Raiders tight end Lee Smith won’t be getting involved in Jon Gruden’s next sideline eruption.
As Oakland’s $100 million-coach and quarterback Derek Carr got into a heated exchange during Sunday’s game, Smith curiously put his hand on the back of Gruden’s neck, a move that was not intended to be malicious.
“It was just, I happened to be in the vicinity and I saw the wild man’s face red,” Smith said, according to ESPN. “Coach Gruden’s a wild man, he’s a lot of fun to be around, so I told him, the way he’s going to go to the grave is having a stroke on the sideline. It was all in fun. It was all good. There was no intent to be angry at anybody.
“It was just our head coach and our quarterback were being competitive. … They’re the two most important people on the team,” he continued.
After defeating the Cardinals, 23-21, for their second win of the season, Gruden addressed the sideline spat.
Lee SmithGetty Images“That’s the first time you’ve seen it, it ain’t the first time it’s happened,” Gruden said. “We’re both competitors, we’re competing hard there. We had a man-to-man situation, he went for the big play, and we had a mild disagreement. But you know what? That’s part of this business. We’re going to have times when we clash a little bit. We’re also very supportive of one another.”
Looking back, Smith probably would have handled the incident differently.
“I probably shouldn’t have grabbed the head coach,” he said.
Like Carr, Smith is one of the remaining veterans in the Raiders’ locker room amid a shaky season of blockbuster trades and alleged discord.
“I got a little fired up,” Lee said. “But it was all in good fun.”
