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#pounditThursday, March 28, 2024

Geno Smith’s father received death threat over son starting

Geno Smith

Eli Manning and his family weren’t the only ones to endure a rough time among New York Giants quarterbacks last week. Geno Smith and his family did, too. In fact, Smith’s father received a death threat over his son starting.

Geno Smith Jr., the father of Geno Smith III, told NJ.com that he received a call on his cell phone last week after the announcement that his son would be starting in place of Manning.

“I was just at work,” Smith Jr. told NJ Advance Media. “I answered and he was like, ‘Geno?’ So I just listened and he was like, ‘Is this Geno?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘Your son better not start or we’re going to kill you.’ I kind of just laughed and then he hung up.”

Smith said the call was from a Missouri area code and came from someone who sounded like he was in his 20s. Smith Jr. said he received a second call from the man (this time from a different area code) after Ben McAdoo was fired.

The Smith family did not report the threat to the league or team.

“I think my dad handled it well,” the Giants QB told NJ Advance Media. “He kind of just hung up the phone. It’s just kind of shameful that would be happening because of someone doing their job. When he told me that, I was like, ‘What?’ But you kind of get a sense of comfortability from him. He was like, ‘Man, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Just do your thing, play your game.’ So that was why I was able to be easy with it.”

Many Giants fans were outraged over the team’s treatment of Manning, who has won two Super Bowls for the franchise. The benching ended Manning’s consecutive starts streak, and Smith was the man who was called upon to start in his place, making him seem like an innocent victim in all of this. Although, Smith didn’t exactly help himself with some of his comments on the matter.

Now that McAdoo has been fired, the Giants have reinstalled Manning as their starter, pushing Smith to the bench. That should please the fans. But there is no doubt that what that person did to Smith’s father is awful and inappropriate. That is going way too far. Credit to Smith for being able to brush it aside.

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