You may not remember, but the Ravens had one of the most impressive wins of this past weekend, dismantling the defending AFC South champion Texans by a score of 30-9.
That resounding victory has been pushed to the back burner, however, to make room for the news that Jacoby Jones was reportedly clocked over the head with a champagne bottle by a stripper on a party bus in the early hours of Monday morning.
The incident involving the Baltimore wideout has received significant media coverage since TMZ caught wind of the story on Monday, with former Raven Ray Lewis saying that something like this never would have happened had veterans like he or Ed Reed still been on the team.
But fellow Ravens receiver Torrey Smith, speaking with reporters at a Habitat for Humanity event on Tuesday, said that what transpired on that party bus was not nearly as serious as some are making it out to be.
“It’s only bad because someone went and ran to TMZ,” Smith said, via The Baltimore Sun. “If no one knew, it wouldn’t be an issue. We would resolve it in the locker room. It’s resolved anyways. We just have to deal with the questions from the media. I think it’s funny that we’re doing this, building a home, one day after everybody found out about the other thing. We all know it comes with the territory. Everybody is doing a great job.”
Smith also shrugged off Lewis’ claims that the incident, which took place while a number of Ravens players were celebrating tackle Bryant McKinnie‘s 34th birthday, represents a lack of leadership in the Baltimore locker room. Multiple instances of off-field misconduct can lead to trouble, Smith admitted, but one incident does not necessarily signal a trend.
“We have great leadership, so to say because of one incident, that it’s a leadership issue, to me, is a joke because everyone is not going to always be around and incidents happen,” he said. “Stuff happens in the locker room, stuff happens in the spur of the moment. Now, if it happens every week, all the time, then that’s a problem. For one incident to happen and say it’s a leadership issue when most of the team wasn’t there, it’s an overreaction.”
