‘I wasn’t a fantastic teammate’
Germaine Pratt stated what a whole lot of Bengals followers have been pondering after Cincinnati’s AFC championship loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
He did so at his teammate Joseph Ossai‘s expense. On Monday, he apologized.
“I used to be emotional,” Pratt stated. “I used to be within the second. I used to be unsuitable. I’d say I used to be unsuitable. As a person, you possibly can take a look at your self within the mirror and say ‘I used to be unsuitable. I wasn’t a fantastic teammate within the second.’
“However that don’t outline me as a person.”
So why was Pratt apologizing? In case you missed it, the Bengals linebacker had some candid phrases focusing on Ossai within the aftermath of Sunday’s 23-20 loss.
Pratt’s uncooked response after powerful loss
The Chiefs secured victory on a 45-yard Harrison Butker discipline aim with 3 seconds remaining. Quarterback quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled for a primary down earlier than operating out of bounds on the play earlier than the kick. Ossai hit Mahomes late out of bounds, drawing a 15-yard pointless roughness penalty — a transparent infraction that officers couldn’t ignore.
With out the penalty, Butker would have confronted a significantly much less probably 60-yard try in frigid Kansas Metropolis circumstances. With the sport tied at 20-20, a miss would have arrange extra time barring a Bengals miracle within the recreation’s remaining seconds. However there was no miss, and Cincinnati’s season ended painfully in need of the Tremendous Bowl after a hard-fought recreation.
Because the Bengals walked by the postgame tunnel, a TV digital camera captured Pratt saying this:
“How the f*** do you contact the quarterback?” Pratt yelled.
Ossai wasn’t within the neighborhood when Pratt made his exclamation. He could have nonetheless been on the Bengals bench, the place he sat together with his head in his arms for a number of moments after the sport’s conclusions.
However the message certainly received again to Ossai. And it was out of line with the Bengals’ public face after the sport, which was in any other case fully supportive of the 22-year-old rookie.
Bengals largely united in assist of Ossai
A number of Bengals gamers consoled Ossai on the bench within the aftermath of the play. Head coach Zac Taylor gave him a hug within the locker room and allowed Ossai to cry on his shoulder. Defensive sort out B.J. Hill actually stood by Ossai’s facet as he fielded powerful questions from reporters within the locker room.
“It didn’t come right down to that play,” Hill told reporters after Ossai owned as much as his mistake. “I’m not going to place up with no dumb questions that make it appear to be it was all his fault. It takes greater than him. It takes a whole crew.
“That’s my brother. I’ve been in that scenario earlier than, too. I had an opportunity to make a game-winning sack [against Dallas]. I simply missed a sack. I’ve been there. Attempting accountable it on one individual, I’m not going to have that.”
Outdoors of Pratt’s outburst, the Bengals entrance was united round Ossai on Sunday. On the similar time, Pratt’s uncooked feelings within the moments after the sport have been comprehensible. After a while to mirror and funky down, he modified his tone on Monday.