Content available exclusively for subscribers
Geno Smith was in the news on Sunday. Harvey Levin’s TMZ reports a woman named Kristen posed on social media on Father’s Day, “He HATES taking care of his special needs kid and can’t be left alone with him because he’d rather watch s*x online and play Call of Duty.”
According to TMZ, “Local authorities tell us only one call for service was made at Geno’s home Sunday … no arrests were made, and the case is still under review.”
During the 2021 season, Smith was pulled over by Seattle police after they claimed they had clocked his Rolls Royce going 96 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, according to TMZ.
“Officers say Smith was also driving erratically and changing lanes without signaling … and during questioning, they say he reeked of booze,” wrote TMZ.
He was taken into custody and released after seven hours.
According to TMZ, Smith was “verbally abusive to an officer.”
Look, I don’t want to make this into “TMZ Live,” and TMZ wasn’t the only media outlet to report these two stories.
But the point is, with all the platitudes this spring about Smith’s maturity, like every human being, he’s not perfect, and sometimes, during the feel-good season when everybody is 0-0, spring NFL stories gloss over the negative and accentuate the positive.
After the Jets signed Smith in March, former NFL QB Shaun King, who does media work now and is based in Las Vegas, said on Jason Brown’s podcast:
“You know what’s so funny – I watched multiple (sports shows), and it showed me how little football they really actually consume,” King told Brown. “Because all they talked about was how great this was for the Jets because now there will be an adult in the quarterback room, and a professional guy is going back (to the Jets). Geno acted like the most petulant f-ing child the whole child all year, last year. His body language was shi$%. He was flipping off the fans. And they are up there like he’s this consummate pro. It just reminded me how little f-in football most of those people consume.”
If things get ugly around the Jets this year, and the team is struggling, it will be interesting to see how Smith deals with the fans, like cat-calls from the crowd, or nasty comments online.
The media should not be a problem. This market isn’t that tough anymore, and the guy Smith butted heads with quite a bit his first time with the Jets. Manish Mehta is no longer on the beat.
But if Smith is struggling, and the fans start getting on him at MetLife, you could argue it would be best to avoid what King said Smith did in Vegas last year (flipping the bird).
The bottom line is that Smith has displayed some dubious behavior, at times, over the year, like when he got punched by a teammate during his first stint with the Jets, when the teammate claimed he blew off his charity football camp in Texas. Of course, there is no excuse for hitting another human being, but the player felt that Smith embarrassed him.
So the Jets need Smith to be on his best behavior as their QB this year, manage the games well, and stay out of the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Some headlines might be true, some headlines might be false, but as the old saying goes, “where there is smoke, there is fire.”
The Jets need him to just focus like a laser on football and lead them to “the promised land,” as the coach said he believes the QB can, and not force their PR department to have to do any spin control at any point this season for anything off-the-field or exchanges with fans.
Just make the main thing the main thing.
June 23, 2026
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Wednesday.
