The quarterback who escaped ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak in China is the ultimate footbal

June 15, 2024

Jarred Evans spent the past two years living and playing football in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and the former University of Cincinnati quarterback started the new year by winning a second championship in the space of a month.

Then came the panic.

Wuhan is ground zero for the deadly coronavirus outbreak that first erupted there in December and now has claimed a reported 200-plus lives in China and infected thousands of others, sparking worldwide alarm.

Evans, 27, was among 200 Americans evacuated from Wuhan on a chartered cargo jet earlier this week as the illness continues to spread and was declared a global emergency Thursday by the World Health Organization.

Evans spoke about the coronavirus situation, life in China and playing football around the globe – on a phone call from what he described as his pleasant hotel-like room at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. That’s where he said he expects to be quarantined for up to 14 days while Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and State Department officials monitor his health and debrief him.

He said he has experienced none of the illness’ flu-like symptoms and is keen to get the experience over with so he can prepare his next gig in his globetrotting football career – quarterbacking the Bern Grizzlies of Switzerland’s six-team Nationalliga A American football league this spring.

“I’m feeling great. I feel like I can go play ball,” he said.

It’s easy to understand why he’s keen to get back to football: Evans quarterbacked the Wuhan Gators to the Chinese Arena Football League title in December and then won the outdoor Chinese National Football League championship with the Wuhan Berserkers on Jan. 11.

By then, most of his American teammates had gone home because the season was over. There were only four other Americans on the Berserkers roster, he said, because Chinese rules limit the number of foreign players on a team.

“Everybody left prior to the situation being noticeable,” he said.

The situation, of course, being the coronavirus outbreak.

Evans said he stayed behind after the championship because his two-bedroom apartment was paid for and he wanted to keep working out at the local gym, and he did not want to get distracted back in America before his next football job in a few months. He spent nights working online with his dad on the family’s long-time luxury car service business in New York.

There was some chatter about a flu going around, but life was normal. Then it wasn’t.

“It was just a regular day in China. I was in the gym working out. People were going out. Kids going to school. Everyone was getting ready for the Lunar New Year. We heard about it. Not a big deal,” he said.

On Jan. 22, the Chinese government ordered a complete lockdown of the city of 11 million.

“It turned into a panic. A complete frenzy rushing to stores to get face masks and disinfectant,” he said. “I stocked up on a lot of rice, eggs, meat. Enough to survive a lockdown. There were no cars on the road. Planes, buses and subways were shut down.”

Because he was unable to use his Gmail account in China – the authoritarian government blocks many American email services, search engines, apps and social media – he relied on his mother, Laurette Henry, to help arrange his passage home via the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Evans said he was passenger No. 171 on the evacuation flight, and had just a few hours to get packed and get a ride to the airport through the roadblocks in the ghostly city. As he does during his occasional 15-hour flights home prior to the illness outbreak, he slept on the plane.

The trip back to the U.S. first stopped to refuel in Alaska, and Evans wasn’t sure how long they were in the air. Before boarding, during the flight, and upon landing in Anchorage, American health officials screened the passengers, Evans said, but there was no panic. Everyone wore gloves and masks. Everyone clapped and cheered when the jet touched down in Anchorage, he said.

“It was all joy. We were all happy to be back in America,” Evans said. Then it was 4 1/2-hour flight to California and more thermometers and health screens followed.

As of Thursday night, there were reportedly nearly 10,000 coronavirus cases, including a few in the U.S., but the only deaths have been in China. The disease manifests itself via fever, fatigue, dry cough, shortness of breath and respiratory trouble. It’s most problematic for the very young, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. The U.S. State Department is warning Americans to avoid travel to China, and airlines are canceling flights to the country.

Wuhan is capital of China’s central Hubei province, where there is a growing interest in American football, as there is across the country. Evans initially disliked it when he arrived in 2017 but came to love it.

“It was very shocking. I did not want to be there,” he said. “It was a culture shock. I wanted to come home first several months. I went home for a while, but I came back and started to enjoy myself. I got good Chinese friends. It was like my second home,” he said.

Evans said he learned of American football in China a couple years ago from a teammate on the Green Bay Blizzard of the Indoor Football League. The teammate knew a coach in China, J.W. Kenton, was looking for a quarterback/defensive back and got the two connected.

