Tyrique Stevenson stood before the Chicago Bears in a Monday team meeting and apologized for his actions and his part in a fateful Hail Mary that gave the Washington Commanders an 18-15 victory at Northwest Stadium.

The second-year cornerback played a significant role in that defensive failure. He was caught on camera talking to fans – Stevenson said he was cheering with Bears faithful – with his back to the play when the ball was snapped.

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He joined the play late but, despite the fact Jayden Daniels ran around for 12 second before throwing the ball, never assumed his primary responsibility of covering Commanders receiver Noah Brown.

Instead he remained on the right side of the play, then crashed in when the ball came down and tipped backward toward Brown, the man he was supposed to be covering.

Stevenson apologized on X Sunday night for a lack of awareness and focus, but felt the need to do so in person before his teammates.

Stevenson didn’t provide great detail of his address but summarized the theme of what he said.

“I apologize to the boys for letting them down,” Stevenson said in a virtual meeting with the media. “I let the moment get too big and it’s something that can never happen again and won’t ever happen again.”

He said he regretted being out of place on the final play and “(doing) something that’s out of character for me that cost us the loss.”

This was a hard lesson learned for a talented second-year pro who plays with high intensity and emotion. Sometimes it overflows and gets Stevenson in trouble with personal fouls and miscues.

Having this one caught in a viral moment, on a game-deciding play, has magnified things a great deal. The fan video showing Stevenson’s actions has been viewed 5.8 million times as of Monday afternoon. Stories have been written about it by sports journalism outlets and news organizations alike. It’s a topic on national sports talks shows and local sports radio and has consumed the aftermath of a terrible Bears loss.

“I know Tyrique has been getting hammered, right, if it was social media and being in meetings and things like that.” safety and team captain Kevin Byard III said. “But I’m going to support my guy. I think, for him, it’s going to be a great lesson for him as we go forward and just in life, period, about how to be able to handle adversity.

“You only lose when you don’t learn. I believe that he’s going to learn from it and get better from it.”

Byard and fellow captain Cole Kmet, both of whom spoke with the media on Monday, accepted Stevenson’s apology and are ready to move on.

It’s uncertain, however, if this incident with have further repercussions. Though Matt Eberflus said Stevenson’s address “showed responsibility and accountability,” the Bears head coach didn’t shut the door on further discipline for what happened Sunday night.

“We’ll look at that,” Eberflus said. “Those things are always going to be internal as we work with our players as we go forward. It’s really about development and making everybody better. We’ll get to that answer as we go through the week.”

Stevenson is moving forward with a commitment to locking in on every snap and not letting emotions take him off his game. This isn’t the first time that has happened – it happening twice on Sunday – but the magnitude of his mistake makes this a major deal.

“I think it’s a really good lesson for everybody to learn from in terms of how to respect the game,” Kmet said. “We had examples of that throughout the game and quite frankly throughout the week of practice this past week where there’s moments where maybe some guys lay off here and there. Those are the type of things that can happen when you do that for just a split second. It doesn’t always come to bite you in the butt, but when it does, it hurts.

“That’s the unfortunate (part) and I would also say beauty of this game is that you disrespect it in a certain way and it will come to haunt you in some form or fashion. So I think it’s a learning experience for everybody. We all play with a lot of passion. Tyrique plays with a lot of passion, and we all love him for that. But there’s definitely a respect level of the game and knowing that you’ve got to finish it out until those double zeros hit the clock.” 

Stevenson understands that and wants to be accountable now and better moving forward.

“I respect all these guys and I love all these guys,” Stevenson said. “I have to take it on the chin and let them boys know that this won’t ever happen again. They ain’t gotta worry about me playing out of character like that again.”