Geno Smith rips Giants for ‘dirty play’ that led to knee injury, sideline confrontation

eno Smith voiced his frustration with the New York Giants after leaving Monday’s game midway in the second quarter with a knee injury. Smith returned to the game and rallied the Seattle Seahawks to a 24-3 victory, but still wasn’t pleased with how the injury occurred to his knee — and how he had to leave the MetLife Stadium field on the cart.

“A dirty play. Dirty play,” Smith told ESPN after the game. “You guys can see it. It was a dirty play. It’s no place in this sport for that and hopefully something happens, but other than that, the grace of God allowed me to come back into this game and I’m happy to be back out there.”

Geno Smith showed his frustration after Isaiah Simmons tackled him on the sideline 😳#SEAvsNYG pic.twitter.com/d0trgckmkc

— ESPN (@espn) October 3, 2023
Smith walked up to Giants safety Xavier McKinney after the play and voiced his displeasure with him. He ended up playing one more snap before missing the next two series with the knee injury. He returned to the game in time for the start of the second half, and even got a 15-yard penalty for taunting the Giants in the third quarter.

“I just don’t respect that type of stuff,” Smith said. “There’s no need for that type of stuff. It’s a hard-fought game out there. We’re all battling, but there’s no need to take shots at guys running out of bounds on the sideline.”

Smith had a slight limp due to the knee, but said he was fine. The Seahawks have a bye week coming up, so Smith gets a week to rest up the knee. While Smith wasn’t happy with the play, Isaiah Simmons defended the tackle — which was initially started in bounds after Smith caught his own pass in the backfield and tried to make something happen.

“We playing football. He’s mad he got hit? What do most quarterbacks do when they don’t want to get hit? They go down,” Simmons said. “I don’t really know what else to tell him about that.”