James Thrash, the NFL-NFLPA jointly appointed appeals officer, has upheld the one-game suspension for #Bucs WR Mike Evans for his role in the fracas on Sunday. He’s out for the #Packers game. pic.twitter.com/nO3tUSVJJP
Buy Saints Tickets— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 21, 2022
So that’s settled. An independent appeals officer rejected Mike Evans’ attempt at escaping a one-game suspension following the fight he started with New Orleans Saints players last week, meaning the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be without their best wide receiver against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Still, Evans probably isn’t too troubled by it. Sure, he got himself ejected from Week 2’s game in New Orleans, but he took his nemesis Marshon Lattimore out with him. And because Evans restructured his contract earlier this year to lower his base salary and get the difference back in a signing bonus, he’s only going to lose a $62,222 check for this week’s game rather than the $715,000 he’d have had to forfeit otherwise. That doesn’t account for any fine from the NFL for his role in the brawl, but it’s something.
So it’s good to see the Saints aren’t suffering further for Evans’ actions. Lattimore won’t be suspended after Evans attacked him (and he really shouldn’t have been suspended in the first place; the pushing and shoving he was involved with started by Leonard Fournette throwing the first blow). Now that this is all set in stone, we can focus our full attention on Week 3’s games.
