Mike Evans' father's murder, turbulent childhood detailed in profile
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans detailed the horrific childhood he endured in an E:60 profile that aired on ESPN on Tuesday.
Evans' father was murdered by his uncle in 2002 after subjecting his mother to years of physical abuse. The whole sordid tale would be revealed to Evans after years, and he was eventually able to forgive his father's murderer after visiting him in prison as a child.
"One night, Sam was out socially with Mike's mom and something triggered something in him," producer John Minton III told Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times. "Sam had gone back home to the residence where Mike's dad was babysitting Mike and his sister. He tried to entice Mike's father into a fight, and Mickey was brushing it off and not engaging with him. That put Sam in even a further fit of rage.
"He went to the bedroom and got a gun and fired it at him. Mickey jumped through a window. Sam took out a pocket knife and went after him. Then he shot him one time in his forehead, and Mike father's died in the street while he was sleeping upstairs at that time."
For Evans, the incident was all he could think of when he was selected seventh overall in the 2014 NFL Draft. He was brought to tears, knowing he overcame so much to get to where he was.
"They called my name on the loudspeaker and I just started crying and I couldn't stop," Evans said during the profile. "I thought about him (my father)."
Evans now feels he's at a place of peace over what happened, even trying to understand his uncle's side of the situation. He has been able to make sense of what happened, even as his uncle (who was interviewed for the profile) is now serving life in prison for murdering his cell mate in 2006.
"It was tough, and a lot of people have tough stories around the world," Evans told Stroud. "It's just that you can't give up. There's no excuse to give up the hand you're dealt. You've just got to keep fighting and make something positive out of it.
"It was difficult and me being so young. I was naive at the time. It was tough. But you've got to look at it from his point of view .. .It's a horrific story. And I saw the small clip they showed on 'Outside the Lines' and there were some things I hadn't seen yet, so it was a little upsetting. But it's old and it happened. You've just got to keep moving forward and do what I'm doing."