Geno Smith Draws Criticism For Firing Agent

Apr 26, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Geno Smith (West Virginia) is introduced as the number thirty-ninth overall pick to the New York Jets during the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

It only took four days for Geno Smith to join the New York Jets media circus.

Today, multiple sources were reporting that Geno Smith has fired his agent and the Select Sports Group. The view of this move is almost unanimous in the opinion that Smith fired his representation out of spite for falling into the second round of the NFL draft.

But as Smith told Sirius Radio, the move has nothing to do with his frustrating first round ordeal:

"“I don’t want to shed too much light on it,” he said. “The thing that I can tell you is that it’s not because of the whole draft experience. It’s not because of one particular incident. There’s a number of things. And that story, you know, that battle will be fought on a different day. As of right now, I don’t feel too comfortable talking about all the details of it.”"

Whether Smith actually fired his agency due to a fall in the NFL draft or not is irrelevant at this point. He has given the New York media ammunition in their battle on his character.

Since the night of the first round, Smith has been subjected to a character debate in the national media over whether he has the mental toughness to handle the rigors of playing quarterback, let alone playing quarterback for one of the most disgruntled fanbases in the NFL.

From the first round face palming fiasco of this past Thursday, to the Tim Tebow release yesterday, to Smith now firing his agent today, the New York Jets quarterback situation has turned into a three ring circus. At the center of that circus now is Geno Smith. Mark Sanchez has all of a sudden become a forgotten punching bag in this whole scenario.

Geno Smith’s timing of firing his agent could not have come at a worse time. He has already had to deal with character debate stemming from the overly critical scouting evaluation of Nolan Nawrocki. This is one more piece of “evidence” that will be used against him in the New York court of public appeal.

He can say all the right things and do all the right things, but until he takes the field this fall, he will have to live up to impossible standards demanded of a star in New York. The best thing Geno can do is to keep his name out of the tabloids and stay focused on preparing himself to compete for the starting quarterback job.

The Jets circus, especially around the quarterback position is out of his control, but he can at least shift the spotlight and the associated media attacks from himself by focusing on his off-season conditioning and not on the character attacks. Even without Geno making headlines, the New York media will have plenty to write about given how dysfunctional the Jets are these days.

As they say in show business, “the show must go on.”