No comment on tampering question.
[Caution: For those who want to pretend the Bucs losing a Hall of Fame receiver because he didn’t want to play here any more and took a massive pay cut to get away from the Bucs and exit has about the same impact on the organization as if the Bucs released J.J. Roberts, please understand Joe has over 63,000 articles in free archives you can choose to read. — Joe]
Now that Joe has that out of the way… shortly after former Bucs star receiver Mike Evans bolted to San Francisco, former Bucs running back Shady McCoy appeared on the podcast he co-hosts, “Speakeasy,” and said he was at Evans’ home the Saturday before the gun sounded, opening legal tampering.
Joe typed at the time it was very fishy that Evans told Shady he was likely heading to San Francisco. Who makes a mega-decision involving many millions of dollars like that without first talking to 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan or 49ers general manager John Lynch?
Earlier this week, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht had a sitdown with select local media to discuss Evans’ departure. Licht was asked about Shady’s comments and if he thought there was illegal tampering.
“No, players talk to each other,” Licht said assuredly.
Then Licht was pressed. Did he think the 49ers were up to no good and may have illegally tampered with Evans? Here is Licht’s verbatim response:
“Ah, nah, I have no comment on that.”
Hhhmmm?
Joe knows agents talk to general managers, coaches and assistant general managers at the combine each winter about their clients. The foundations of future transactions are often done in the quiet corners of the Indiana Convention Center, or over bourbon and ribeyes at St. Elmo or while wolfing down a shaved prime rib sandwich at Harry and Izzy’s.
Hell, Joe was told the genesis of the Bucs trading a third-round pick to the Giants for Jason Pierre-Paul was hatched at the combine in 2018. That began the turnaround from the Lost Decade into Super Bowl champs.
But it seemed fishy to Joe last week and it still seems fishy knowing Evans basically had already made a decision where to go days before legal tampering began.
So, LeSean McCoy was hanging out with Mike Evans at Mike’s house on Saturday and he mentioned to LeSean that “there is a great possibility I’m going to the 49ers.”#WeAreTheKrewepic.twitter.com/fck4YqAhdG
— Christopher Mathis 🎙 (@thechrismathis) March 10, 2026
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