Steve Gleason asks Saints fans to stay supportive of Marcus Williams

Leave it to Steve Gleason to provide some perspective on Sunday night.

The New Orleans Saints lost a crushing playoff game, giving up a once-in-forever touchdown to Minnesota Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs as time expired. Gleason, a Saints legend who was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease ALS in 2011 and is paralyzed, called for Saints fans to support safety Marcus Williams, who gave up the touchdown when he whiffed on a tackle.

With fans still stunned and angry after such a devastating loss, it was a great and compassionate message from a man who is dealing with a lot more than the result of a football game.

For a while, it won’t matter what Gleason or anyone says to Williams. This will follow Williams the rest of his career. Ask Jackie Smith or Scott Norwood. The social media trolls will be awful, but that’s what they do. Saints fans are among the most passionate in the NFL, and they’ll support Williams just like Gleason said. The good fans will, anyway.

Williams was one of the key members of a Saints defense that improved greatly this season. The rookie second-round pick also made a big play in Sunday’s loss, an interception that helped the Saints get back in the game. Nobody will remember that because of what happened at the end. It was a terrible mistake, but it was just a mistake.

It’ll be tough for a while for Williams, and he’ll likely be reminded of it for years and years. Bill Buckner’s error happened more than 31 years ago and nobody has forgotten about that yet. But, again, there should be some perspective involved.

If Gleason can laugh about it, everyone else should be able to as well.

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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