Davante Adams is being charged with misdemeanor assault for the shove seen 'round the world (not a fake headline)
Unless you went to bed after the final whistle on Monday night, and have yet to wake up, you've undoubtedly seen the video of Davante Adams shoving a camera man who walked in front of him on his way to the locker room in Kansas City. Of course, this is a post on the internet, so we might as well watch it again together:
From this angle, which was the original angle shown on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt and the one that made instant waves on social media, the shove seen 'round the world seemed complete unnecessary and, not to sound dramatic, downright vicious. Tensions were obviously running high for Adams and the Las Vegas Raiders after a gut-wrenching one-point loss to the division rival Chiefs, but it's still no excuse. Adams said as much in multiple apologies afterward. Another angle found its way to Twitter and, while it didn't excuse the action, it did seem to show that this was a "bang-bang" play at first base, if you will:
Again, no excuse, but the camera man did come out of absolutely nowhere and one could argue that an NFL player's natural reaction to someone cutting them off on their way to the locker room is to shove them out of the way or accidentally knock them over given their stature. Everyone should have chalked it up as an accident, especially after Adams' multiple effusive apologies.
The camera man in question made it clear that wasn't going to be the case on Tuesday when he filed a report to the Kansas City police, who said they would investigate the incident. Investigate they did. On Wednesday, Adams was charged with misdemeanor assault:
We've double and triple checked to make sure that's actually Adam Schefter's account and not a tweet from Ballsack Sports, and we regret to inform you that it is 100 percent Schefty and Adams being charged with literal "Assault." is actually true. You're not taking crazy pills.
Look, we don't begrudge this guy for trying to make a quick buck. We're sure beign a freelance photographer doesn't exactly pay the big bucks and, uhhhh... inflation, ever heard of it? But damn, is it worth being seen as totally soft and subsequently becoming the latest butt of the internet's joke du jour?
Maybe it is. Only that photog would know for sure. We're living in strange, strange times, folks.
P.S. If that was assault, Jordan Poole might be able to charge Draymond Green with murder.