Steve Smith Sr. Apparently Tried To Fight Jermaine Wiggins After Loss To Patriots On Saturday
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's no secret that Steve Smith Sr. is one of the most fiery competitors in the entire NFL. But on Saturday night, in the bowels of Gillette Stadium, that fire apparently boiled up when the veteran wide receiver was off the field.
An incident between Smith and former Patriots tight end -- and one-time former Smith teammate -- Jermaine Wiggins. The former Sports Hub personality in the past said something to the effect of "Smith is a bully." Well, word got back to Smith, and he decided to settle the score after his Ravens lost to the Patriots in the divisional playoffs. Smith caught three passes for 44 yards and a touchdown, but the 35-year-old was understandably upset after his season ended. And he took it out on Wiggy.
Marc Bertrand of the Felger & Masarotti shared the story, with Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti popping in from time to time. Here's the story:
Felger: "Did our guy Wiggy get into a fight with Steve Smith [Saturday] night?"
Bertrand: "Steve Smith tried to get into a fight with Wiggy, that happened."
Felger: "OK, OK, tell the story. Steve Smith Sr., the Ravens receiver?"
Bertrand: "Steve Smith Sr., after the game, was going over to the team buses, which are parked under the stands at Gillette Stadium, and Jermaine Wiggins was there. Wiggy was at the game. If you were there, you saw him on the sideline screaming at the crowd on the mic, trying to get people going.
Steve Smith and Wiggy were teammates back in Carolina [in 2002 and '03]. Wiggy once upon a time on this very program called Steve Smith a bully, saying he's a bad locker room guy and there's plenty of evidence to support that claim. Somehow, that got back to Steve Smith. He approached Wiggy at Gillette Stadium after the game."
Felger: "And Wiggy is standing there with his family, right?"
Bertrand: "With his family, his lovely wife and his boys were there, and they were at the game, and Wiggy was doing some media work as well. [Smith] approaches Wiggy and wants to talk about, 'You called me a bully. I heard you called me a bully.'
To which, Wiggy said: 'I did call you a bully. You know you are one.'
And I talked to Wiggy about it. He said at that point I thought he was, you know, just kind of busting chops and wasn't like serious. Then all of a sudden, it got like really violent and he was in my face looking for a fight! He tried to fight Jermaine Wiggins after the game.
And so, a number of people got in between them."
Felger: "Like who?"
Bertrand: "A number of security personnel and people that were in the area at the time."
Massarotti: "JoJo LaFell?"
Felger: "Brandon LaFell?"
Bertrand: "Yeah, I believe he was in the area, from what I understand."
Felger: "So Brandon LaFell, also a former teammate of Steve Smith, came --"
Bertrand: "--to Wiggy's aid, from what I hear! But LaFell is buddies with Steve Smith. As you see, LaFell wears that 'Ice Up, Son' T-shirt all the time in the locker room and stuff. But he even looked at the situation and assessed that Steve Smith was being an A-hole."
Felger: "Who else? Who else? Who else jumped in there? You told me [former Patriots linebacker] Matt Chatham jumped in there?"
Bertrand: "Oh yeah, Matt Chatham was there, I guess Matt Chatham was looking to jump in in defense of Wiggy and was going to mix it up a little bit there. There was a lot of people in that scrum."
Felger: "So you were telling me before, Steve Briggs, the director of security there for the Patriots, Matt Chatham jumps in there, Brandon LaFell jumps in there trying to push Steve Smith away, and what does Wiggy start doing?"
Bertrand: "Wiggy starts saying, 'You're a bleep, and you won't do bleep!' That's what he was saying. I can't say these words on the radio, I don't think I can, he called him a ... I don't know. He called him a bitch from what I understand.
At this point, midday host and Patriots radio color commentator Scott Zolak, an eyewitness to the fight, called in to share his view.
Zolak: "I saw the tail end of it, I wasn't there for the initial part. But security ends up hearing about it. So Chatham, I see Chatham's head starting to turn red, now he's gotta get between ... Steve Smith is a diminutive guy. He's about as big as Bob Socci. I'll tell you what: Everything that we talked about last week with Terrell Suggs being the nut job, the bipolar wacko, Steve Smith -- I saw him in pregame, two hours before the game -- he's cussing everybody out in that tunnel that has anything to do ... I'm talking about the people who hold the guns that [Brandon] Meriweather was on, all that stuff. He's loco.
So [Smith] sees Wiggy and he's like 'Yo, what's up?!' And Wiggy's like, 'Hey, what's up?' And Smith is like, 'No dude, what the bleep's up?' And Wiggy's like, 'Oh no, now you're swearing in front of my kids.' And he's like, 'You gotta step off.' And then it starts getting nasty.
And Steve is like, 'You called me a bully! So what's up with that? You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna bleep you right now.'
And Wiggy's like, 'Man, you gotta stop in front of my kids.'
And then Chatham comes in and says, 'Man, you've got to get on the bus now.'
And Steve Smith just kept yapping and yapping, and by this time Wiggy knows like, hey man, look at all this personnel, look at all of this security. And Wiggy's like Kevin Garnett in a fight, like, pointing at him over the top. 'I'll tell you what you are, you're the same thing you've always been!'
And it's back and forth, and I'm like man, Wiggy brought it. Wiggy was all fired up."
Felger: "Tremendous."
Bertrand: "So Wiggy's screaming, 'You won't do nothing! You won't do nothing! You're a bitch, you won't do nothing!' That's what was going on in the tunnel, once everybody was there. Screaming at Steve Smith: 'You won't do nothing!'
And that's how it went down. Steve Smith tried to fight Wiggy."
Massarotti: "I can believe that."
Listen to the story being told below:
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