Geno Smith calls IK Enemkpali punch ‘freak accident,’ says he did nothing wrong
Geno Smith has no regrets over the locker room incident that left him with a broken jaw last month and will likely force him to miss three more games.
In a recent interview with Dom Cosentino of NJ.com, Smith referred to his broken jaw as a “freak accident” when talking about his recovery.
“You’ve just got to be patient. It’s one of those things. Had it been something where I got injured on the field, [I’d] probably have a better perspective of it,” Smith said. “For it to be such a freak accident … sometimes, you wake up, and you’re like, ‘Man.’ You wish you could go back to that day, and do something different.”
By saying he wishes he could do something different, Smith was not referring to simply giving former teammate I.K. Enemkpali the money he supposedly owed the linebacker. When asked to clarify what he meant by that, Smith basically took it back and said he did nothing wrong.
“You know what? I can’t really say that,” he added. “I don’t regret anything. I don’t think I did anything wrong. You can’t go back in time.”
Smith also refuted the notion that his teammates lack respect for him. One Jets source who was inside the locker room when Enemkpali punched Smith reportedly said Geno had it coming. Smith said a lot of that was “just the media” creating drama.
“I’m not going to say it could never happen, but I wouldn’t expect my teammates to say anything like that,” he said. “They’ve been very supportive of me, with text messages, calls, and visits to the house. And once I was back [at the facility] full-time, it was normal. It was like nothing ever happened.”
We know at least one veteran teammate who agrees that Smith did nothing wrong. We also know that plenty of people agree with the comments Cris Carter made the day of the incident.
There’s nothing Smith can do about his broken jaw now, but it would be nice to hear him hold himself somewhat accountable. We’re not condoning what happened, but unless Enemkpali walked up to Smith and punched him for no reason there had to have been something Geno did to escalate the situation.
