When the Chicago Bears face off against the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson will return to the scene of the worst moment of his NFL career (one that will surely be on a loop leading up to kickoff).
After the Bears battled back to a 15-12 lead, they were just 25 seconds away from their fourth straight win. But a string of mistakes (including a 13-yard completion that made this all possible) gave the Commanders one last chance to execute a Hail Mary, and Stevenson was the face of it all.
Before the play, Stevenson was spotted talking to the crowd as the ball was snapped and he wasn’t able to get in the right place. To make matters worse, Stevenson was the one who tipped the ball back and into the hands of wide receiver Noah Brown for the game-winning 52-yard touchdown.
Stevenson was mocked relentlessly, the Bears went on to lose 10 straight games, which led to Matt Eberflus’ mid-season firing, and Stevenson wasn’t the same player he was before that infamous play.
“With that incident, the biggest thing I did was continually push it aside,” Stevenson said in an interview with The Athletic. “And rationalize it. Like, ‘Every football player has a bad play.’ Instead of looking at it head-on and accepting that that was me in that moment and that I needed to fix some things about myself.”
Stevenson admitted that he let the play linger and affect his play on the field. But he also realized he hadn’t forgiven himself for that moment.
“I was playing football not to make plays but to not make mistakes,” he said. “I was being self-conscious instead of playing with the confidence that I do this for a living and I’m good at it. I was walking on eggshells when I didn’t need to be.”
Now, as Stevenson prepares to return to the site of his biggest blunder, he’s in a better place and determined to rewrite the narrative and slay his demons.
“I’m fixin’ to write the f— out of this,” Stevenson said. “I’m trying to write one of this year’s best sellers. … And this might be the best chapter — the fact that I’m walking back in there with a smile on my face and ready to walk back out with a smile.”
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson discusses returning to scene of Hail Mary disaster
Reporting by Alyssa Barbieri, Bears Wire / Bears Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
