Ex-Packer Brandon Bostick received death threats after NFC Championship game error
For the past month, Brandon Bostick has been tortured by a single play.
With the Green Bay Packers leading the Seattle Seahawks 19-14 in the NFC Championship game, Bostick took the field with the purpose of blocking for Jordy Nelson on an onside kick.
Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka hit the ball perfectly and Bostick jumped up to recover the ball with Seattle's Chris Matthews on his heels. The ball ricocheted off Bostick into Matthews' arms and the Seahawks went on to pull off a miraculous comeback in overtime to move on to Super Bowl XLIX.
Bostick was subsequently released by the Packers on Feb. 16 and was claimed by their NFC North-rival Minnesota Vikings two days later.
The 25-year-old penned a first person account of his life after the game for Monday Morning Quarterback on Thursday.
"I messed up in the NFC Championship Game, and trust me, it hurts. I’ll probably think about my role in the botched onside kick every day for the rest of my life. It haunts me like a recurring nightmare," Bostick wrote.
Bostick was a solid special teams player for the Packers and it appeared that he was released due to his mistake in the NFC Championship game. Green Bay also fired its special teams coach Shawn Slocum on Jan. 30.
"I was supposed to block for Jordy Nelson, who was right behind me. We had practiced this dozens if not hundreds of times before. But when the ball appeared in front of me, just floating in the air, my mind went blank. I forgot everything I was supposed to do," Bostick wrote about the play that changed his life.
"It's not that CenturyLink Field was too loud, or that I crumbled under the pressure of the situation. Instinct just kicked in. The ball was in front of me and I wanted to grab it. I jumped up, I reached for it … and my life changed forever."
Seattle went to on to lose to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl 28-24.
Bostick compared his emotion after the game akin to a death in his family and wrote that he'd received many death threats. Earnest Byner, the protagonist of 'The Fumble' in the 1987 AFC Championship game advised him to move on.
The former Packers tight end also described his reaction to being cut by the club.
"I was surprised. Yes, I was very surprised. I played in 13 games and had a pretty good season, but more importantly, I knew I was improving. But they said they have their guys, and that I didn’t develop as fast as they had hoped. They said the onside kick had something to do with it, but that’s all they said," he said.
"I feel as if there’s a little more to it than that. With how close we were to reaching the Super Bowl, I think a lot of people in the organization couldn’t live with me being there," Bostick wrote.
Victory is the best form of revenge and Bostick will get an opportunity to show his former club that they made a huge mistake twice a year while playing for the Vikings.