Kicker Cody Parkey has been getting roasted for missing the potentially game-winning field goal in the Chicago Bears' playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. It turns out he wasn't totally to blame.
The NFL officially changed the 43-yard miss to a block by Eagles defensive tackle Treyvon Hester on Monday. The lineman barely got a finger on the ball, but it changed the trajectory enough that the kick hit the upright, dropped down to the crossbar and then out.
"Me and Haloti [Ngata] ... we got penetration, got the hand up like coach always says," Hester said, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. "Tipped off my fingertips. Felt good ... [but] actually, I thought I didn't get enough of it, I thought it was going to go in. When I saw it going in, I turned back around [away from the goal posts]. Then I heard everybody screaming, I was like, oh, [expletive] ... he missed it."
In the immediate aftermath of the game, it didn't appear that many people picked up on the fact that Hester got a hand on the ball. Parkey, who had been under fire in Chicago well before the game for missing a league-high 10 kicks during the regular season, didn't shy away from facing the media after the contest.
"You can't make this up," Parkey said. "I feel terrible. I let the team down. That's on me. I have to own it. I have to be a man. Unfortunately, that's the way it went today."
The manner in which he missed the last-second kick hit too close to home for Parkey, who endured criticism earlier in the year when he bounced four separate kicks off the uprights in a Week 10 victory over the Lions.
The Bears were not so fortunate to escape with a win this time, falling to Philadelphia 16-15.
"I thought I hit a great ball and was trying to play the wind," Parkey said. "There's really no answer to it. I didn't make it. I take that loss on me. The sun is going to shine tomorrow, but unfortunately this one is going to sting for a while."
Parkey made his first three field goal attempts on Sunday.
The veteran kicker had a trying first season in Chicago after signing a four-year deal in free agency that included $9 million in guaranteed money.
ESPN's Jeff Dickerson contributed to this report.