Earlier this week, the NFL handed down a one-game suspension to Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Mike Evans for his role in a brawl with the New Orleans Saints last Sunday.
After the suspension became public, it's unlikely the NFL's vice president of rules and policy administration, former NFL All-Pro offensive lineman Jon Runyan, thought his son would receive the blowback.
On Wednesday, Jon Runyan Jr., a lineman for the Green Bay Packers, had to address a wild conspiracy making the rounds.
As fate would have it, Runyan and the Packers will face off against, you guessed it, the Buccaneers this Sunday, which has led many to believe that Runyan's father suspended Evans on purpose, so he couldn't play this weekend against the Packers.
"My dad's doing his job," Runyan told ESPN's Rob Demovsky. "[It was a] lapse in judgment on the field. Sometimes, that stuff happens. There's a whole conspiracy theory going down, and it's not true. That's just how it goes. You can't be running 15 yards trying to head-hunt somebody when the play's over. It is funny, though, how stuff works out sometimes."
While some have questioned the optics of the suspension, Runyan Sr. has held his current post without incident since 2016. Also, Evans was a repeat offender, having faced a similar punishment in 2017 after a run-in that also involved the Saints' Marshon Lattimore.
But why let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory?
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