New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith will miss a lot of playing time after being "sucker-punched" by a teammate Tuesday. The fracas left him with two fractures in his jaw.
IK Enemkpali, a reserve linebacker who threw the punch, was promptly released by the team. Head coach Todd Bowles told reporters the altercation "had nothing to do with football."
"It was something very childish. He got cold-cocked, sucker-punched, whatever you want to call it, in the jaw. He has a broken jaw, fractured jaw, it requires some surgery."
Smith, who is the process of trying to resurrect his career with the Jets, will miss six to 10 weeks with the injury.
Smith took to Instagram vowing, "ILL BE BACK!"
Jets fans — no strangers to heartbreak — are likely to take this incident pretty hard, especially because Smith was reportedly having a strong training camp.
"Jets fans are used to calamity happening to their team at the quarterback position, but this is a new one. Smith was one [of] our candidates to improve this season as a starter, largely because of how well he fits in offensive coordinator Chan Gailey's system."
Summer skirmishes are nothing new in NFL training camps, though the severity of this injury to arguably the team's most important position is remarkable. The altercation comes one day after Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton got into a scuffle with a teammate during practice.
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