Packer Central

Davante Adams Charged After Allegedly Causing ‘Whiplash’

Former Packers receiver Davante Adams’ frustration boiled over after the Las Vegas Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. He has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams has been charged with misdemeanor assault for pushing a photographer to the ground  following the Las Vegas Raiders’ loss at the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night.

After the game, a bitter 30-29 loss, Adams was walking to the locker room when a photographer crossed paths in front of him. Adams, without breaking stride, shoved the man to the ground and kept on walking.

After the game, the photographer filed a police report. Part of it reads: “He made arrangement for private transport to the hospital for treatment at which time he called police. The injuries are preliminarily thought to be non-life threatening.”

On Wednesday, Adams was charged in Kansas City municipal court. According to the all-caps part of the citation, Adams pushed the photographer, Ryan Zebley, “to the ground using two hands causing whiplash and headache, possible minor concussion.”

Adams, whose shove was obviously wrong but hardly forceful enough to be anything but "non-life threatening," apologized at his locker after the game.

“I want to apologize to the guy, there was some guy running off the field, and he ran, like jumped in front of me coming off the field and I bumped into him, kind of pushed him, and he ended up on the ground,” Adams said after the game. “So, I wanted to say sorry to him for that because that was just frustration mixed with him literally just running in from of me. I shouldn't have responded that way, but that's how I initially responded. So, I want to apologize to him for that.”

Adams apologized via Twitter, too.

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“Sorry to the guy I pushed over after the game,” Adams wrote, adding that he “felt horrible immediately.”

Aside from the legal ramifications, punishment from the NFL could be coming, too. Considering Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans was suspended for one game for shoving Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore in the heat of the game, it would seem logical that Adams will be punished for shoving a photographer.

The moment was a rare one for Adams, who takes pride for doing the right thing on and off the field.

“Sometimes when you have those type of guys, especially guys that put so much in, and it’s not just about what goes on on the field,” Adams said during training camp last year of himself, Aaron Rodgers, Randall Cobb and David Bakhtiari. “We invest a lot in the community here, everything. I’ve never been arrested. I’m not out here getting in bar fights and a bunch of stuff like that. Could be doing a lot of these things and making it tough, but I feel like we make it really easy for an organization like the Packers to respect that and go about their business in the right way.”

During the final moments of the game, with the Raiders trying to drive to the winning field goal, Adams’ big third-down completion was overturned via replay when it was ruled he failed to secure the catch with two feet inbounds. On fourth down, Adams and another Raiders receiver collided and toppled to the turf, Derek Carr’s pass sailed incomplete and no flags were thrown.

Through five games, Adams is 13th in the NFL in receptions (29), eighth in receiving yards (414) and tied for second in receiving touchdowns (five). He’s been targeted 54 times, meaning a career-low 53.7 percent catch rate. He caught 3-of-7 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns vs. Kansas City.

Meanwhile, the Raiders are 1-4. That’s tied for the worst record in the NFL. Each of the Raiders’ losses have been decided by six points or less.

Green Bay, on the other hand, is 3-2 despite a myriad of problems. The Packers traded Adams to the Raiders for picks in the first round (No. 22 overall) and second round (No. 53). No. 22 was used on linebacker Quay Walker, an instant starter. No. 53 and their own second-round pick, No. 59, were traded to Minnesota for receiver Christian Watson, who has barely contributed due in part to hamstring issues.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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