Browns defensive tackle Shaun Smith was at the Central Maryland Browns Backers banquet recently and spoke at length. Amongst other things, Smith discussed his time with the Bengals, for whom he had two stints, one in ’04, and the other from ’05’-’06. Smith offered a lot of insight including why the Patriots have been so successful, why young quarterbacks so often fail, who will get a big contract from the Bengals, and most notably, what happened at halftime of the Steelers/Bengals playoff game in ’05 between Chad Johnson and Marvin Lewis.
Continue reading to see Smith’s description of the incident between Marvin and Chad, as well as Smith’s thoughts on the Patriots’ success, young QBs, Brady Quinn, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
Smith on the halftime incident in ’05 between Marvin Lewis and Chad Johnson:
“[Chad] swung at Marvin … shattered the training room glass. He hit Marvin in the eye. If you saw Marvin in the press conference after the game, you would’ve seen his left eye had something below it. Then he tried to swing at receivers coach Hue Jackson.”
When asked about Marvin Lewis, Smith offered this:
“He doesn’t have control of the players. It’s hard when you let players get away with certain things and then it becomes a pattern for the next guy and the next guy.”
As for the Patriots, Smith said: “Everybody cheats. Only some get caught.”
Smith said Brady Quinn isn’t ready to become the quarterback, saying a major problem amongst highly drafted quarterbacks is that they are forced to play quickly. Smith says they’re not ready, they get sacked, and their confidence dwindles.
Smith also added a few nuggets, including his feeling that T.J. Houshmandzadeh will get a deal from the Bengals before Ocho Cinco will, based on his talks with T.J., whom he calls a friend.
Chest Bump to The Sporting Blog and PFT for sharing the video and story.
