Everyone loves it when a big man finds the football. And on Saturday, Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Michael Pierce got everyone out of their seats when hauled in his first career interception in the final moments of their Week 18 win over the Cleveland Browns.
Pierce, who is listed at 355 pounds, obviously doesn’t get many opportunities to drop back into coverage. But with the game well in hand, the Ravens opted to let him do his best defensive back impression late in the fourth quarter with the Browns in the red zone.
The pass from Bailey Zappe was behind his intended receiver and directly to Pierce, who made the interception much to the delight of the three-man ESPN broadcast crew consisting of Chris Fowler, Louis Riddick, and Dan Orlovsky.
Pierce likely wouldn’t have made it all that far even if he had tried to return the interception. But before any Browns player even had the chance to make an attempt at a tackle, Pierce took a knee and celebrated the play with his teammates.
After the game, Pierce was asked whether he wanted to try and turn the interception into a pick-six. Pierce responded by saying that he was quite content with just the interception, saying he didn’t want to ruin a career highlight by being “turned into a meme” on the return.
“There is a long history of turning big guy interceptions or fumbles and all of that stuff into memes,” said Pierce. “So, at the risk of ruining a career play like that for myself — it’s time to go home. Bus was out of gas, we good.”
Pierce has had far from an ideal season prior to his big moment on Saturday. A lingering calf injury resulted in him playing in just 10 of the team’s 17 games in the regular season. So naturally, he was quite thankful when asked what this kind of moment meant to him.
“It means everything man,” said Pierce. “This is year nine. I had an injury this year so just trying to find my way back, find my rhythm and all that stuff, is kinda tough. To have that happen, God is a funny, funny guy. I’m grateful and I’m glad I caught it more importantly.”
Pierce then detailed what was going through his head when he started running with the ball, stopping himself from cursing on national television in the process.
“I’m gonna be honest. I don’t want to curse on TV. But ‘Oh s-word. Oh, my God. He really threw this football’. I’ve got fairly decent hands. I’m glad I caught it…Like I said, I don’t wanna end up on a meme on Instagram with my wife and everybody laughing at me. So we did the right thing. We got down and kept it moving.”
You can tell just how big this moment was for Pierce by simply looking at his smile throughout his postgame media availability.
Perhaps more importantly, the win secured the No. 3 seed in the AFC and an AFC North division title for Baltimore. So, Pierce and the Ravens will be hosting a game at M&T Bank Stadium on Wild Card Weekend.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.