Steve Smith Bails On Giants

Added on Aug 11, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Add another name to the talent rich/character challenged roster of the Philadelphia Eagles–former New York Giants’ wide receiver Steve Smith is joining the team and his departure was handled in the classless manner you’d expect. According to the Giants, Smith never gave his former team a chance to counter the Eagles offer.

“We were constantly told that if and when the market did develop that we would always be included in what was going on. I am upset. So is everybody. But we are disappointed in the fact that … it’s like lining up for the race and you are in the locker room and nobody tells you that the race is going to be run. That is the disappointing thing here. I don’t believe that we were given the opportunity to do what we can do.”

Smith responded like an adolescent, posting on his Facebook page that the Giants didn’t ‘want him’ as badly as the Eagles did:

“Instead of cursing at me and wishing my family and my knee harm, i wish you could understand that i truly wanted to stay here but that the giants DIDN’T want me here unfortunately. Thank you to my true fans for standing by me and offering your support during this time … i truly appreciate it and will miss you all, even the haters bc i know ure great people deep down and are saying what u are just because youre such passionate fans.”

Smith’s agent Ben Dogra denies that Smith reneged on a promise to give the Giants a chance to counter:

“I did not. I never told them at any point. And, in fact, I’ll take it a step further. I told them, ‘Hey, I just want to be candid with you, I have another team that’s going to be in the mix on a one-year deal.’ So I did tell them that.”

“If you have a sense of urgency, sometimes when you have a free agent, you can negotiate against yourself, you negotiate and wait for us or you just negotiate to get a deal done. That’s the prerogative of the club. We have no obligation to go back.”

The Giants open preseason play on Saturday at Charlotte, NC against the Carolina Panthers. New York is a +2 point underdog in the game.