Getty Davante Adams with Aaron Rodgers.
The start of Davante Adams’ tenure with the Las Vegas Raiders has gone from bad to worse. The team is tied for the worst record in the NFL at 1-4 and now the wide receiver finds himself in legal trouble. After the Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Adams was seen shoving a worker to the ground.
Due to the incident, Adams has been charged with a city ordinance violation, according to Kansas City Municipal Court documents obtained by Heavy. Adams hasn’t had issues with the law since he entered the NFL so this is uncharted territory for the wide receiver. He never even sniffed controversy when he was still with the Green Bay Packers. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who played with Adams for his first eight years in the league, couldn’t believe what happened.
“I was surprised,” Rodgers said Tuesday, via Pro Football Talk. “I was definitely surprised. I love Davante, reached out to him after the game. I hadn’t seen the clip yet but, yeah, I was surprised.”
Rodgers then said that he was more surprised by the fact that Adams was cited than the fact that he pushed the worker. Rodgers knows the wide receiver as well as anybody so the fact that he was so surprised is telling.
Former Raiders DB Defends Adams
The initial video of Adams shoving the worker led to a lot of blowback against the wide receiver and he immediately apologized. However, after it was revealed that he could be facing legal ramifications, many have come out to defend him. Among the strongest defenders is former Raiders defensive back Stanford Routt who acknowledges that Adams shouldn’t be shoving people but believes that many are asking too much of football players.
“The true human aspect of it is this right here,” Routt said on the “Bleav in Raiders” podcast.
“You don’t want Davante Adams to push that cameraman like that. Which he shouldn’t. But you want him to have that same type of mentality on the football field, but as soon as the game’s over with … for three hours I want you to be a jungle cat. I want you to be a beast. I want you to be ferocious. As soon as the game ends, go right back to being a house cat. [Davante] didn’t even get a chance to take his pads off. He didn’t even get a chance to take his helmet off. He literally just left the field.”
Seems a little more clear from this angle that Davante didn’t see him at all.. he apologized, let’s move on
Routt Claims This Situation Is a ‘Money Grab’
It’s still early in the legal process and there’s more information that needs to come out. That said, Routt is already making bold accusations against the worker who Adams shoved.
“I think that when you see how he pushed the guy, he got right back up,” Routt said. “I would love to know what injuries incurred even though he was able to get right back up. And then before you know it he’s already at the police station filing a police report and I think it just goes to show that this is really just a money grab and we’re probably going to see a civil suit … and it’s unfortunate because that’s the world we now live in. You know that just like I know that.”