Eventually, they agreed to split the cost, teammates said. Enemkpali shelled out $1,200 for plane fare and hotel. Months earlier, Smith had accepted an invitation to be a guest at Enemkpali's youth football camp in Pflugerville, Texas. Unbeknownst to most of their teammates, the two had an existing beef. Two days before the Jets' preseason opener in Detroit, Smith - the presumptive starter - dressed for practice in front of his locker when Enemkpali approached from the other side of the room. Here's a retrospective on the fight that rocked sports: While the pair will not talk about it, others will - finally.
Smith, 31, has been a backup ever since though he is vying for the starting job with the Seattle Seahawks after Russell Wilson was traded. Professionally, Smith and Enemkpali - forever linked - never recovered from the fight. 11, 2015, when the punch happened inside the team locker room in Florham Park, N.J. What happened is what happened." Former Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, coach Todd Bowles, quarterback Geno Smith and linebacker IK Enemkpali all were in camp on Aug. Reached later by phone, Enemkpali said, "There's really not much for me to say. Smith and Enemkpali each declined interview requests, with Enemkpali asking ESPN in a Facebook message, "What's the point of bringing it back up? What's your motive?" "Can't help you," one former Jets player said in a text. It remains a sensitive subject for many, some of whom declined to be interviewed for this story. Call it the locker room code: Don't snitch on teammates. Veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, acquired in an offseason trade, replaced Smith and led the Jets to a 10-6 record, their last winning season.Īt the time, the team never spoke in detail about what happened that day, other than to explain the cause of the altercation - a dispute over $600. He spent the rest of the 2015 season on the bench as the team flourished without him. Smith underwent surgery to repair his jaw, which was fractured in two places. As late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien joked in his monologue, "The Jets finally get a player who can hit and they release him."Įnemkpali, a 260-pound linebacker selected in the sixth round of the 2014 draft, was cut immediately by Bowles. But in the summer of 2015, the sanctity of the Jets' locker room was shattered in a shocking way that transcended sports and returned the star-crossed franchise to - ahem - punchline status. The safest place for a quarterback, other than his own home, is supposed to be the locker room, where he stands on a figurative pedestal as the leader of the team. "JAW & DISORDER," the New York Post screamed on its back page. "LUCK OF THE JAW! Jets fans rejoice as QB out 6-10 weeks." The next morning, it made the front and back pages of the tabloids, with the New York Daily News taking its own swing at the polarizing Smith on page one: It was the biggest story in Gotham and across the NFL.
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TV reporters occupied the small lawn outside the press room, delivering live standups for the 6 o'clock news. Within the hour, several news trucks had descended upon the Jets' suburban facility in Florham Park, New Jersey. With that, Bowles turned serious and announced the (Cheap) Shot Heard 'Round the World: Jets starting quarterback Geno Smith would miss at least six weeks with a fractured jaw, the result of what Bowles called a locker room "sucker punch" by teammate IK Enemkpali. "You're going to want a tape recorder for this," he said, managing a smile. This was supposed to be a quiet day in the world of the Jets: a light practice before their first preseason game, followed by routine questions from the media.Īs reporters assembled, one of them asked Bowles if this was going to be something worth recording. Reporters were summoned for an impromptu news conference. 11, 2015, coach Todd Bowles walked into the New York Jets' press room - unannounced - and went directly to the podium. 11, 2020 and has been updated to reflect current events.) (Editor's note: This story was originally published on Aug.
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