Oregon tight end Jamari Johnson was cited for speeding on the same day that Evan Stewart was arrested for DUII. The citation and arrest do not explain the high-speed police chase in Eugene on early Sunday morning.
This mystery remains unsolved!
Local police insist that college football players were not involved. They still do not know who was…
Jamari Johnson was cited for speeding before Evan Stewart was arrested for DUII.
Oregon lost to Nebraska on Saturday night. The game ended at approximately 11:45 p.m. PT. Players were released from the locker room after midnight on Sunday. And then it got messy.
News broke on early Monday morning that Evan Stewart was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants and booked into jail on Sunday morning. To make matters worse, his license was also suspended at the time of his arrest because he failed to appear in court for multiple traffic violations, including speeding.
Stewart was not the only Oregon football player to get pulled over after the loss. Tight end Jamari Johnson was cited for speeding at 3:51 a.m. His citation was issued more than hour before Stewart was arrested. The two incidents are not related!
As of this writing, Stewart is ruled out for Saturday’s game against Illinois with an injury. Johnson was not listed on the injury report and is not expected to face an internal punishment for driving too fast last weekend. That settles that.
However, there is another wrinkle to this story that remains unresolved.
Oregon football players were not involved with the high-speed police chase.
Rumors ran wild on the internet. A large number of Oregon football players were (incorrectly) linked to a high-speed police chase. A Nest doorbell camera in captured the following video on early Sunday morning:
I have sources from Eugene there may be some truth to it pic.twitter.com/b3q7c5dBu0
— First Down Finance (@Khall_eth) October 19, 2026
Springfield police made it abundantly clear that Evan Stewart’s DUII arrest was not related to the police chase. Several Oregon football players were contacted by police on early Sunday morning but only because they were in the area of a separate pursuit that resulted in the discovery of an abandoned vehicle. Police were not going to pursue it further. The football team was not implicated.
However, the case number for Jamari Johnson’s citation matches that of the separate police chase. That doesn’t mean he was involved. In fact, Springfield police deputy chief George Crolly told the Oregonian that he wasn’t. They are still investigating.
“He was not involved in the high-speed pursuit. We are still seeking the drivers in that case. He was stopped well before Mr. Stewart’s arrest, so he was not part of the group of cars that were in the area when Mr. Stewart was stopped.”
A group of Oregon football players left the nearby area when police discovered the vehicle from the high-speed chase. Springfield’s police department has not named any Ducks players as suspects in that case.
And yet, Johnson was cited for speeding at 3:51 a.m. Police dispatch logs also list the high-speed police chase around 3:51 a.m.
The nearly identical timing is a coincidence, apparently. Springfield police, which initially said that it was not going to pursue the police chase further, is now saying that it is “still seeking the drivers in that case.” Neither Johnson nor Stewart are implicated. Nor are any other members of the football program.