Ahead of last Thursday night’s game between the Broncos and the Chiefs, former NFL receiver Steve Smith Jr. unleashed a rant about Denver receiver Jerry Jeudy that went viral.
The former Panther had tried to apologize to Jeudy after some comments he made about the Broncos player on a podcast. However, according to Smith, Jeudy rebuffed his attempted apology, which sparked the fiery rant from Smith on NFL Network.
Jeudy gave his side of the story on Thursday.
“Where I’m from, if somebody talks bad about you, you don't go to them in-person and try to act friendly towards them like you ain’t talk bad about them,” Jeudy said. “I ain’t got no hate towards Steve Smith, he's a good player and all that stuff. I just stand on what I stand on.”
Jerry Jeudy spoke about the Steve Smith situation 👀
— DNVR Broncos (@DNVR_Broncos) October 19, 2023
“Where I’m from, when someone talks bad about you behind your back, don’t expect to come to them in person and think everything’s going to be okay.” pic.twitter.com/6t7IBbR1IP
As he said above, it doesn't sound like Jeudy is still upset with Smith about what happened. Jeudy did agree that he felt like he should’ve listened to what Smith had to say during their meeting instead of dismissing him, but he wasn’t aware Smith was trying to apologize.
Some of the comments Smith made last week include Jeudy being “just a guy” on the field. Additionally, Smith said he would advise other teams against trading for Jeudy because he's “mentally unable to handle constructive criticism from people who watch specifically.”