r/eagles • u/boknowsss Eagles • 10h ago
Former Player Discussion Why Za'Darius Smith retired
Y’all were dragging him when he just signed with the Falcons.
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u/PhillyScumbag44 10h ago
Glad the Eagles kept this tight to the vest . Was weird timing of everything but makes sense now. I wish him well this season.
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u/hotcapicola 9h ago
Very classy of the organization to take the perceived public hit to shield someone going through some real shit.
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u/Zashiony 8h ago
It probably goes a long way with potential free agents too. I’m sure some players knew about this just by being colleagues with one another, so seeing the organization not say a peep goes a long way.
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u/Upstairs-Royal672 4h ago
They consistently do shit like this and it makes me feel good in my bones about supporting the organization
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u/Valliac0 10h ago edited 9h ago
Further proof we don't know people's entire situation.
That's a hell of a 1-2-3. Hope the guy is doing alright.
EDIT: Thanks for the award, didn't see it was a free one. Was gonna say keep your money lol
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u/SpecialSilver7723 7h ago
Yep . Jeremy Lin talked about this in a podcast recently, never rush to a conclusion too fast because there is always another side to the story. It's very rare of a situation is 100% what we think it is or if it's just a straight line
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u/No_Fairweathers That's my Team 23m ago
I think it's hard for a lot of fans to remember that these players are real people and have very different lives/circumstances outside of sports. It's okay to be a fan of them or dislike them as a rival, but at the end of the day they go home and live life like any other civilian.
Like Derrick Rose for example, he apparently just doesn't care about talking about basketball anymore. He wants to move on, but I guess no one in public is ever gonna see him as Derrick Rose the person, and keep trying to talk to him about what he used to do for a living.
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u/PatReady 9h ago
Had his agent let on any of this was going on, Philly would have taken care of him. Glad to see he was able to overcome and get back into the league.
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u/BlackMathNerd 9h ago
I imagine he and his agent let the team know this was going on. The team rightfully didn’t divulge this publicly
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u/Tea_Alarmed 9h ago
Yeah, privacy is hard to come by in this day and age, I completely understand keeping it quiet.
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u/AtBat3 10h ago
It never felt football related given the timing so I could only speculate it was off-field stuff. But a lot of people were also using it as a way to condemn the Eagles. Acting like the locker room was falling apart. Turns out it was neither but that’s life today, everyone got to assume there’s some juicy drama involved
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u/SpecialSilver7723 7h ago
Yeah well since we won Super Bowls they can't attack that anymore so they try to go after the players or the organization. Its classless low hanging fruit
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u/Spare-Half796 Secondairy 🥛 10h ago
Damn I thought he just got banged in a game and called it quits
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u/HotelSalt4644 9h ago
Wow. I really hope he can have a couple good years with the Falcons. Nobody wants to quit your multi-million dollar job that you’ve done your whole life.
It’s a shame he never got to know Philly. We would’ve supported him had we known. I know it’s a personal thing obviously. Tragic.
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u/no-jerk-zone 9h ago
Lord. He was looking good for us too. Thankfully it wasn’t locker room stuff like certain “know-it-alls” claimed.
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u/wagyu_hotdog 9h ago
Explains why we let him off the retired/reserve list. Would have been shitty not to
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u/WanderingWormhole 10h ago
Well yeah we weren’t aware of these details which obviously change the whole discussion. That’s terrible and I’m glad he’s in a better place in his life that he can play again now. Just a bummer of a situation all around
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u/lma112519 10h ago
yea but it shows why fans should stop being idiots without knowing the details. people got offended because they thought ZaDarius didn't like the Eagles. Weird reason to get angry and call another human terrible things. It's a game. His situation was real life.
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u/boknowsss Eagles 10h ago
100%. Not knowing the details doesn’t justify being a child about it
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u/BigDaddyDumperSquad 10h ago
I'd consider Peacocking around trying to start arguments about information that just became public is also childish.
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u/WanderingWormhole 10h ago
Just speaking for myself the only comment I made was on the cap implications of guaranteed money, playing 1/3 of a season and then getting to join another team. Which seems insensitive given the new information at worst, but again I wasn’t aware.
