FB Evans knows highs, lows

By SHELDON MICKLES
Advocate sportswriter 

The 2009 NFL season can best be described as the best and worst — and best — of times for New Orleans Saints fullback Heath Evans.

In the team’s first six games, the 10-year veteran gave the Saints the athleticism they were looking for at that position when they signed Evans, an unrestricted free agent, and released five-year starter Mike Karney.

Evans scored two touchdowns in the first two games, including one in which he tip-toed his way along the sideline to complete an 11-yard scoring play after catching a pass from Drew Brees against the Philadelphia Eagles.

But in the sixth game, Evans tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as he tried to turn a short pass into another touchdown. That ended his season in Sun Life Stadium, where his teammates officially ended theirs 3‰ months later with a victory in Super Bowl XLIV.

As a result, it would be easy for Evans, who came to the Saints from the New England Patriots, to think he was cheated or robbed in some way by the devastating knee injury he suffered on Oct. 25.

But not so.