If Tom Brady was commissioner of the NFL, he definitely wouldn’t have suspended Mike Evans this week for the role that the Buccaneers receiver played in a brawl that took place during the second half of Tampa Bay’s 20-10 win over the Saints on Sunday.
During his weekly “Let’s Go” podcast, Brady was asked about the brawl and the quarterback defended Evans for his actions.
“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, via the Tampa Bay Times.
Brady also added that it was ‘ridiculous’ that Evans was hit with a one-game suspension, making him the only player involved in the brawl to receive a suspension.
“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.”
As the league noted in its suspension announcement, Evans was punished because he “violently threw” his body into an unsuspecting opponent (Marshon Lattimore), which you can see below.
Evans was also punished because he has a prior history with the Saints. In 2017, Evans was suspended one game for making a blindside hit on Lattimore and the NFL takes into account your prior history when imposing punishments.
Although it was Evans who was suspended, Brady took some of the responsibility for the receiver’s actions. The quarterback pointed out that Evans likely wouldn’t have done what he did if Brady hadn’t instigated things by 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.”
The bottom line for the Buccaneers is that Evans is going to have to sit out this week, which means Brady is going to have to figure out how to survive without him for Tampa Bay’s Week 3 showdown with the Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
