Tag: De’Veon Smith

USFL Pittsburgh Maulers coach Kirby Wilson embarrasses himself by cutting player over lunch order

Kirby Wilson’s was coaching RB for the Raiders two years ago. Now he’s making a spectacle of himself as a USFL coach by cutting player over lunch order

The USFL began play this week as the latest to attempt to succeed as a spring professional football league. It didn’t get off on the right foot.

While the football players would probably prefer people be talking about the play on the field, the most viral video today comes from the Fox behind-the-scenes ‘United By Football” which is documenting the league Hard Knocks style. This week’s show features Pittsburgh Maulers head coach Kirby Wilson cutting a player because of his lunch order.

In the video he calls in running back De’Veon Smith to tell him he’s being cut for disrespecting someone on staff because Smith asked for a different lunch order. Then he proceeds to not even allow Smith to defend himself, literally saying nothing Smith can say will matter. That he’s already cut.

 

“Unfortunately, unfortunately — hear me out — unfortunately the cost of doing business I’m going to have to let you go,” Wilson said before Smith uttered a word.

“I can tell you what happened exactly,” said Smith, when finally given a chance to speak.

“It’s not important,” Wilson replied. “It’s not important, it’s already happened.”

Never mind the irony that Wilson starts this with “Hear me out” while literally not extending Smith the same courtesy. But “it’s not important”?!? How exactly is the player’s account of what happened not important?

I’d argue it’s of the utmost importance. At least it would be in a normal environment where a coach wasn’t trying to throw his weight around and abuse his power to make an example out of someone.

Sometimes a little power is a very bad thing. And it could explain why despite Kirby Wilson coaching running backs for over two decades at the NFL level, he was never promoted.

Wilson entered the NFL coaching ranks as a running backs coach with the Patriots in 1997. And 23 years later in 2020, he was still coaching running backs, then with the Raiders.

Wilson announced his retirement after the 2020 season. He had been out of football for a year when the USFL’s Pittsburgh Maulers came calling to make him their head coach. And on day one he embarrassed himself while likely alienating his team.

These young men are clinging to a lifelong dream of playing professional football. And toying with their lives for a power trip is disgraceful.

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Bizarre video shows USFL player getting cut from team for wanting pizza instead of chicken salad

So strange.

The United States Football League is attempting to find success where other start-up leagues failed in recent years, but if nothing else comes from this league, we’ll still have one of the stranger roster decisions ever in professional football.

With the start of its inaugural season, the USFL put together a Hard Knocks-like documentary series called, United By Football: A Season in the USFL, and the recent episode brought us to the Pittsburgh Maulers cutting loose former Michigan running back De’Veon Smith.

Now, there was a lot of buildup to this decision. Head coach Kirby Wilson spoke about how the franchise had zero tolerance for unprofessionalism and disrespect. So, just based off that, you’d think that Smith must have really stepped out of line. He was brought in to the coach’s office, and when Wilson broke the news to Smith, we found out that the whole ordeal was over Smith simply preferring pizza to chicken salad.

Smith said:

“I can tell you what happened exactly … Right, I didn’t say anything disrespectful. He said, ‘Is that gonna be a problem?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ That’s it and I walked away. I didn’t think that was disrespectful. Me saying. ‘Yes, I don’t eat chicken salad.’ I was like, ‘Is there another option?’ Walked in with pizza. I was like, ‘Can I get a slice of pizza?’ He said, ‘No … Is that gonna be a problem?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ That was all I said. I didn’t say no cuss words, no nothing. That’s all I said.”

I mean, wow. At first, it didn’t seem real. Like, it had to be a parody, but no, it was very real. Smith took to Twitter and reiterated that he wasn’t disrespectful. The man just didn’t want chicken salad, which seems like an awfully reasonable thing to not to like.

Despite the explanation, Wilson — who didn’t do any due diligence, obviously — said that the decision was already made and that Smith had to leave. All that over pizza. Fans couldn’t believe it. And frankly, it was a terrible look for the USFL to essentially end someone’s professional football aspirations over something like that.

You won’t believe why De’Veon Smith was cut by the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers

Wanting a slice led to a USFL player being cut. Seriously.

Who wouldn’t want pizza over chicken salad? Can anyone blame De’Veon Smith formerly of the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers for wanting a slice?

Well, the slice led to Smith being cut by Kirby Wilson, head coach of the USFL team in the Steel City.

Smith requested pizza from a hotel worker instead of the chicken salad that was being served to him. The hotel worker told him he couldn’t and asked if that would be a problem. Smith claims that he said “yes” and walked away.

Hard to believe but check it out:

“He crossed the line, so we had to deal with it,” Wilson said in the clip. “Any disrespect of football or members of staff, USFL, etc. will not be tolerated.”

This is the perfect opportunity for Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or Papa John’s to sign up Smith as a spokesperson.

Not sure if this is chicken salad or chicken something else.

Every former Michigan football player selected in USFL draft

The #ProBlue is strong in the resurgent league.

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The USFL is back and the resurgent league is going through the process of refilling its ranks via the 2022 USFL draft.

Unlike the NFL draft, where teams can pick whoever they want when they get a pick, the USFL draft picks certain position groups by round, going in this order:

  • Round 1: Quarterbacks
  • Rounds 2-4: Edge Rushers/Defensive Ends
  • Rounds 5-7: Offensive Tackles
  • Round 8-11: Cornerbacks
  • Round 12: Quarterbacks
  • Rounds 13-17: Wide Receivers
  • Rounds 18-19: Safeties
  • Round 20: Centers
  • Round 21: Inside Linebackers
  • Rounds 22-23: Offensive Guards
  • Rounds 24-26: Defensive/Nose Tackles
  • Rounds 27-28: Running Backs and Fullbacks
  • Rounds 29-31: Outside Linebackers
  • Round 32: Kickers
  • Round 33: Punters
  • Round 34: Tight Ends/H-backs
  • Round 35: Long Snappers

At the time of this writing, the draft is still ongoing, but several Michigan football players have been selected, highlighted by No. 1 overall pick, quarterback Shea Patterson.

Here’s everyone that’s been selected thus far.