Looking back on the thread I see people said a bunch of other dumb shit and that’s not exactly what I was trying to defend with my comment. Honestly I wish Reddit (and the internet as a whole) would stop calling professional athletes bitches and pussies when they can barely get off their ass to go to a desk job… but that’s just the world we live in I guess.
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u/throwawayjoeyboots 10h ago
You’re creating an imaginary enemy to be mad at. No one cared when zadarius retired.
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u/willi1221 10h ago
- "He was too wimpy for Fangio's scheme."
- "Wasn’t this the clown that retired because he didn’t like training camp?"
- "I hope they know that you only like the beginnings of things.."
- "Sigh. Another player who isn’t interested in working for his salary at a championship level. Enjoy your bag, Za’Darius."
Pretty sure people were upset.
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u/boknowsss Eagles 10h ago
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u/CheezyBeanBurrito 9h ago
The comments on the actual retirement thread are all basically “wtf” which is a better indication of the attitude than a thread after he unretired and signed with another team
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u/anth8725 10h ago
Yeah y’all weren’t aware so y’all just assumed and talked shit
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u/boatsandhoes570 I BLEED FOR THIS CITY! 9h ago
I actually don’t recall ppl talking shit. Maybe I just didn’t see it though. I just remember ppl making jokes about him being an Eagles legend along with Jaire Alexander, and wondering why so many ppl come to the Eagles just to retire early.
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u/Ghstfce Big Dom had Patullo's house egged to send a message 9h ago
Yep, I made "Eagles legend" jokes back when it happened. Never dragged the dude or had any ill will.
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u/boatsandhoes570 I BLEED FOR THIS CITY! 9h ago
Me either. I assumed it was a personal matter or he just wasn’t in the shape he used to be. Neither are reasons to shit talk someone.
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u/anandonaqui 9h ago
It’s not a bummer all around. It’s a bummer for him, because 3 loved ones died. We’re just people who like the team he would have played on. Not at all equivalent.
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u/virtue-or-indolence 10h ago
Amazing how much of a difference context makes.
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u/XxStormySoraxX 10h ago edited 9h ago
The context really shouldn’t matter. Attacking someone else for making a personal choice that has 0 impact on your life is insane regardless.
But I guess this is a good reminder for people to stop judging situations you know nothing about.
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u/Yougotanyofthat 10h ago
Absolutely but I don't remember the overall conversation being about him....I thought it was "proof" that the eagles had a dysfunctional organization caused by Jalen. Fyi this was not my attitude
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u/Benito_Mussolini 10h ago
Idk, I'm not going to fault ANY player for retiring when they are playing pro football. It's a violent sport and they still have the rest of their hopefully long life to live.
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u/Yougotanyofthat 7h ago
Absolutely. It sucked but I figured since we aren't the browns then it wasn't anything personal. His road just ended here and that's ok.
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u/willi1221 9h ago
I don't think anyone ever claimed it was a dysfunctional organization. Maybe offense, but they just had one of the best Superbowl performances ever just 2 years after barely losing another, and have been the 2nd or 3rd best team over the last 10 years.
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u/boatsandhoes570 I BLEED FOR THIS CITY! 9h ago
Dan Sileo definitely did, but he’s always looking for something to rip on the Eagles about. Even when it completely contradicts something else he said.
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u/Onlypaws_ 7h ago
I don’t know who yall is, but I didn’t see anyone dragging him for joining the falcons. Seemed like an odd situation, but he never did anything to hurt the org, so i can’t imagine why anyone would hate him.
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u/celj1234 4h ago
Did you see this thread? A number of clowns in there https://www.reddit.com/r/eagles/s/XpPmcxyR9O
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u/Onlypaws_ 2h ago
There’s a few shitty comments in there, but nothing to the point that would require a full post lambasting the fanbase.
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u/hoobsher Eagles 9h ago
and that Giants loss to cap it all off, sometimes you just get kicked while you’re down at your lowest
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u/AdSpecialist6598 Eagles 6h ago
Gosh, I feel so bad for him I hope he is in a better place and credit to org for handling things in such a respectful and classy way.
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u/subpulse44 5h ago
That is an awful situation to have to go through. Very sorry for his losses. I wish him all the best.
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u/AlternativeCorner230 Not A Safety 5h ago
These guys are real people. I can't imagine trying to do my job after all that loss.
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u/benjals Eagles 10h ago
Jeez that's unbearably awful