Law&Crime Sidebar - NFL Star Davante Adams Faces Assault Charge for Shoving Cameraman

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

Las Vegas Raiders Davante Adams has been charged with assault after allegedly shoving a photographer to the ground. How serious is this for the wide receiver legally and professionally? Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio explains.GUEST:Mike Florio: Founder of Profootballtalk.com LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael Deininger & Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. We're coming out the field, and I bumped into him and kind of pushed him and then they ended up on the ground. So I want to say sorry to him for that. Las Vegas Raiders Devante Adams has been charged with assault after allegedly shoving a photographer to the ground. How serious is this for the wide receiver legally and professionally? Pro football talks, Mike Floreo explains.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, let's talk about the latest right now with Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Devante Adams. Now, you may have seen this video that has gone absolutely viral of Adams shoving photographer Ryan Zebly after the teams lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. Well, now Adams has officially been criminally charged. That's right. He faces a misdemeanor assault count, police calling it, quote, an intentional overt act that caused, quote, whiplash and headache. He has a court date set for November 10th.

And whenever we have a story about sports and law, we thought who better to bring in than Mike Florio, the founder of Pro Football. ball talk.com and the author of Playmakers, how the NFL really works and doesn't. Mike, good to see again. Good to be back with you. How are you today? I'm good, but Mr. Adams is not doing so well. How serious. Let me first start this. Are you surprised that the charge was brought? I'm not surprised because, look, it was an assault. It fits the definition of the term. And we see this from time to time, especially in the NFL, where there's action after the whistle, after the play that isn't part of the game. And if you did it out on the street, you would get arrested and charged for it. But the other players are usually the victims of it.

They don't press charges. They let it go. And life goes on. You have a guy in this case who filed a police report. He wants to press charges. He wants to move forward. And you see the video, it's obvious that there was an assault as that term is defined. And it's just a misdemeanor charge.

It's not a felony. But still, it's an issue. It's a thing. It doesn't surprise me at all. and I suspect that it will be quickly resolved. What's your defense? You can't say I didn't do it. You can't say I didn't intentionally push him because it's clear that he did.

I think he pleads no contest, pleads guilty, pays a fine, gets probation, suspended sentence, whatever, and just moves on. I was going to ask you, Devante Adams has admitted this. So he apologized. He apologized when he spoke to reporters right after this happened. But then he also tweeted, sorry to the guy I pushed over after the game, obviously very frustrated at the way the game ended. When he ran in front of me as I exited, that was my reaction. And I felt horrible immediately. That's not me.

My apologies, man, hope you see this. So he's admitting it. I am curious what you thought of the apology because tell me if I'm crazy here. But did it not seem as if he's saying, well, he just jumped right in front of me. I didn't know what was going on. A little bit of that. Well, and his verbal apology from the locker room was even more curious. He suggested the guy bumped into him and I kind of pushed him down.

No, he didn't make contact with you. He was running in front of you and you shoved him down full, force with both hands. And one of the things that we all learned in law school is once you initiate that process, anything and everything that happens after that, you're responsible for it. And I don't know the extent of the injuries, but he allegedly has injuries. And I think the NFL needs to be concerned about this because the next time is the time that somebody could maybe be seriously injured if a player pushes someone down. So they need to nip this in the bud. However they handle it, it needs to be a clear message to Duvante Adams and anyone else. You can't lay hands

on any of the various people who are permitted to be in the vicinity of the playing field. Well, I'll ask you how serious you think this is for him legally. We talked about it being a misdemeanor. So do you think he would actually spend some time in jail? Obviously, nothing more than a year. And also, if any action is going to be taken by the NFL, there's been talk about a possible suspension, some sort of punishment. I think this gets resolved quickly as a criminal matter.

