Many have blamed Blair Walsh for losing Sunday’s wild card game, but former NFL player and current analyst Nate Burleson isn’t having any of that.
The Minnesota Vikings kicker famously missed an easy 27-yard chip shot in the last seconds of the playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, garnering the ire of millions of football fans around the nation (watch here).
However, Burleson has a different perspective, and he shared it via his Facebook page:
“To @blairwalsh_3 (@blairwalsh3 twitter) I know today seems like a dark day in your athletic career but you will bounce back better & stronger from this brotha. You have kicked game winners before and will make game winners in the future. And not to mention you were a huge part of why the Vikes were in the game with 3 field goals so hold your head high. Now to all the so called fans who have taking to social media to put him down, curse out and threaten him & his family please take a long look in the mirror. If ya’ll had your mistakes on grand display for the world to see, would you want thousands of people tearing you down with harsh words & threats. No! We have to be a little bit more sensitive to one another in the moments in which we fail. If we can’t lean eachother to encourage us through the dark times than we are lost as a society. Trust me there is nobody that feels worst than Blair Walsh right now so let’s try to build instead of destroy. ~Nate Burleson”
Burleson states many fine points in his Facebook post. If it wasn’t for Walsh, the Vikings would have been completely shut out by the Seattle Seahawks.
There is much blame to spread around, and it shouldn’t be saddled completely on the shoulders of Walsh.
Adrian Peterson committed a crucial fumble recovered by Kam Chancellor, when over the course of the game he was no matchup for Seattle’s challenging defense.
Teddy Bridgewater played decently, but par for the course, he could not score a touchdown. This is something that Bridgewater has also failed to do in six of his 2015 regular season games.
Finally, the Vikings defense crumbled and couldn’t stop Russell Wilson and the Seahawks from making headway and scoring in the fourth quarter.
As for Walsh’s 2015 record, he made 34 of his 39 attempted field goals this year which equates to 87.2 percent. And because of Walsh’s contributions, the Vikings have actually won games based on his field goals.
This fan points out a very mind-opening fact as well.
People are killing Blair Walsh but how many playoff games have been won by a team who failed to score a touchdown???
— Zachary Ament (@zach13090) January 10, 2016
The bottom line is that all the Vikings players are accountable for the team’s loss.
Hopefully, Walsh can take some solace in reading much of the kind that has been said on his behalf rather than focusing on the negative, nasty people that feel entitled to throw stones.