He was expected to be back in the games in six to 10 weeks since he just had his surgery last Thursday though his jaw was not wired shut.
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With the exception of Marshall, Smith seems to be facing indifference inside his own locker room, and criticism outside of it. ESPN analyst Cris Carter was quick to blame Smith for the fight last week, and NFL Network commentator Willie McGinest said he would have given Enemkpali, who’s now with the Bills, a contract extension.
Bowles clearly feels Smith is being irresponsible, but is he overreacting?
Enemkpali turns out to be a good guy who apparently just lost his temper after Smith reneged without apology on a commitment to appear at a camp for kids, embarrassing Enemkpali and sticking him with the loss of hundreds of dollars in expenses.
“Because he’s young; he’s 24”, said Marshall, who was Smith’s roommate in the offseason.
“You’re on private property, and I’ve been nice, but I don’t want to call the cops on you”, was his response when the Post reporter still insisted on asking him questions about the fight. “We handled that internally”.
This after-surgery exercise did not seem to please the Jets as coach Todd Bowles.
It’s probably not up to Smith, though he said he’s been told the punctured lung he suffered in an early August practice is healed, and that all he can do with his broken ribs is rest and wait for the team’s medical staff to clear him. Smith told the Post on Saturday.
“They knew they’d be running”, Bowles said, “but it’s at my discretion on how much”. As long as the hits are clean and everything, we’re fine.
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“I didn’t get hurt”, Bowles said with a big grin, “so I must have been OK”. The coach, however, said that didn’t lower his tolerance for fighting among the players. There’s no cutting and there’s no hitting in the back and those types of things. So I’ll explain the problem with this in simple terms that you can understand: playing football two days after having surgery is bad. They all recited the company line: We’ve moved on.
