The Pittsburgh Maulers may just have won the award for most bizarre reason to cut a player.
The revamped USFL’s rollout weekend included the Saturday release of United By Football: A Season in the USFL, a documentary series chronicling the period leading up to the league’s return. In a wild clip from the documentary, Mauler’s running back De’Veon Smith was kicked out of the team for requesting pizza instead of chicken salad at the team hotel.
The clip sounds like a parody, but it’s reportedly 100 percent real. In the clip, Maulers coach Kirby Wilson sits down with Smith and immediately leaves after breaking the bad news to him.
“He crossed the line so we had to deal with that,” Wilson said in the clip. “Any disrespect towards football or employees, USFL etc will not be tolerated.”
Smith attempted to explain his side of the story in the footage and denied saying anything “disrespectful.” Smith claimed that when asked if he ate chicken salad, he said no and asked if he could eat anything else. When an employee walked in with a pizza, Smith claimed he simply asked if he could have a slice.
Wilson tried to justify his decision to relieve Smith of his position at the end of the clip, which only makes the whole situation seem even more absurd.
“Someone’s hurt feelings come far behind the greater good of the team. And we went ahead and turned that page, and I’m glad we did it,” he said.
On the day the documentary was released, Smith had few words to describe the incident. “WILD!” he tweeted shortly after the documentary was released.
De’Veon Smith was kicked out by the Pittsburgh Maulers for not wanting to eat chicken salad. Getty Images
The USFL’s new and promised improvement played its first game on Saturday. The Birmingham Stallions defeated the New Jersey Generals 28-24.