When Blake Grupe went down with a knee injury after attempting a tackle on a kickoff return against the Arizona Cardinals on October 18, the Los Angeles Rams had exactly one option at kicker: their punter.
Ethan Evans, a Wingate University alum, didn't wait for the moment to find him — he had to go find it himself.
Evans, who had been on the Rams roster as a punter, was thrust into emergency kicking duty almost immediately after Grupe's injury, which came just moments into Grupe's own L.A. debut. Grupe had been signed by the team only that week, making his exit all the more jarring. With no other specialist available, Evans stepped into the role and delivered when it mattered most — drilling the go-ahead extra point to briefly give the Rams the lead in a chaotic, high-stakes moment on the national stage.
It was the kind of NFL debut story that writes itself: an under-the-radar punter from a small Division II program in Wingate, North Carolina, suddenly standing between his team and a critical missed point. Evans handled it.
The Rams ultimately fell to the Cardinals 16–18, so the storybook ending stopped just short of a win. But Evans's performance in an impossible situation — no warm-up, no warning, just go kick — was a moment that Wingate fans won't soon forget. He carried the job for the remainder of the game, cementing his name in the kind of NFL footnote that resonates far beyond the box score.
There was also a Wingate connection on the other sideline worth noting: Cardinals wide receiver Jalen Brooks suited up for Arizona in the same contest, giving the small Wingate program a rare two-alumni presence in a single NFL game. For a program like Wingate — a D-II school that doesn't make the NFL pipeline conversation the way Power Four programs do — having two alumni on the field in a marquee moment is a point of genuine pride. Evans, in particular, turned an emergency into an audition, and gave his alma mater a story to carry into the week.
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