IK Enemkpali Discusses Impact of Punching Geno Smith

IK Enemkpali was a former sixth-round draft pick who was largely a special teams player coming into the 2015 season. He wasn’t even supposed to be in many local headlines, let alone national ones this year.

Then he punched then-teammate Geno Smith in the face and broke his jaw in two places. The New York Jets released Enemkpali in the aftermath, and the NFL suspended him for four games.

His season wasn’t over, though, because former Jets coach Rex Ryan added Enemkpali to the Buffalo Bills roster and created even more headlines because of his connection with New York.

The Jets and Bills play each other in Week 17, and Enemkpali will once again be a focal point. The linebacker commented on his “whirlwind” season, per Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News: “It was a whirlwind, man, a whirlwind. The attention was crazy. It felt like [he was] a first-round draft pick, but under different circumstances. Everybody was making this big deal about just everything, from the Jets to here, Rex … just a lot going on.”

The ironic thing about the entire situation is the 10-5 Jets may be better off with Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has 3,724 passing yards and 29 touchdown throws this year, at quarterback instead of Smith. If New York takes care of business against the Bills, it will be in the playoffs, and it already proved how dangerous it can be with a Week 16 win over the New England Patriots.

Enemkpali commented on the Jets’ situation that may be better because he punched Smith, per Carucci:

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Nobody knows if what I had done was going to deter whether Geno was going to play or not. Nobody knows that exactly. In the league, it’s next man up. I mean, the Jets’ fans – I was up there for a year – they’re crazy. They say anything and they have no filter at all. So I’m not surprised [that the joking about him being the Jets’ MVP] was said at all.

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Enemkpali also told Carucci that psychologist Janice Furst has been critical in processing the “whirlwind” season: “She’s been a big help, been a great help. I met with her, still do. Week in and week out, I talk to her [about] how I’m feeling. I can really just kind of vent to her, so she’s been a great help. She gives great advice.”

Furst reportedly emphasized to Enemkpali that there are always others to make news and his headlines will not last. The linebacker remarked on that mindset, per Carucci:

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There’s new news that comes up every day. When [the incident with Smith] happened, I was like, "Oh, my God! Everybody’s talking about this, they’re going to keep talking about this." The next week, there was some more news [about something else]. The week after that, some more news. And everybody, soon, forgets about it.

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While Enemkpali appears to have moved on from his incident, he has still been a role player at best for the Bills. According to ESPN, he has eight total tackles, zero sacks and zero interceptions in 2015.

Still, most of the fans will know his name Sunday.