Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams has been charged with misdemeanor assault after shoving a photographer on his way off the field during Monday Night Football.
“As the video shows, Adams was headed to the tunnel to leave the field when a TV crewman holding a tripod started to stand up, but before the man could gain his footing, Adams delivered a rude two-hand shove at the man, causing him to fly several feet backward and to the ground,” Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston wrote on Tuesday.
According to Shain Bergan of KCTV5, the photog, a freelancer working for ESPN on Monday night, has filed misdemeanor assault charges against Adams.
While NFL players have often escaped criminal charges for violent actions on the field that would undoubtedly have landed them in jail if they had occurred on the street, Adams’ actions will be more difficult to obscure behind the real or imagined “shield” of “anything that happens on the field goes.” First, the person Adams shoved was not a player. He was a civilian working the game. Second, the incident did not occur on the field. It happened off the field as he made his way to the locker room.
The NFL is still reviewing Adams’ case for additional discipline by the league.