It's not easy being Geno Smith.
He begins this week in the very real position of going from the Jets' presumptive starter in July to being traded for peanuts or cut entirely from the roster by the end of August. Jets fans boo Smith's very presence in preseason games and he'll never outrun the sordid drama of the IKO -- former teammate IK Enemkpali busting his jaw over a $600 debt.
We'd love to say all this negativity has deflected off Smith, or that Smith has taken the adversity and transformed it into something bigger, something better, something empowering. His own Beyonce Lemonade moment.
But the truth is that Geno seems like a guy who's over it all.
For younger readers -- or those 20-somethings not binge-watching on NetFlix -- Smith's cap is a play on the logo of the classic sitcom Friends. A cursory Google search revealed you can purchase your own "Zero Friends" hat for 30 bucks. Not bad.
I'll note here that Smith has comported himself as a professional since the IKO. He hasn't bellyached about losing his job to Ryan Fitzpatrick over humiliating circumstances, and didn't publicly express any frustration when he was propped up as a paper starter while the Jets and Fitzpatrick worked through their exhaustive contract impasse this summer.
But we'll read into the subtext in the same way Ross could read Rachel: Geno Smith wants to be set free. Will the Jets do it?
