Wide Receiver · Los Angeles Rams

Puka Nacua

No. 12 · 4th season

A lawsuit, a photo, and a New Year's Eve that isn't going away

Puka Nacua came into the league as one of the better stories in recent memory — a rookie wide receiver who broke records almost before anyone knew his name, and who seemed to carry himself with the kind of quiet seriousness that makes people root for you. That reputation is now in a complicated place.

A woman is suing Nacua, claiming he bit her on the shoulder on New Year's Eve at the start of 2026. Her lawyer has since released what they say is a photo of the injury, and they've been direct about how they want it read: this was not playful, they say. Not horseplay.

The case is unresolved. A photo and a lawyer's framing are not a verdict. But the image is out there now, and the word that keeps appearing — bite — is not one that fades quietly.

For Nacua, a player who had built real goodwill in a short time, this is the kind of story that sits alongside everything else and doesn't move. Whatever a court decides, the question of what happened that night is going to be part of how people see him for a while.

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