BUCCANEERS WIDE RECEIVER MIKE EVANS SUSPENDED FOR ONE GAME
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans has been suspended one game for his part in an on-field incident with the New Orleans Saints players.
The ninth-year wide receiver was ejected in the fourth quarter from the Buccaneers’ win on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints due to an on-field scuffle with Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore, who was also booted from the game. Evans is slated to miss even more time after the NFL handed him a one-game suspension on Monday.
A statement from the league read: “Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has been suspended without pay for one game for violations of unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct rules in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.”
The suspension was issued by NFL Vice President of Football Operations Jon Runyan. Evans was found to be in violation of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8(g) of the 2022 NFL Rulebook which prohibits ‘unnecessarily running, diving into, cutting, or throwing the body against or on a player who is out of the play or should not have reasonably anticipated such contact by an opponent, before or after the ball is dead.”
The statement said the Buccaneers’ wide receiver was also in violation of Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1 which prohibits any act that is “contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.”
The fourth-quarter incident came during an intense moment in the game with the score tied at three points apiece. After Tom Brady threw an incomplete pass to Buccaneers wide receiver Scotty Miller on a 3rd down and five, Saints corner Marshon Lattimore seemed to begin snapping at the 45-year-old quarterback. Bucs running back Leonard Fournette and Lattimore then began shoving one another before Evans came over the top and ran right into Lattimore after which a full-on brawl ensued.
“After a play had ended, you were walking toward your sidelines,” Runyan wrote in a letter to Evans. “When you noticed your teammates engaged in a confrontation with Saints’ players, you ran toward that area on the field and violently threw your body into and struck an unsuspecting opponent who was part of the confrontation. You knocked your opponent to the ground and a melee ensued involving players from both teams. Your aggressive conduct could have caused serious injury to your opponent and clearly does not reflect the high standards of sportsmanship expected of a professional.”
This is Evans’ third incident in a game against the Saints and the second time he’s been suspended. The Buccaneers wide receiver also received a one-game suspension in 2017 for a hit he made on Lattimore on the Tampa Bay sideline, a move he later characterized as ‘childish.’ Evans said after the game on Sunday, however, that this time around he wasn’t expecting a suspension for this incident.
The 29-year-old filed an appeal as is available to him under the Collective Bargaining Agreement on Tuesday morning, however it was ultimately denied upon review. Brooks and Thrash were the hearing officers jointly appointed and compensated by the NFL and NFLPA to decide appeals of on-field player discipline.
Evans will now miss the Buccaneers game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, September 25th, and will be eligible to return to the team’s active roster on Monday, September 26th. The Buccaneers are short at the receiver position with injuries to veteran wide receivers Chris Godwin and Julio Jones, who both missed week 2 due to injury and will now miss the no.1 wideout against NFC Contenders, the Green Bay Packers.
No other player involved in the brawl will be suspended including Lattimore but they could still be subject to a later fine.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.