Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt was unrepentant after his expletive-laden rant at teammate Joseph Ossai was caught on camera.
Ossai was at the center of a Super Bowl storm when he made a mistake that led to Harrison Butker’s game-winning field-goal in the AFC Championship final against the Kansas City Chiefs.
As the clock ticked down, Ossai was flagged for unnecessary roughness on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. That took them from the 42-yard line to 27, which allowed Butker to win the game and send the Chiefs to the Super Bowl at the Bengals’ expense.
On their way back to the locker room, cameras picked up Pratt verbally scolding his teammate, saying: “No, it’s not good. This the motherf—er’s last year. Why the f— would you touch the quarterback?!”
The clip quickly went viral, but Pratt used his own social media channels to defend himself, saying he was simply expressing raw emotion in the moment.
“Yep [people] will post anything on social media for likes and views,” Pratt responded on Instagram below a video of the incident. “I have real feelings sometimes they are raw.
“If you love something as much [as] I do, sometimes things will be said in the [heat] of the moment. But I know what type of teammate I am. And what type of man I am.
“Trust me no love lost, I’m hurt. Remember some [people will] hate you, rate you and shake you and try to break you but I will stand tall like always.”
Ossai, for his part, was happy to hold his hands up for the mistake, telling the media after the game: “I was just in full chase mode and pushing to maybe get him going backwards.
“I knew he was going for the sideline, so make him go backwards and get that clock running. I didn’t know how far out of bounds we were.”
Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles, who beat the San Fransisco 49ers, in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday February 12.
