Haynes: Cincinnati player consoling brother for 'costly mistake' speaks volumes

Nobody ever would accuse me of being a University of Texas fan, or even a Cincinnati Bengals fan, but two weeks ago I became a Joseph Ossai supporter.

Ossai is the Cincinnati defensive end whose name I heard called several times for outstanding play during the Bengals’ 23-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the National Football League’s American Conference championship game two weeks ago.

He was born in Nigeria and came to the United States with his family when he was 10 years old. Ossai played football for Conroe Oak Ridge High School in the Houston area. After an All-America college career with the Texas Longhorns, he was a third-round 2021 NFL draft pick by the Bengals.

The 6-4, 263-pound rusher had five tackles in an impressive effort against Kansas City – the team I was rooting for primarily because its quarterback is Patrick Mahomes, who played collegiately at Texas Tech, my alma mater.

But in the eyes of many, especially Bengal fans, Ossai is more infamous than famous because of one play near the end of that game with the Chiefs.

The score was tied at 20, and Kansas City was at the Cincinnati 47-yard line with just a few seconds left. Mahomes scrambled to his right for five yards. Ossai gave him a shove to – the defensive end thought – push him out of bounds. But Mahomes already was out of bounds, and a yellow flag came flying.

The 15-yard penalty put the Chiefs at the Bengal 27-yard line, plenty close for Harrison Butker to kick a field goal as time ran out to win the game, 23-20. So Kansas City will play Philadelphia in the Super Bowl today, and the Bengals have to say, “Wait ’til next year.”

Why am I an Ossai supporter? After all, I didn’t want my favorite NFL player, Patrick Mahomes, to be hit, period, considering he was playing on an injured right ankle. But Ossai immediately was made the scapegoat for Cincinnati’s loss. He sat on the bench as the game ended with his head down and resting on his gloved hands, apparently crying with the thought that his penalty had given the game to Kansas City.

And for a long few minutes, Ossai was alone on that white bench. The perception was that his teammates wanted nothing to do with him.

Two days later, my wife, Kathy, shared a post with me that cemented our empathy for Ossai and brought the incident into correct perspective. It included a photo of just one Bengal, Devin Asiasi, leaning over in front of Ossai to comfort him at the end of the game. The bench around Ossai was empty.

I couldn’t confirm the origin of the post, but it showed that it was sent from the Jason Foundation, an organization for the prevention and awareness of youth suicide, and was attributed to former NFL star Terrell Owens.

“He made a costly mistake,” the post read. “Thousands (if not millions) of people saw it, got (mad) and walked away from him, including his teammates. The fans left him. … his teammates went to the locker room, coaches left him … hurting. They left him on the battlefield alone. …

“But there was one … one person that refused to leave his brother no matter what happened. He picked him up. Never forget who that one person is. They are worth more than gold. That’s leadership, that’s a friend, that’s a brother.”

With further checking, I saw that other teammates and coaches did lend support to the distraught player, Sports Illustrated reported that lineman B.J. Hill stayed near Ossai during locker room interviews and told reporters he would “shut it down” if they asked any “dumb questions.”

Pointing out that plays earlier in the game also could have changed the outcome, Hill said, “That’s my brother. I’ve been in that situation before, too. I had a chance to make a game-winning sack (against Dallas). I just missed a sack. I’ve been there. Trying to blame it on one person, I’m not going to have that."

Ossai has said he and his family are Christians. Of course, scripture repeatedly stresses the need for believers to help each other.

“Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing,” Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Proverbs 18:24 says, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

I suspect that in the long run, Ossai will hold on to passages like that, which often are proven true among athletic teammates. That photo of the talented player hunched over on the bench with one teammate consoling him is an unforgettable image.

Football players normally don’t have to literally risk their lives for their teammates, but the photo and the words in someone’s post certainly bring to mind the exhortation of Jesus in John 15:12-13: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from 1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Haynes: NFL player consoling teammate for 'costly mistake' speaks volumes