Kenton, according to Evans, said he wanted to make him the face of American football in China, and that was good enough to lure him to the other side of the world.

“I said, ‘sign me up, I’m ready to come,’” Evans said.

That led to him both coaching and playing for the 8-on-8 arena team (co-owned by ex-Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski), and the 11-on-11 outdoor team. He’d play a game in each league every week. Evans said he was paid about $1,100 a game in the CNFL and about $3,000 a game in the CAFL.

That’s a far cry from the hundreds of thousands and millions of the NFL, but enough to be OK in China.

Most players spoke English, but one of his primary receivers spoke none at all, he said, and he speaks no Chinese. But it didn’t matter because they managed to work out how to communicate.

“What he could do is run fast and catch,” Evans said, chuckling.

Why did he end up playing two brands of American football at the same time on the other side of the globe, in a communist nation of 1.4 billion people who mostly prefer soccer and basketball?

Love of the game. Need of the game, too.

(Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)

Evans, who was born in New York and played high school football in both Queens and Philadelphia, started his college career at Santa Barbara City College before transferring to Cincinnati after two seasons.

The NFL didn’t come calling, so he began his gridiron globetrotting that he said included tryouts with NFL clubs, a minicamp with the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos, a season with the Cologne Crocodiles of the German Football League, then his stint with the Indoor Football League’s Green Bay Blizzard, he said.

That led to double duty in China, where he showcased his arm and legs. He cited from memory his CNFL stats for this season’s six games: 218 completions on 330 attempts for 2,957 yards with 32 touchdowns and one interception. Oh, and another 685 yards rushing and 10 scores on the ground, he said. Chinese football stats are not online to confirm.

How would Evans assess Chinese players?

“Chinese players not yet as talented or knowledgeable. They work hard. They’re dedicated. They give 100 percent to their craft. They’re getting better,” Evans said.

The 11-on-11 Wuhan Berserkers, in only their second season in a league begun in 2013, obliterated the competition. All of their games were double-digit shutouts until the final regular-season game, a 44-6 rout of the Chengdu Pandaman. The playoffs saw Wuhan beat the Foshan Tigers 52-8 and then out-gun the Shanghai Warriors 86-40.

Why was his team such a steamroller? Evans said it was the presence of veteran American coaches bringing tried-and-true methods to the Berserkers. They installed traditional team systems, such as putting everyone on a formal schedule for meetings, practice, game film and workouts.

It was also talent.

“Our Chinese players were better than the other Chinese players,” Evans said.

The biggest football difference Evans said he noticed was that American players were more intense than their Chinese teammates.

“It was the aggressiveness the American athletes have for the game. A lot of us do this sport because we need to get our mom out of a situation, or we need the money. We need to pay off debt. We need an education,” he said. “They don’t have the aggressiveness. They’re just playing a game. We’re playing as game for survival.”

That’s because football is part of American life, he said, and it’s still very new to China. The hunger and intensity will come as they gain experience.

And now that he’s left amid a health crisis, would he ever return to Wuhan?

“I would love to go back. It’s scary now, but when everything is cleared, I will go back,” he said.

Evans said he’s been checking in with his Chinese friends and teammates daily.

“I’ve been with these guys for two years, almost every single day. In my head, they’re like family. When I needed something, they were there for me,” he said.

Evans, who said his life has fit into two suitcases, a duffel bag and a book bag for the past several years, thinks his body has just a couple seasons left on the field. He wants to then go into coaching, he said, and act as an ambassador for football outside the NFL. Most players will never sniff the highest level of pro football, but there are good times to be had and a little bit of money to be made playing overseas, he said.

“I’m not playing just for me, anymore. It’s for the kids underneath me, looking up to me. There’s more opportunity than the NFL. It’s everywhere now. You can go to Brazil, France, Japan. Mexico. I want to be an ambassador to say it’s more than the NFL,” he said.

His next ambassadorship is Switzerland.

Evans said several European teams called him, but he was most intrigued by what Bern Grizzlies head coach Darius Willis had to say. And he’s never been to Switzerland. Another stamp on the passport.

“It sounds like he has a really good plan,” Evans said. “We’ll do the due diligence, the work hard and win a championship. It’s going to be amazing.”

(Top photo courtesy of Jarred Evans)

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