Geno Smith will miss the start of the season because a teammate punched him in the face
LatestThe Jets are a hilarious tire fire of a franchise, and today those tires burned a little brighter. News broke earlier this morning that Geno Smith, the Jets’ pretty terrible quarterback, will be out for six to 10 weeks with a broken jaw after his teammate IK Enemkpali punched him in the face.
“It was nothing to do with football…It was very childish,” coach Todd Bowles told ESPN. “He got cold-cocked…sucker punched, whatever you want to call it, in the jaw. He’s got a broken jaw, a fractured jaw.”
Enemkpali, meanwhile, is not on the team anymore.
It’s unknown what the two were arguing about, though Bowles did say it was something “sixth-graders could’ve talked” through. Reporter Mike Garafolo says that Smith stuck a finger in Enemkpali’s face, provoking the punch.
As ESPN’s Rich Cimini pointed out, Enemkpali has a history of “off-the-field” incidents:
What Cimini doesn’t point out is the glowing redemption profile he wrote of Enempkali in May 2014 titled, “Jets rookie pass rusher sacks his past.” Here is a nice passage from the profile:
There are dozens like him in every draft, players that step outside the law. Some let their misdeeds define them. Others try to use their transgressions to make them better people. Enemkpali wanted his prospective employers to know he belongs to the latter category. He made an impression on the Jets, who drafted the undersized pass-rusher in the sixth round.
And here’s his conclusion:
A 40-yard dash doesn’t always quantify a player’s true ability. Enemkpali already has proven that he won’t let a few bad seconds, acted out in a late-night bar fight, bring him down.
It seems a bit disingenuous to sanctimoniously condemn someone for having a “history of a bad temper” without acknowledging that you once wrote a piece implicitly claiming that history is behind him. But who is to say for sure!
Anyway, Ryan Fitzpatrick will take over while Smith sits on the sidelines. Time will tell which of his teammates will punch him in the face.
Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.