Evans Pays His Respects To a Long-Lost Friend

Evans left school after the fall 2000 semester to focus on the NFL draft -- he is attempting to complete his five remaining classes online -- but went unselected. George Edwards, one of Evans's coaches as a freshman, was on Dallas's staff, so Evans signed a free agent deal there, and appeared in all 16 games as a rookie in 2001. Evans was injured and inactive for all but four games in 2002. In 2003, Bill Parcells took over as Cowboys coach and switched to a 3-4 defense, with less emphasis on linemen. Evans was released Sept. 1 and two weeks later his life took another dramatic turn.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Evans was working out in Houston, hoping for a return to the NFL, when he went to a popular sports bar to watch his former Dallas teammates play the New York Giants on "Monday Night Football." The valet lot was already full, so Evans parked his truck several blocks away. Walking to his car after the game, he heard someone yell to him that he had dropped his keys. A few seconds later, the voice called out again from behind him, so Evans spun around and five feet away he saw a man pumping a sawed-off shotgun.

"I just threw my keys and said, 'Hey man, you can have my truck,' " Evans said. As one assailant grabbed the keys and jumped in Evans's truck, the other told him to drop to the ground, and pointed the weapon at the back of his head.

"I was like, 'God, please cover me with the blood of Jesus,' " Evans said. "I remember that like it was yesterday."

Evans was told not to move, and when he finally looked up the gunman had fled in a red Lincoln Continental. Evans awoke the next morning to a news report that two people were murdered the previous night by carjackers. "It had to be the same guys," he said. He now won't put garish rims and accessories on his automobiles -- a rite of passage in the NFL -- because he's hesitant to draw extra attention.

"That's something else that I really don't talk much about, because talking about it don't do no good," Evans said of the carjacking. "That's just a situation that I don't wish on no one. I wish that on nobody."

Refusing to Quit

Evans continued to focus on his NFL dream, working out daily in Houston after overcoming a knee ailment through months of rest and rehab.

Seymour, a multimillionaire, urged Evans to move into his Boston home, but he refused. "I knew he was going through a lot with the carjacking and the injury and getting cut," said Seymour, who chose Evans as his best man, just as Evans chose Seymour. "I just wanted to be there for him." Instead, Evans remained in Houston and opted to enter NFL Europe in the spring of 2004 as an unallocated player -- with no NFL ties -- hoping scouts would be tempted by his play there.

He signed with Washington on July 15, just before training camp and long after new coach Joe Gibbs had recast the roster. Most everyone else already had participated in months of offseason practices and minicamps. Evans, though undaunted, presumed this was his last shot at pro football. "I always felt like I belonged," he said, "but if I didn't make that team in Washington it was going to be a situation where I had to decide what's next."

Evans took Gibbs's word that he would get a chance to make the team, and entered camp a virtual unknown at the bottom of the defensive depth chart. "I didn't know as much about Demetric as I needed to know to be quite truthful," said Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense.

Veteran end Renaldo Wynn, now with New Orleans, noticed Evans's pudgy face at their introduction that July, and immediately felt sorry for the kid who had arrived so late. Evans was a body, mere training camp gristle, Wynn surmised. He had no shot.

But within a month Evans had mastered the nuances of playing end in Williams's complex system -- being asked to drop back in coverage, read offenses and stuff the run, difficult chores even for accomplished players. He played with gusto on special teams and ultimately beat out Regan Upshaw for a roster spot. Upshaw had played all 16 games for Washington in 2003 and was one year into a five-year, $7.5 million contract.

"Demetric always made sure he never let the coaches forget who he was no matter what," said Wynn, who became fast friends with Evans. "With all the stuff that happened to him with the carjacking and the shooting, a lot of guys would have been like, 'I can't do it.' But making that team was nothing for him.

"He was just out of football for a whole year watching guys play, that's tough man. And with the things he saw at 12, man, a lot of guys go to a life of crime or violence and could have easily retaliated or went the wrong way. But he didn't. The adversity he went through in football is nothing like what he went through in life, and that was his motivation."

Evans started eight games in 2004 for Washington's third-ranked defense and played all 16 games in 2005, shining at all four line positions. That offseason, New Orleans, Houston and San Francisco pursued him in free agency -- rebuilding teams dangling the chance to start -- but he prized security, choosing Washington's three-year deal with a $500,000 signing bonus and veteran minimum base salaries ($600,000-$700,000).

"We had guys on this team I enjoyed playing with and the coaching staff knew what they were going to get out of me," Evans said. "All I asked for in life is an opportunity, and they gave me that shot in '04, and I was thankful to come back to where I knew what to expect."

This season, Evans is again thriving at tackle and end. Last week, he made an outstanding play for a nine-yard loss on a screen pass against the Cowboys. A week prior he had six tackles and a critical forced fumble, and his sack in Week 5 contributed to a win over Detroit. Evans, who has taken NFL-sponsored business courses at Harvard and Northwestern, hopes to eventually sign a contract extension with Washington and assist his wife, Aungel Latchley Evans, an OB/GYN resident, to establish a private practice while he wants to open a car dealership after football.

"I don't live in the past; you don't forget it, but I don't want to live in it," Evans said. "In life, man, everyone has something they can continue to go back to and make a crutch for why this is not happening, or why I'm not successful. I grew up without a dad and everybody's got a sad story and all of that, but you know what, it's all about you as an individual standing up and knowing what you are capable of and having confidence in yourself and really believing that you can do what you want to do, because this life, you can't appreciate it enough."