NFL fans know Andrew Hawkins as an on-air analyst and personality for ESPN and NFL Media, appearing on shows like NFL Live, Get Up, and First Take. But the former wide receiver's playing career is still fresh in his mind, even nearly 10 years after an infamous overtime moment in his final game with the Cleveland Browns in 2017.
During his appearance on the Oct. 29 YouTube livestream on Football America!
, former wide receiver and host Dave Dameshek discussed how NFL players seemed to have an uncanny ability to remember every snap they played. Hawkins recalled the 2016-17 Week 17 game between the Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers, where an improvised play by Robert Griffin III in a 21-21 overtime situation ended with Hawkins losing 14 yards from the Steelers' 2-yard line.
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"I was so pissed that RG III threw me that pass. I didn't say a word to him when we got in the locker room," Hawkins told Dameshek. "There's like a clip if you watch the game. I'm looking at him shaking my head in the background and like in disarray. Like I can't believe, you know, you threw me that ball. Hand that ball off so we can get a win of my last game in my hometown and then move on with life. But no, my last reception minus 16 yards."
The former wide receiver recalled how Griffin
had a run-pass option and was supposed to simply hand him the ball. However, the former quarterback executed a bubble screen pass to Hawkins in hopes of getting a game-winning touchdown at first-and-goal.
A single play fractured a locker room and altered a career trajectory. Subscribe to stay updated on the untold stories reshaping NFL legacies.
However, wide receiver Terrelle Pryor failed to block the Steelers' defenders from getting to Hawkins, which led to him losing 14 yards. However, the team managed to score a field goal instead. But those three points were not enough, since the Pittsburgh Steelers
converted a nine-play, 75-yard offensive drive into a touchdown that sealed their win against the Browns.
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"This would have been a game-winning touchdown," Hawkins added. "I did not want the game-winning touchdown. It was not there. Terrell Prior didn't block. And I think I lost 19 yards from the three-yard line or something similar. And that was the moment where I was like, I'm done. This is it. It was literally that moment."
Thanks to Griffin throwing that pass to Hawkins and the yards he lost, the former wide receiver's stats for that final game showed him recording five receptions for a meagre nine yards. The play angered Hawkins at the time, since he had actually made some "really good, big plays" in that game.
He was especially bitter about the lost yardage since the game was being played in Acrisure Stadium (formerly known as Heinz Field) in Pittsburgh. As a Johnstown native, failing to convert the Browns' drive into a winning touchdown at the two-yard line likely felt humiliating, even if Griffin's intention behind the pass was to give the receiver the honor of being the one to stick in the winning goal in their last 2016 regular season game in his hometown.
And according to Hawkins' comments, that might have played a role in his decision to retire.
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Hawkins faced his fair share of struggles due to his 5'7", 175lb physique, which was significantly more compact than other wide receivers in the league. After going undrafted in the 2008 NFL Draft, he joined the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
He returned to the NFL in 2011, when he was waived by the St. Louis Rams and then picked up by the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he made his NFL debut. He left the team for Cleveland in 2014 after the Browns offered him a restricted free agent deal that the Bengals chose not to match.
Though he mentioned that the infamous play in his last Browns game influenced his retirement, he signed with the New England Patriots for the 2017 season. However, he retired in July that year, stating that he felt that his body could not keep up with the demands of pro football.
Across his rather short six-season NFL career, Andrew Hawkins
played 74 games and recorded 209 receptions for 2419 yards before the abrupt retirement.
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The post "Didn't Say a Word to Him": Ex-NFL WR Recalls Anger at Robert Griffin III Over Botched Play That Influenced His Retirement Decision
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