It sure seems like he was. Most of the media world has gone into an uproar as a video showing Mike Evans being called by the referees in the tunnel and asked to sign an autograph after the Bucs vs. Panthers game.
You know, I have my doubts that this was actually what it seems like.
It really doesn’t make sense why two NFL refs would be so blatant and frivolous in asking a star player in the NFL for his autograph, even though they are sworn to be impartial towards every player and their team. Given how much scrutiny NFL refs are getting nowadays, one would think that they would be a little more careful in exposing their biases. Especially when said biases are revealed in a rival team’s stadium.
And that leads me to my other question as to the legitimacy of this ‘autographgate’: if these two refs were biased enough to ask for Mike Evans autograph, why didn’t they help them with bogus calls in the game?
Clearly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had one of the worst performances under the Tom Brady era with their 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers, with Mike Evans himself having a horrid day with multiple key drops. Obviously, the refs can’t help Evans catch the ball, but if they were biased as that video suggested, then they could have called some dumb penalties in key moments of the game to help the Bucs come back and win.
But, seeing as that didn’t happen and the Bucs went on to lose badly, I don’t think those refs were asking Mike Evans for his signature. They were probably just trying to get Evans to fill out some trivial paperwork that is never talked about due to its insignificance.
Though, my whole argument here might be completely wrong as if you listen closely, the ref on the right asks his colleague “you want him to sign it?” Now, maybe he meant it as a joke, or maybe the guy on the left actually wanted Mike Evans to sign the small sheet of paper for himself, his kids, his extended family members, etc.
Yet, it doesn’t matter as it’s completely inappropriate to ask for a player’s signature while on active refereeing duty for some many reasons.
Of course, the NFL has already come and said that they spoke to the two refs in question, and they denied the claim they were asking for Evans signature. But they would say that, wouldn’t they? I mean, the NFL does employee these refs.
So, I guess we’ll never know if ‘autographgate’ is a real thing or not. The only thing I know that ‘autographgate’ has more legitimacy to it than Deflategate (Yes, I’m still annoyed by that).
Images Source: Featured Image: (Wikimedia Creative Commons License/Author: All-Pro Reels) (All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
