Was Geno “sucker punched”? It may be a matter of semantics
Posted by Mike Florio on August 11, 2015, 6:39 PM EDT
We’ll likely never know what specifically happened between Jets quarterback
Geno Smith and now-former Jets linebacker IK Emenkpali, absent surveillance video. Even if multiple people witnessed the exchange, multiple people will have different versions of what they saw.
The official version from the Jets is that Smith was “sucker punched.” That claim is now being disputed.
NFL safety turned ESPN analyst Ryan Clark has made this claim on Twitter: “Have confirmed with multiple sources that Geno Smith was not, I repeat was not sucker punched!
So let’s stop that narrative.”
It’s not a narrative. It’s the team’s official position, as expressed by the team’s head coach. While plenty of head coaches at every level of the sport take liberties with the truth for strategic reasons, an official position from a team’s head coach isn’t really a narrative to be dismissed like a hot take from Skip Bayless.
Besides, this may simply be a matter of semantics. Some (like Clark) may think a sucker punch is something that occurs out of the blue, with no sign of conflict or trouble. Others (like Bowles) may think that any punch thrown before a clear declaration of “You wanna go!?” with a fighting stance assumed is a sucker punch.
It’s clear, as Bowles acknowledged, that an issue existed between the players. Bowles, and anyone else with an ounce of common sense, believes it should have been resolved without violence.
Sucker punch or not, it’s another M-E-S-S for the J-E-T-S, who can now only hope that
Ryan Fitzpatrick or
Bryce Petty end up being better than Smith would have been.