The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will miss one of their star players next Sunday. On Monday, the NFL announced it had suspended wide receiver Mike Evans for one game without pay for his role in the fight with New Orleans Saints cornerback Marson Lattimore during Sunday’s game. Evans was suspended for violating unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct rules. He will be eligible to return after the team takes on the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. According to ESPN, Evans is planning to appeal the suspension.
NFL VP of Football Operations Jon Runyan issued the suspension to Evans. In a letter to Evans, Runyan wrote: “After a play had ended, you were walking toward your sidelines. 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 that 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.”
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Evans was seen attacking Lattimore which led to a big fight between the Buccaneers and Saints. After the game, Evans said he believes Latimore punched Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette and pushed Tom Brady. “He punched my teammate in the face. I just pushed him to the ground,” Evans said. “I just was trying to have my teammate’s back. All I seen was he punched somebody in the face. I was like, ‘I ain’t going to let that happen.’”
On Monday Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said the suspension hurts because they need all the help they can get when facing Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. “We don’t want any fighting in our game because we lose a good player,” Bowles said. “It doesn’t help our team. We don’t condone that. We don’t teach that in our game.
“The fighting alone — loses a player for the next game, it hurts our team because we lose a very good ballplayer. We don’t want that, we don’t condone it. We’ve got to move forward and try to find a way to win without him. That should be a lesson to all our other players.”
