The Panthers’ Steve Smith demonstrates the complete disdain with which most fellow players treat the mega-dysfunctional Jets.
Via: Rich Schultz / AP
The Jets' quarterback situation gets referred to as a soap opera pretty often. But at this point, it's become more bizarre and less funny than that, going into the realm of Beckett and Kafka: everything's a mess, there isn't a clear way out, and nobody's behaving in ways that make sense.
One ramification of this: all of a sudden, the team seems exempt from the specific kind of omertà that applies to the fraternity that is professional football. Most NFL players won't talk trash about their peers unless that peer plays for a traditional rival, instigated an on-field beef, or is involved in an intra-locker-room feud. And even then most criticism is about attitude, not ability — players will call each other lazy or dirty or selfish, but rarely question whether a peer belongs in the league. But now, in the wake of teammates anonymously and viciously bashing Tim Tebow's quarterbacking skills , another random guy with zero connection to the Jets has started taking unprovoked shots at them: Steve Smith, the great, hotheaded Carolina Panthers receiver, decided to add to Mark Sanchez's many troubles yesterday during a radio interview without any substantial provocation. (And sure, maybe the interviewer baited him into it — I don't know what conversation preceded this statement — but still: most players are very careful not to say something like this.)
Via: Aaron M. Sprecher / AP
When you think about it, Smith's (seemingly spontaneous) criticism (of another team's quarterback) becomes even more bracing: think of the guys Smith HAS caught passes from in his career. (We're assuming, for the purposes of this post, that Smith has an even higher standard for catching footballs than catching "paper bag sandwiches.") Smith started playing for the Panthers in 2001; over his 12 seasons since then, the Panthers have started the following guys at quarterback: