Buccaneers’ Mike Evans suspended by NFL, while Bengals’ A.J. Green is not

​

While five NFL players were ejected from games for their roles in fights Sunday, many observers thought Mike Evans should have increased that group to six. The Buccaneers wide receiver is probably also wishing he got tossed, given that he was the only NFL player Monday who received a suspension.

Among those who avoided that punishment was Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green, who was ejected Sunday after committing an act at least as unnecessarily violent as Evans's. The contrast created a perception that, in Evans's case, the NFL was making up for the fact that he was not thrown out of his game Sunday.

In issuing the one-game suspension, NFL Vice President of Football Operations Jon Runyan pointed to Evans's violation of the league rule prohibiting unsportsmanlike conduct, including "any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship," such as "throwing a punch, or a forearm, or kicking at an opponent." Another rule Runyan cited declares that "there shall be no unnecessary roughness. 

This shall include, but will not be limited to: (g) unnecessarily running, diving into, cutting or throwing the body against or on a player who (1) is out of the play or (2) should not have reasonably anticipated such contact by an opponent, before or after the ball is dead."

"During the third quarter, after a play had ended, you struck an unsuspecting opponent in the back, knocking him to the ground," Runyan said in a letter to Evans. "Your conduct clearly did not reflect the high standards of sportsmanship expected of a professional."

Left unclear is how Green's conduct was not considered to have violated those rules, at least in terms of meriting a similar suspension. After all, while Evans knocked Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore to the ground and then jumped on him, Green grabbed Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey around the neck from behind, then threw a couple of punches at his antagonist.​