MR. & MISSES SMITH
SINCERITY, the late Ch. 9 showbiz show host Joe Franklin would lecture, is the most important thing to demonstrate in any business. “You’ll go nowhere,” he insisted, “without sincerity.
“And once you learn how to fake sincerity ...”
Successfully applied, sincerity is often a matter of choosing one’s spots. Veteran, skillful NFL wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. is selectively sincere, but by now knows he can get away with it because of an equally selective media.
So, following the revelation of Giants placekicker Josh Brown’s diary admission to being a serial wife abuser, an appalled Smith hopped into his Great Avenger outfit and with charm and sensitivity publicly encouraged Brown’s violence to be answered with violence.
Of Brown, Smith semi-coherently posted on Twitter, “You know what if your ex-wife was my daughter yo ASS would be on IR.”
Though Smith has earned praise for his work on behalf of abused women, given the dozens of opportunities to issue such responses toward NFL players who have brutalized women, his previous comments have been much more tame than his latest — aimed at a placekicker.
His public criticism of ex-teammate Greg Hardy, who was convicted of assaulting, strangling and imprisoning his ex-girlfriend then had that verdict overturned on appeal when the victim stopped cooperating, was mild — Smith only noting that he disapproves based on his mother being a victim of domestic violence — and didn’t occur until Hardy became an exteammate.
Smith didn’t issue any direct or implied threats of violence as the avenger of Hardy’s ex-girlfriend.
Nor did he when he tweeted this in response to the Ray Rice incident in 2014: “You know its not that hard get!!!! Keep your damn hands off women!!!! God made women for you to Lean on them Not beat on them#RealTalk”
It is not as if Smith has been short on opportunities to name names and issue suggestions for violent retribution. According to Sports Illustrated, “from Jan. 1, 2012, to Sept 17, 2014, 33 NFL players were arrested on charges involving domestic violence, battery, assault and murder. ... At least 15 of those players were arrested for violence against women.”
But in Brown, a placekicker who has earned no more public disgust than the rest, Smith has found his bête noir.
On other social matters, Smith benefits from a selective, pandering media.
In 2002, he was involved in two separate fights with Panthers’ teammates, fracturing the orbital bone of one, for which he was arrested, briefly jailed and suspended for one game.
In 2008, he again was suspended, this time for two games following a fight during which he broke a teammate’s nose.
But he made the most of his second suspension time by taping a “SportsCenter” promo, Smith being ESPN’s type of guy. This year Smith was selected to be a semiregular on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” radio/TV simulcast.
And just last year he was ejected from a preseason season game for fighting — which, again, pandering TV shot-callers found charming, warmly reporting that Smith’s son expressed his tweeted joy that he finally was able to watch an NFL game with his dad — on the occasion of his father’s expulsion from it.
And Steve Smith, no questions asked, no unpleasant, contradictory history cited, qualifies as a national spokesman on right from wrong. But that’s the bag we’re in.