Sunday afternoon, in a weird, roundabout, infamous kind of way.
Early in the first quarter of , the Bengals cornerback intercepted ‘s pass 2 yards deep in the end zone and had clear sailing for a touchdown. But a funny thing happened on the way to Kirpatrick’s 102-yard touchdown return. At the 15-yard line, 87 yards after his journey began, the ball slipped out of his grasp. Poof! His pick-six was gone. He saved face by scrambling to recover the ball at the Denver 1.
It was the longest non-scoring interception return in NFL history, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
With 102 yards of green grass between himself and a career-highlight touchdown, what thoughts were spinning through Kirkpatrick’s head as he sprinted down the field?
“Breathe, man! Just breathe,” the Bengals cornerback said, marveling at how Denver’s mile-high altitude put a piano on his back and robbed him of oxygen.
As for the football squirting free, Kirkpatrick explained that he heard the footsteps of Broncos wide receivers and as they attempted to run him down.
“I’ve got to hold on to the ball man, no excuses,” he said. “But they were coming from both ends … and I thought they poked the ball out. But I’ve got to hold onto that ball.”
Actually, neither Broncos receiver was going to catch Kirkpatrick before he crossed the goal line, but he didn’t realize that in the heat of the moment. He did, however, have the wherewithal to recover the ball — under threat of duress.
“I’m thinking, ‘Pacman’ is cussing me out!” Kirkpatrick said, referring to Bengals cornerback Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, who was inactive for Sunday’s game because of a concussion. “I know he was going crazy, and if I wouldn’t have got that ball, there ain’t no way I was going to walk back to that sideline. No way!”
In the end, it turned out just fine for the Bengals. They scored three plays later on a 1-yard pass from to tight end .
“That was great,” Kirkpatrick said. “Our offense backed us up. That was a team win today.”
