Just about 24 hours after a possible referee controversy reared its ugly head, the NFL has squashed it.
The NFL announced Tuesday in a statement that referees Jeff Lamberth and Tripp Sutter were not asking Tampa Bay Buccaneers team captain Mike Evans for an autograph following Sunday’s game between the Bucs and the Carolina Panthers.
An interaction between the three had been filmed by Panthers beat writer Sheena Quick, who posted it Sunday on social media. It showed Lamberth and Sutter stopping Evans before he went into the locker room and asking him to sign something that was about the size of an index card. The video sparked debate as well as an NFL investigation, since under no circumstances are officials supposed to ask players for autographs or memorabilia.
It certainly looks like Evans is signing his name on something, but since the NFL said that it wasn’t an autograph, what exactly was happening during that interaction? Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson spoke to several NFL executives on Monday who said that they’d never seen anything like that before.
While the NFL didn’t reveal additional details of the interaction in its statement, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that it was a golf-related phone number exchange.
Full story: #Bucs WR Mike Evans and side judge Jeff Lamberth both went to Texas A&M, and Lamberth was getting Evans’ phone number to pass it along to a golf pro to give Evans lessons, per sources. Lamberth didn’t have paper, so he borrowed it from another official.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 25, 2022
On Tuesday, Evans also confirmed that the interaction was golf-focused.
Mike Evans confirms that he was NOT signing an autograph for a ref on Sunday. Says the conversation was about golf.
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) October 25, 2022
The NFL said in its statement that Lamberth and Tripp have been reminded of the importance of maintaining professional discipline around players, staff, and coaches at all times, so that no one has any reason to question their impartiality.
