Chris and Kyle Long are brothers, and they faced off Sunday for the first time in the NFL careers with Chris' Rams beating Kyle's Bears, 42-21.
It was such a big deal that their dad, Fox Sports NFL studio analyst and Hall of Famer Howie Long got a day off work for the first time in two decades to watch the game in person. But Chris, a six-year veteran, admitted afterwards that he's glad to have the whole thing behind him.
"That was a hell of a week," he said, via the Chicago Tribune "It's not fun. I don't want to play my brother. I don't find it fun to have to compete against your brother in a game where it is so violent. But luckily we barely touched each other, so that was good."
In fact, the closest the two came to any real contact was when Kyle, a rookie, got into a scuffle with the Rams' William Hayes and Chris sprinted from the bench to drag his little brother out of the fray.
Chris also saved his brother from a possible ejection; Kyle tried to kick Hayes, but luckily his foot didn't find its intended target. (Kyle was flagged for piling on, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.)
"I was just trying to keep the peace," Chris said. "My brother plays with a lot of emotion, (Hayes) plays with a lot of emotion. One of my best friends is obviously my brother. (The Bears) already had the flag and there is no need for us to get a flag, so I tried to pull his big ass out of there and get on with it."
By the end of the game, Hayes and Kyle had smoothed things over.
"I've met Kyle a couple times and he is a great guy," Hayes said. "So there weren't any hard feelings. He apologized. He tried to kick me, but I don't care about that. That doesn't bother me because it's heat of the moment. If it was anybody else, we probably would have had a problem, but I play with his brother and I don't want to cause any trouble."