Part of it is the victim has pressed charges and wants some form of justice. I suspect there'll be a settlement of civil claims. at some point, and that could help expedite the process of resolving the criminal case on terms that are favorable to Devante Adams. With the league, there's an interesting question as to which policy this falls under, because we had been bracing for punishment of Devante Adams under the standard post-game, whether it's a fine, whether it's a suspension. We saw Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suspended earlier this year for coming off the sideline and shoving a player for the New Orleans Saints onto the ground. He was suspended a game. This could be something that falls under the

personal conduct policy and would be beyond the normal usual in the days after the game, someone gets punished. This could be a longer process because it happened away from the playing field and it didn't involve another player. I've asked the league for clarification, but that to me is the first real question as to which path this takes. Either way, he's going to be under scrutiny, but it's two different procedures altogether if it's treated as a typical game day violation or personal conduct policy violation. There was something that you said about, you know, civil liability, right? I mean, do you think that Devante Adams could be sued for this?

Do you think the Raiders face any kind of liability? He's their player. I think everybody in a situation like this does. Because you get a good lawyer, they sue everybody. And ideally, you want to get, number one, people with money so they can satisfy whatever the settlement of judgment is. And number two, you'd love to have defendants fighting with each other. And if you could get the Arrowhead Stadium management,

group on one side and argue that they didn't take proper steps to ensure that there was a clear path to the locker room for the players. So these types of interactions wouldn't happen. You've got Devante Adams as a defendant, the NFL, the Raiders, ESPN. This guy was working as a freelancer for Monday night football. And I've been there and done that and I don't miss that life at all. When you start brainstorming all the possibilities, all the potential legal duties that were owed to this individual, who violated it? Somebody did something they shouldn't have done. to allow this to happen. And it's more than just the criminal conduct of Devante Adams. Others may have responsibility for negligence in creating a scenario where this could even occur.

It's much more better analyzing the law than I'm really practicing law. I think we both can agree about that. I am curious about something. So Raiders coach Josh McDaniel says that he supports Adams. What does that mean to you? It means that he says what he has to say. He's not going to chastise Devonte Adams publicly. He wants to have Devonte Adams in the lineup. He needs in the lineup to win football games. This is one of those situations where you circle the wagons around your own, and he's a great player. Now, if this was a guy who was a scrub, bottom of the roster, barely hanging on, it's a situation

where you make an example out of him. And I say this all the time. Examples are made of the scrubs, excuses are made for the stars. So he's going to make every excuse possible for Devante Adams because ultimately he knows it's not going to be a major punishment and he needs this guy to be dialed in and loyal and ready to perform every given week. Clearly, he's invested. I mean, why did Adams get so upset after the game did something happen?

Clearly, he was, emotions were running high. Why did he get so upset and why do you think he did this? Before I had to say anything, I was going to apologize to the guy, some guy running off the field, and he ran, I jumped in front of me. We're coming off the field, and I bumped into him and kind of pushed him, and then he ended up on the ground. So I want to say sorry to him for that because that was just frustration mixed with him running in, and literally just run in front of me.

And I was, shouldn't respond it that way. But that's how I initially responded, so I want to apologize with him for that. Combination of things, the team has not been as good as he had thought they would be when he joined the Raiders via trade from the Packers, the team he had spent his entire career with before this season. There were a couple of plays late in the game. He had a catch along the sideline where it was ruled incomplete, and the finding that he had caught the ball was overturned.

And then on the very next play, the last play that mattered, he collided with a teammate when he otherwise may have had the game-winning touchdown. So frustration boiled over. He threw his helmet down after that play. He was in a very emotional state. And that's what happened sometimes. And, you know, that's a problem with football. We want the players to be very emotional. And it's a physical game and you get involved. But we want them to be able to flip it back and forth at a moment's notice. And sometimes it's not realistic. Sometimes it is. And I think by the time you leave the bench area and you're walking toward the locker room, you'd better have that turned off because it shouldn't surprise anyone that you may encounter other human beings on your path from the bench

to the locker room. I think that's a good point. And look, at the end of the day, thankfully, his injuries aren't more severe than what they are. And it's just a distraction from the game itself and what really matters. But listen, Mike, thanks so much for coming on. You can check Mike Florey out at Pro Football Talk.com. Appreciate you taking the time, as always, sir. Good to see you. My pleasure anytime. And thanks so much, everybody, for joining us here on Sidebar. please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. We'll speak to you next time.

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