‘Fail Mary’ backlash still hurts Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — One year removed from the costly play that defined his second season with the Chicago Bearscornerback Tyrique Stevenson said the backlash he received for his role in tipping a Hail Mary pass against the Washington Commanders “still hurts.”

“It was harsh,” Stevenson said. “It hurt my feelings. That’s the best way I can explain it. It just hurt my feelings being a football player and having one of those mistakes that’s going to linger around. Even when my son grows up, I’ve got to explain that to him.

“It definitely hurt. But just use it as fuel.”

The Bears were seconds away from beating the Commanders in Week 8 last season after Caleb Williams led the offense down the field to score a touchdown and convert a 2-point attempt with 27 seconds remaining.

When Washington lined up for the final play of the game, Stevenson was facing the opposite direction while jawing with fans in the stands at Northwest Stadium.

Once Stevenson realized the Commanders had snapped the ball, he sprinted toward the back of the end zone and inadvertently tipped the ball into the hands of Washington wide receiver Noah Brown.

The Commanders won 18-15 en route to reaching the NFC Championship Game. The loss for Chicago, meanwhile, marked the first of 10 straight for the Bears, who fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and coach Matt Eberflus along the way.

Stevenson apologized in a team meeting the following day. Though he was backed by teammates for owning up to his mistake, not everyone was quick to move past the blunder.

“They gave me support,” Stevenson recalled Wednesday. “Being honest, I got a couple side-eyes. But that comes with, like I was saying on the [Bears safety Kevin Byard‘s] podcast, this is what we do for a living. This is who we are in some cases. And the best thing we can do is go out there and make great plays.

“I put a bad play on film. The best thing they could do was come around and put their arm around me and be like, ‘We got you.’ That’s what they showed me all last year.”

The Bears (2-2, 0-2), coming off a bye, travel this week to face the Commanders on “Monday Night Football.” Since 2013, Chicago is 2-10 in games directly after a bye week, and Stevenson expects that given his recent history, fans will attempt to take his focus off the game once again.

“Going back to a hostile environment, they’re going to do their best job to rattle me as much as they can,” Stevenson said. “The best thing I can do is come out here and show these 10 guys I’m locked in and ready to go.”

New Bears coach Ben Johnson said it’s important for cornerbacks to have “short memories.”

“Sometimes you’re left on an island for 12 plays and no action comes your way and then, all of a sudden, something comes your way,” Johnson said. “If it’s a bad play, you got to be able to erase it, and if it’s a good play, same thing. You’ve got to turn on to the next one.”

Stevenson’s teammates say what happened against Washington has no bearing on the type of player he is currently.

“That s— ended after that,” cornerback Kyler Gordon told ESPN. “He took it in, apologized, and I feel like from then on, he’s been that way — that [he’s] not going to let people create this narrative about him. Go out there, still do what I do, and I feel like that’s what he’s going to keep his focus on every week.”

As Stevenson reflected on the amount of change he has experienced professionally and personally since Week 8 of the 2024 season, which included the birth of his son, Tyrique Jr., he views the hard lesson he learned on the field as one he can apply to any situation for the rest of his life.

“I definitely appreciate that, because I would have never changed,” Stevenson said. “I had success with my mindset and what I was doing at that time. And I felt like with that situation, it was just preparing me to grow and to mature and to be able to set whatever situation that comes with this game … and be able to stand and look these men in the face when things don’t go my way.”