My Heart Goes Out to This Man

Colts running back Tyler Goodson walks back to the locker room following a crucial failed 4th-and-1 conversion attempt sealing Saturday's 23-17 loss to Houston.

Please, everyone, show this man some mercy. Dude had all the pressure in the world on his shoulders and was expected to catch a horrible pass to give his team a small chance to maybe win a tough game with a potential playoff berth on the line against top-2 candidates for each of the OROY, DROY and COTY awards, while playing for a team that wasn't expected to push for a playoff spot this year and would've likely been steamrolled in the Wild Card round. I wouldn't have expected even Christian McCaffrey to have made that catch with that throw, and if he did, he'd be my MVP frontrunner again. Expecting a young player who hadn't yet felt this level of pressure to make an incredible play to save his team's playoff chances and then blaming him for not catching that pass is asinine.

And not only was the play itself unreasonably difficult, but he's publicly taken full responsibility for the play which he was not fully responsible for. In an emotional post-game interview, he was told by an off-screen teammate, "it's okay, it was a tough throw," to which he responded (while holding back tears), "It still touched my hands." The guilt he's undoubtedly felt over the past 16 hours would've been too much for many to bear, especially at his age, but he's handled it like a pro. With encouragement from his family and his teammates, he's keeping his head high. I believe his best football is still ahead of him, and letting this one moment define his entire career moving forward would be a mistake.