At some point soon, we're all going to stop talking about Tyrique Stevenson. Life moves quickly in the NFL, and the Bears have to start worrying about going across the country to play the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals pretty soon here. Before any of us know it, Stevenson's Hail Mary disaster will fade away into (relative) obscurity.
Not today though!
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Today, Stevenson is the main character of NFL Twitter. I'd say it's not entirely fair, but that'd be a lie – given how pooly everything went on the Bears' last play of Week 8 – and Stevenson's role in all of it – a light morning of memes is probably the appropriate punishment. (Plus whatever 4-figure fine presumably shows up at his locker this week.)
To his credit, however, Stevenson stood in front of Chicago media on Monday morning and took questions about the Hail Mary. The second-year corner diagnosed what went wrong, explained what he was doing talking to fans in the middle of the game, and offered an apology for the entire deal.
Tyrique Stevenson explains his side of Bears’ Hail Mary blunder
"The play was I was supposed to box out 85," he told reporters on Monday. "At the beginning of the play I was cheering on, just cheering with some Bears fans ... So I would say the only regret I have from yesterday is just letting this team down from working hard and coming back and putting ourselves in the W column. You know, just for me to be out of place and you know do something that’s out of character for me and cost us the loss."
I'm not sure I totally buy that he was simply cheering on the impending Bears win with fans, but whatever. I don't even mind that he was doing it, but you gotta get it out of the way before, you know, the ball is snapped. Lesson 1: know when the ball is snapped.
And maybe Stevenson's media availability was more team-mandated than volunteered, but credit where it's due: answering a bunch of questions about the biggest mistake of your professional career can't be fun. Having to do it right after you apologize to your teammates about it must be even worse. If anyone was allowed to come into work and talk about how they have a Real Case Of The Mondays, it's him.