NFL Locker Rooms Can Be Lonely Places For Players Who Make Mistakes

Austin Seferian-Jenkins probably didn’t have a lot of friends in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers locker room Sunday.

The rookie tight end fumbled away the chance for a rare Bucs win when he coughed up the ball in overtime. The Minnesota Vikings pounced on the loose ball, and Anthony Barr returned it for a game-winning touchdown.

Everyone makes mistakes, of course. But in a high-profile profession with so much on the line like professional football, those mistakes can be tough to deal with.

“In that environment, knowing I’d just ostensibly put my own black mark on an otherwise clean scoreboard, I can’t tell you how isolated from the herd I felt in that moment,” Matt Chatham wrote on FootballByFootball.com while recalling a crucial mistake of his own.

“It’s not the kind of place where someone’s going to pat you on the shoulder and say ‘It’s OK, buddy! Get ’em next time!’ Nope. It’s not OK here. Mistakes will get you beat. Error-repeaters don’t play here. You feel the burning-hot heat of a locker room full of people playing under the flame of that same understanding.”

It’s all part of life in the NFL.