Tom Brady Blasts NFL for 'Ridiculous' Suspension of Buccaneers WR Mike Evans
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, and they will be down a key player. Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans has been suspended for one game for getting into a fight with New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore this past weekend. Evans was standing up for Brady who was getting into a verbal altercation with Lattimore. And when Brady talked about the suspension on the Let's Go! podcast, he said the punishment is "ridiculous."
"I think just sometimes the emotions get the best of us, and I love Mike. And the fact that Mike would come out there to defend me means everything in the world to me as a teammate and a friend," Brady said, per CBS Sports. Brady is not a fan of Evans being suspended because he was not the only player involved in the altercation.
"Mike knows how I feel about him," Brady said. "So in the end, emotions are a part of sports. Sometimes they boil over, and they obviously did (Sunday), and it's an unfortunate circumstance. I don't think it deserved any type of suspension; I think that's ridiculous. Hopefully, we can move past it and get to a better place."
Evans was punished because he "violently threw" his body "into and struck an unsuspecting" Lattimore, the NFL said. However, this isn't the first time this happened as Evans was suspended for one game when he made a blindside hit on Lattimore. Brady did admit that Evans wouldn't have attacked Lattimore if wasn't arguing a call.
"Obviously if I didn't run down there to argue with the call ... if things weren't said back and forth between both teams, it could've been avoided," Brady said. "There's a lot of things that go into it and there's a lot of things at fault, so I don't think Mike should be the one to be blamed and singled out. Unfortunately, he has been, and that's just the reality of life in the NFL." With Evans out, the Buccanneers are short on wide receivers. Chris Godwin is out with a hamstring injury, and Julio Jones dealing with a knee injury and missed last weekend's game against the Saints.