Inside Mike Evans’ historic catch, Bucs’ video that captures the celebration

Greg Auman

NFL Reporter

TAMPA, Fla. — In the scorebook, it’s an inconsequential final play in a game already won.

And yet to watch Bucs receiver Mike Evans catch a 9-yard pass from Baker Mayfield, to see the reaction after hours of uncertainty, it was one of the most meaningful, emotional plays of the NFL season.

“It was amazing, man,” Evans said of the catch that gave him 1,000 receiving yards for the season, extending his streak to 11 straight years and matching Jerry Rice’s NFL record. “They made it that much sweeter. NFC South champs and then I’m in history with Jerry Rice, so that made it that much [sweeter]. I love those guys to death.”

For two months, that streak had looked to be in real jeopardy. Evans had a slow start, and a hamstring injury sidelined him for three games, such that in Week 11, two weeks into the second half of the season, he had only 335 receiving yards. He would have to average 95 yards per game to reach 1,000, and in helping the Bucs to a 5-1 record, he got within 85 yards entering Sunday’s game.

But Evans had no catches in the first quarter, and the Bucs fell behind by 10 points at the half. He managed enough yards that when the fourth quarter began, he was within 35. The same was true with seven minutes left, and Evans caught three passes to get within 5 yards of 1,000.

But with 1:51 left, rookie Bucky Irving scored on an 11-yard touchdown, putting the Bucs up 27-19 and in good shape to win and clinch a division title. But that might have come at the expense of Evans reaching the milestone. Tampa’s defense, trying to close out a victory, got the ball back to the offense with 36 seconds left.

The safe, conventional play would have been to take a knee and let the final seconds tick off the clock, to celebrate a victory, but the Bucs took an unnecessary risk. They tried to get the ball to Evans to give him a chance at the record. They took a timeout, just to carefully go over the options, without risking a pick-six and a game-tying score. They chose to send Evans in motion before the snap, making it harder to double-cover him, and Mayfield threw a quick pass that Evans caught and turned upfield, getting the milestone and turning the stadium into pure elation.

Evans is the Bucs’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, the fourth time he’s earned that. He’s beloved in Tampa not only for his Pro Football Hall of Fame résumé — his 105 career touchdowns are now ninth-most in NFL history — but for his selfless contributions in the community as well.

“That’s why you love him. That’s why we appreciate having him. We’re lucky to have him. He’s underappreciated throughout the media, the league, and he’s one of one. He deserves that,” Mayfield said after the game. “Obviously, you saw the stadium erupt, the sideline erupt. You can tell how much people care about him and what that means for everybody around him.”

If you don’t know Evans, if you had no idea of the impact of his streak and what it means to his teammates and fans, the Bucs posted a video that captures all of that. It’s seven-and-a-half minutes long, and it seamlessly follows Evans from the field to the locker room with barely any editing.

The Bucs knew they might have something special Sunday with Evans, unsure when or even if he’d reach the long-awaited milestone. He was miked up for the game, letting them hear the game and his interactions from his perspective, and the team’s videographers knew to stay on him if such a moment should actually happen.

“It comes down to the video team saying, ‘We think we might have a moment here,'” said James Ruth, the Bucs’ chief marketing officer, who oversees the team’s video content. “How do we try to create something unique? It was the presence of mind for a couple of guys just to follow Mike throughout the entire experience. How often do you get a record-breaking moment that’s literally the last play of the game?”

The video starts from the fans’ perspective, showing the crowd with the stadium’s video boards in the background, with a sea of fans wearing Evans’ No. 13 jersey jumping up and down in celebration, overlaid with the audio from the FOX Sports broadcast and Kevin Burkhardt’s live call: “Jerry Rice has company!”

Burkhardt let the moment soak in for fans with a full 40 seconds of silence as the overhead camera followed Evans through wave after wave of teammates celebrating with him. “This whole crowd knew it, too,” Burkhardt said to break the silence.

The Bucs’ video features their own aerial shot of Evans as he’s mobbed by teammates coming off the field, staying with him through dozens of hugs as he walked to the sideline and eventually off the field and into the tunnel.

“That’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen in a long time,” FOX Sports Lead NFL Analyst Tom Brady said on the live broadcast. The words from Evans’ Super Bowl teammate played on the Bucs’ video as the 31-year-old receiver took in the crowd as he left the field. “The excitement, the joy, honestly the thrill of victory for the team, but for Mike to do that … an absolutely awesome performance.”

The camera stayed on him on a solitary, near-silent walk to the locker room, breathing hard from exhaustion and the realization that he and the team had accomplished the goals of the day, after three hours of real doubt.

Behind that camera was Stephen Lynch, the team’s director of production, who joined the Bucs in 2014 just like Evans and has chronicled his career through six years without a playoff berth, then to a Super Bowl and four straight division titles.

“In these moments, and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of them in recent years, the motto is you just always want to be rolling,” Lynch said. “You were hoping that moment was going to happen, and when it does, you just make sure that red light is on, and then you’re just following him. It was just special.”

By keeping the camera rolling without a break, the team had the chance to present the entire moment for fans from Evans’ perspective — no slick editing, no background music, just the player and everything around him exactly as it was.

“There’s a tried-and-true way to take that moment, to cut up the highlights and the music and all that stuff,” Ruth said. “It was so cool to say, ‘We’re going to zig where everybody might zag on this moment and just let this great ingredient speak for itself.”

What you see in watching is the endless parade of teammates and coaches and staff congratulating Evans. He finds an “NFC SOUTH CHAMPIONS” hat waiting for him at the seat at his locker. He’s exhausted enough he can’t get his jersey and pads off, and one of the few lapses in the clip is as he finally gets it off.

“I’ve got to touch greatness,” safety Ryan Neal says in giving Evans a hug.

“Next year, it won’t be that close,” Evans says to trainer Bobby Slater, who helped him return from injury. “I’m going to get it sooner.”

“We busted our ass off trying to get the ball back for you,” defensive tackle Vita Vea says.

“You know damn well I’m not going to let you go without it,” coach Todd Bowles said.

Buccaneers’ locker room celebration after Mike Evans’ 11th-straight 1,000-yard season

There were elements of luck in the seven minutes — Evans never acknowledged the camera following him, and the videographers had the good fortune to film an extended wide shot of a crowded NFL locker room for minutes without anyone dropping his pants in the background.

“To me, what made it so cool was, for all of us, we do this job, and you can become a little numb to the coolness factor of being around these guys every day,” Lynch said. “When you’re just watching that clip back, the subtleties and imperfections, just hearing Mike breathing heavy in the tunnel, silent. We all love Mike, and we all wanted that. The rawness of those quiet moments, we felt like were really telling. … I’ve never had a moment like that. Minutes of goosebumps and full-body chills.”

In closing, you see Bowles address the team and hold a game ball high in presenting it to Evans — the coach called it perhaps the best game ball he’s ever given to a player. Evans got to deliver his uppercut celebration one more time before raising a hand and breaking the huddle as the Bucs prepare for the playoffs ahead.

“I appreciate y’all. I love you so f—ing much,” Evans said. “This season’s always going to be a grind, but having y’all around makes it easier. I love y’all, man. We ain’t done. Champs on three, 1-2-3, champs.”

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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