Tobin Novasio

The training staff told the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers not to count on Mike Evans that week. So the general manager called Evans with the good news that they would have him back for the next one. Evans said no. I'm playing this week. Here is the whole thing. He hurt his ribs in the first half against the Arizona Cardinals and did not come back out. Here is how George Kittle put it on the radio a few days later. "Fractured ribs suck." Kyle Shanahan would not say how bad it was. Asked what the injury was, he said, "Just rib." Then he said this. "I would be out without a doubt. But he's definitely a lot tougher than me." That week Evans did not practice Wednesday or Thursday and was limited on Friday. The general manager is John Lynch, and here is how Lynch told the story. "Mike, good news, we'll have you for Seattle." And here is what Evans said back. "No, I'm playing this week." He played. Five catches, 76 yards against the Denver Broncos, the most on the team. Then Sunday at Seattle, with a protective vest on under his jersey, he caught seven passes for 113 yards. He caught the two yard touchdown from Brock Purdy that put San Francisco ahead. Then he caught the two point conversion that went with it. The 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 32 to 29 and they are 5 and 0. Here is Lynch on watching it. "I think everybody in that stadium, if you were watching, could see he was in pain. But I also don't think we win that game without Mike Evans." And this. "His toughness meter is special." Here is what Evans said about all of it. "That's what I'm here for. Nothing's really promised in this game. And if you're available to play and go out there for your team and try to do your best to help get a win, I mean, that's what I'm going to do." Now here is where that comes from. He grew up in Galveston, Texas. He wrote his mother a letter once and put her name in it. Heather Kilgore. Here is some of what he wrote to her. "You had us so young. Just raising me, my sister, my brother and doing it the way you did." "You did it on one job, but you made it work." And then the line that explains the whole man. "We were poor. But I didn't feel poor." He is 33 years old. He spent 12 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and signed here in March. He and his wife Ashli run a foundation that works with families getting out of violent homes. And here is the honest part. Last season was the worst of his career. A hamstring, then a concussion, then a broken collarbone. He played eight games and finished with 368 yards, and a run of eleven straight 1,000 yard seasons that had tied Jerry Rice came to an end. He has 326 yards through five games now. His mother worked one job and made it work. Her son is 33 with hurt ribs and he will not sit down.