Stephen A. Smith tells Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman he should SUE if allegations of him leaking Jets’ game plan against the Eagles are false: ‘That’s a career-ender – what locker room could he go in if it’s true?’
- Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah accused Hardman of leaking the team’s game plan
- New York defeated Philadelphia by 6 points in a regular season game on October 15
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Stephen A. Smith has advised Mecole Hardman to take legal action if allegations that he leaked his old team’s game plan to the Eagles ahead of a regular-season game prove false.
Smith offered his own take on allegations that the Chiefs wide receiver exposed New York’s playbook to some of his former Georgia teammates, who now play for the Eagles before the Jets host the Eagles on Oct. 15 last year. and told Hardman to come out. Please clarify the game leak rumors as soon as possible.
“I’ll tell you something right now,” the sportswriter initially said. ‘If you’re Mecole Hardman… that’s grounds for a lawsuit. Serious. If (the claims) are false… it’s the end of your career.
“What locker room can he go to if anyone believes it’s true?! If there was any evidence that this was even remotely true… what locker room would he end up in?!
“No…he needs to say something today and if the Jets are wrong, you need to consider legal action. Seriously, because it doesn’t get (worse than that)… does it get any worse than this as a charge?’
Stephen A. Smith begged on Friday for Mecole Hardman to clear up the game leak rumors
Hardman said he “never had any conversations with KC before the trade” and that the Jets “did the right thing by sending me back,” referring to his team change in October.
Hardman, who was traded to the Chiefs in October after signing with the Jets in March, caught the winning touchdown in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII, sealing Kansas City’s 25-22 win against the 49ers and his third ring earned. He previously had a four-year stint with the Chiefs from 2019-2022.
Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah is the player claiming Hardman leaked his team’s game plans against Philly.
The Jets finally beat the Eagles by 6, when Hardman was still with ‘Gang Green’ five months ago.
Amid all the reports about Hardman, Jets general manager Joe Douglas said the team took note of the Super Bowl star telling the Kansas City Chiefs on a podcast to “come get me,” when he previously was unhappy in New York this season.
“I just want to say that those comments certainly resonated with us,” Douglas told reporters at the NFL combine on Wednesday.
Hardman had just one catch for 6 yards in five games with the Jets. He was critical of the team during an interview on the podcast “The Pivot,” hosted by former NFL star and safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark.
Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah accused Hardman of leaking the team’s game plans to Eagles players the wideout used to play with at Georgia
Hardman caught the Super-Bowl-winning pass for the Chiefs against the 49ers last month
Leading up to New York’s game against Kansas City in Week 4, Hardman says he was “so checked out that it was over.” He added that he had already spoken with both Chiefs GM Brett Veach and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“Like, ‘come get me,’” Hardman told them.
It was not immediately certain whether the Jets would pursue potential NFL tampering charges against the Chiefs.
On Tuesday evening, Hardman attempted to clarify his comments on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We’ve never spoken to KC before the trade, so we can clarify that!” Hardman wrote. “The Jets handled my trade themselves and did the right thing by sending me back to KC!”
“Ultimately we decided to leave Mecole, but during our process of adding Mecole, he was excited to be here and it just didn’t work out,” Douglas said. “And a lot of that has to do with Xavier (Gipson).”