The Los Angeles Rams are headed to the NFC Championship Game against the Seahawks, and for a change, quarterback Matthew Stafford did not play the starring role. While facing the Bears on the road, he ended the night with zero touchdowns. It was Harrison Mevis who ultimately proved to be the differentiating factor in the matchup.
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The sophomore kicker, who went undrafted in 2024, drilled a clutch 42-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Rams to a dramatic 20-17 win, capping off one of the most tense playoff finishes of the weekend. It was the biggest moment of Mevis’ early NFL career, and ideally, the conversation should have revolved entirely around it. Instead, moments later, Mevis went viral for an entirely different reason.
Claim: As Harrison Mevis stood alongside Matthew Stafford during an NBC postgame interview with Melissa Stark, he started speaking in Russian.
Source of the Claim: The claim originated from the live NBC broadcast itself, where Mevis’ audio briefly sounded foreign as he began speaking. Clips of the moment quickly circulated on X and Reddit, with fans joking and genuinely wondering whether the Rams kicker had “malfunctioned” or started speaking Russian.
HARRIS MEVIS STARTED SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN IN HIS POST-GAME INTERVIEW AFTER THE GAME-WINNING FIELD GOAL.
ALL-TIME GREAT MOMENT.
pic.twitter.com/xuZhlx7kUE— MLFootball (@MLFootball) January 19, 2026
Verdict: False. Harrison Mevis definitely did not speak in Russian. As per various accounts, there are two accepted explanations for the bizarre moment, and both point away from that conclusion.
The most straightforward explanation is a temporary audio malfunction from NBC. Live broadcasts frequently juggle multiple audio feeds, and when those feeds briefly overlap or desync, it can produce distorted, unrecognizable sound.
Considering the audio seemed foreign from Mevis’ first word itself, it’s understandable why some fans felt that he was speaking an alien language. However, an Indiana boy like Mevis belting out Russian phrases with ease would have definitely spooked out Stafford and Stark, who acted normally as the kicker spoke.
The second explanation that’s garnered traction is the censorship theory.
According to this theory, Mevis initially said something along the lines of “that sh*t was crazy” while reacting to his game-winning kick. NBC’s delay-based profanity filter perhaps kicked in late, scrambling the audio in real time for a few seconds.
In the same interview, Mevis can be heard quickly pivoting to safer language, replacing the expletive with “shoot” and continuing without hesitation.
“The interview was taped during commercial break. At least the Melissa interviews. Not sure about Kaylee’s interview. Player said sh**. Apparently they didn’t want that on air, so they attempted to cover it up when they ran it back on tape,” one fan explained on X.
To sum it up, Mevis didn’t speak Russian in the postgame press interaction. Neither did he suddenly become multilingual under playoff pressure. The Rams kicker’s viral moment was the result of either a brief NBC audio glitch or a delayed censorship filter reacting to a near-swear word.
