Jimmy Smith was drafted by Baltimore with some baggage and character issues. They’ve been highlighted by the media and discussed by the man himself. Smith promises that Baltimore and a professional career in football will be a fresh start, but for many Ravens fans, they have to see it first to believe it.
His talent at corner is something the Ravens will be counting on in 2011 to carry them to the postseason and beyond. Thus far, Smith has performed in practice, but was sidelined with a left groin injury this past week.
On Monday, Smith lashed out on twitter to a fan who was frustrated with his injury status. The fan wrote: “Just what the ravens need..another secondary player who is injury prone. Keep it up @RealJimmySmith.” To which Smith responded, “shut the hell up..”
Social media has changed the way fans interact with athletes and surely they receive a lot more public heckling than they used to without it. Smith tweeted a week ago that he may have to block some twitter fans because of the non-sense they were writing to him.
Is it concerning that the fan’s frustrations have gotten to Smith? Probably not. Is this a red flag about his personality? Also no.
But should character issues develop later in the season, it will be incidents like this could be used to cite an argument that Smith never had any intentions of changing his attitude from the past. We all would prefer he just not respond to stupid comments directed at him.
