Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson won’t start vs. Cardinals after boneheaded move on game-losing Hail Mary

Tyrique Stevenson committed a football crime, and now he’s doing the football time.

The Chicago Bears cornerback is reportedly out of the starting lineup Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, a one-week demotion he received as punishment for the completely boneheaded move he made during the team’s Week 8 loss to the Washington Commanders.

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels made a massive Hail Mary throw in the closing seconds of last week’s contentious contest between the Commanders and Bears. While Daniels was keeping the play alive for 13 seconds before making that massive throw, Stevenson was on the other side of the field, taunting the crowd and not paying attention to what was going on. That turned out to be incredibly costly, as the Hail Mary pass was successfully caught and the Commanders won 18-15.

Stevenson, who has started every Bears game he’s played, apologized the following day.

But the damage was done. Now Stevenson won’t be in the starting lineup against the Cardinals, though NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said he will be active and is expected to sub in with CB Terell Smith.

Stevenson reportedly didn’t respond well to the news of his temporary demotion when he found out about it on Wednesday. According to Jay Glazer, Stevenson pulled himself out of practice when he was told he wouldn’t be starting in Week 9. He also reported that Stevenson’s teammates weren’t happy with him pulling himself out of practice.

Courtney Cronin, a Bears reporter for ESPN, was able to provide some context for Glazer’s report. According to her source, when Stevenson was told about the coaches’ decision to demote him from the starting lineup for a week, he did leave practice for a few minutes to “gather himself.” But he returned after a few minutes and fully participated. His teammates had no issue with Stevenson leaving practice to gather himself.