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When Geno Smith woke up on Aug. 11, 2015, he was the New York Jets’ starting quarterback. He went to bed that night with a broken jaw after being punched by former teammate IK Enemkpali in the locker room. Now more than 14 months later, Smith has finally regained his starting job.
Brandon Marshall celebrated Smith’s perseverance with either one hell of a pun or an unfortunate analogy.
Brandon Marshall on Geno Smith: "It’s been amazing to see this guy grow and really punch adversity in the face."
— Bob Glauber (@BobGlauber) October 19, 2016
Smith has admitted to still being bothered by the punch, even as recently as August.
"Every day I'm pissed off until I get my job back," Smith said, via NFL.com. "Until I'm a starting quarterback, I'm pissed off every day. That's my mentality, that's my competitive nature. I want to win so badly, deep inside of me. I'm not pissed off at anyone, but I do believe I'm a starting quarterback in this league, and I believe I can do great things."
Maybe now that he has the starting job back, Smith is no longer pissed off. Even though it’s Smith doing the hypothetical punching in this instance, it might just be better to stay away from any and all mentions of face punching at this point.