National Football League

Brandon Bostick's postgame interview was gut-wrenching

Published Jan. 18, 2015 8:48 p.m. ET

foxsports

Watching their team lose a 16-0 halftime lead — and a 19-7 advantage in the final three minutes — with a Super Bowl trip on the line will have Green Bay Packers fans pointing fingers in many directions in the coming days.

But after the sports talk shows have had their way with the Green Bay coaching staff for conservative late-game play-calling and with the defense for disintegrating when it mattered most, the singular lowlight seared into Titletown’s collective memory will be little-used tight end Brandon Bostick letting an onside kick hit him in the helmet without even slowing the ball down with his hands.

The worst part for Bostick — an athletic wonder who hasn’t been able to get regular playing time during his three seasons in Green Bay because of injuries and an inability to fully grasp the offense — is he’s well aware of the gravity of the play that contributed to Green Bay’s season ending.

What probably wasn’t obvious to Packers fans watching the play is that Bostick wasn’t supposed to be catching the ball in the first place — a fact he owned up to.

“I let my team down,” he said. “There was a lot riding on this game. If I would have did my job … my assignment was to block … Jordy (Nelson) would have caught the ball and the game would have been over.”

So how does a player who was on the fringe of the roster come back from a play neither his coaches nor Packers fans will be able to forget? He was asked what he was thinking about when he took a moment to collect himself before talking to those gathered around him.

“I was just thinking about everything,” he said. “The game, my teammates, and everyone in Green Bay and my family and everything. I feel like I let everyone down, but I’ll do my best to move on from it.”