for Benson, who carried twice for minus-1 yard and lost a fumble when Colts safety Bob Sanders jarred the ball loose and Dwight Freeney recovered.

The loss changed the complexion of the Bears running game and prevented them from using the one-two punch of Benson and Thomas Jones that had been so effective in the postseason. Without Benson to wear down the Colts defensive front as he did in the NFC championship game, more pressure fell on Jones to carry the load by himself.

The extent of the injury wasn’t known and Benson has all off-season to heal. But the impact his loss has on the running game serves as a reminder how important Jones is to the Bears’ big picture. That will be a factor when trade rumors start heating up in March involving Jones, entering the final season of a contract scheduled to pay him $2.25 million.

Jones’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has a history of trying to negotiate contracts for players in the final year of their deals and nobody would be surprised if Jones wanted to do so. The Bears invested $16 million in a signing bonus for Benson in 2005 and that has led to speculation he will be the featured back next season.

But a knee injury in the final game of the season might give pause to some people at Halas Hall.

Has Jones, whose 52-yard run in the first quarter Sunday was the Bears’ only big play in the first half, done enough the past two seasons to earn an extension? Can the Bears afford to risk going into next season counting heavily on Benson without Jones if concerns linger about Benson’s second knee injury in two seasons?

Rain falls first time on Super Bowl

For the first time, the Super Bowl was all wet.

Steady rain fell Sunday on the Super Bowl, a dubious first for the NFL’s title game between the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. It chased some ticketholders away at halftime, forced many to watch the game in concourses on television and generally made things miserable for those who spent big money on seats.

And the on-field play seemed to suffer, too: The teams combined for eight turnovers, five by the Bears, who wound up losing to Peyton Manning and the Colts, 29-17.

“It’s miserable,” said Pablo Santos, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Miami office.

Officially, less than a half-inch of rain fell on Dolphin Stadium throughout the day. Yet the persistent drizzle, combined with northeast winds that gusted to 21 mph, made the Super Bowl soggy and sloppy.

Vinatieri kicks his way into history

Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri became the all-time leader in Super Bowl field goals when he made three Sunday night, giving him seven for his career.

He passed former San Francisco 49ers kicker Ray Wersching, who held the previous record of five, and was one short of tying the record for most field goals in one Super Bowl.

After connecting on a 29-yarder early in the second quarter, Vinatieri missed wide left from 36 yards as time expired before halftime. It proved to be just a hiccup, though, in yet another fine Super Bowl performance.

Vinatieri made both his field-goal attempts in the third quarter, first from 24 yards and then from 20.

“There’s lots of ups and downs over the course of a game,” Vinatieri said. “You just go forward with it and forget about it. The next one’s the most important one.”

Diem, Harper sit out second half for Colts

Colts starting cornerback Nick Harper and right tackle Ryan Diem injured ankles in the first half of the Super Bowl on Sunday night and didn’t start the second half after being listed as questionable at halftime.

Harper played in the first half with a sprained left ankle and had not practiced since hurting it against New England in the AFC championship game. He was replaced at the start of the second half by second-year defensive back Marlin Jackson, who has played both safety and cornerback. Jackson was the Colts’ first-round draft pick in 2005.

Rookie Charlie Johnson started the second half in place of Diem.

Tight end Ben Utecht also left early in the third quarter after taking a big hit on a 9-yard reception. The team said he bruised his ribs and was questionable to return. Bryan Fletcher replaced him in the lineup.