“I Wanted To Beat Tom Brady Because I Was A Peyton Manning Fan”: When Mike Evans Declared Allegiance to the Sheriff Before Winning a Ring With the GOAT

Tom Brady and Mike Evans may have won Super Bowl LV together, but the pace of the NFL is rapid. There was a time, not long ago, when the Bucs receiver was overly determined to beat his current teammate.

After every season, NFL players vote for the best 100 performers of the year. In 2018, despite a heartbreaking loss to the Eagles in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady defended his spot at the top.

He was already the only player to have been named #1 on the list on 2 separate occasions and he extended his total to 3 times following a stellar season.

He threw for 4,577 yards and 32 TDs in the regular season on the path to a first team All-Pro selection and 3rd league MVP award. The Patriots, led by Brady, made their way to the Super Bowl where they shockingly lost to the Eagles who were down to their 2nd string QB, Nick Foles.

That night in Minneapolis went down as one of the most entertaining Super Bowls ever. In a game that was a real offensive shootout, Brady set the record for the most passing yards in a Super Bowl with 505. The Pats might have lost, but you could hardly put any blame on Brady for it.

His peers voted for him as the best player in the NFL for the second year in a row and just as they predicted, Brady was back to his winning ways the following season, beating the Rams to secure his 6th ring.

Mike Evans Wasn’t Always Too Fond Of Tom Brady

In February, Tom Brady led the Buccaneers to a championship in his first year with the team. For Mike Evans, a star player trapped on painfully mediocre rosters for most of his career, Brady was a bit of a saving grace.

The duo, like Brady with almost all of his receivers, developed strong chemistry on the field and punished opposing defenses all year long.

But even though they achieved the ultimate goal together, Evans has always been a Peyton Manning fanboy at heart. When speaking about Brady for the Top 100 Players of 2018 video, the Bucs WR recalled his week 5 loss to New England saying, “I wanted to be beat him really bad.”

“You know its just because the inner kid in me, being a Peyton Manning fan. But it is awesome share a field with greatness.” There’s a sentence that aged perfectly. 2 years later, Evans would indeed share the field with greatness again, only as a teammate and not an opponent.

And while Evans is probably still loyal to Manning, he has stated publicly that be believes Brady is the best to ever to do it, even before the 44-year old’s move to Tampa Bay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8qTHtjxsmc

Also read: “It’s completely fabricated, complete trash, garbage”: Peyton Manning was furious Al Jazeera mislabeled him an HGH user during his neck injury recovery