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Carolina's Little Big Man

Tarheels23

By Tarheels23,
in Carolina Panthers

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Tarheels23 Newbie

Tarheels23

Posted
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I found this great article that was written on Smitty back in '06, two weeks after the Chicago playoff game.

It's one of those tl;dr type articles, but well worth the read.

http://sports.yahoo....=cr-smith011906

The same could be said for Smith's talent. No player has looked more dangerous in these NFL playoffs than the Carolina Panthers wide receiver, who incinerated the Chicago Bears' vaunted defense last week for 218 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-21 win at Soldier Field. Smith's performance prompted Bears linebacker and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Brian Urlacher to declare in disgust, "What happened? Steve Smith. That's what happened to us. … He is the best offensive player in the league."

The story is almost unbelievable.

The quintessential Steve Smith snapshot came late in November of 1999 against Brigham Young when he was a return specialist for Utah. Smith took a second-half punt up the sideline and took a thundering hit. He hopped up, finished the game and felt good enough to skip a Sunday session with Utah's trainers. But by Monday morning, Smith's neck was so sore that coaches ordered a precautionary exam.

"I thought it was a crick," Smith says now.

As it turned out, the crick was a crack in his vertebrae. Doctors told Smith he had finished the game and walked around for two days with a broken neck. And if that wasn't shocking enough, he had even received a personal foul on the very play that could have paralyzed him for scuffling with another player after the hit.

Sort of gives added meaning to an observation by Panthers safety Mike Minter this week. "I guarantee if you hit Steve wrong," Minter said, "he'll ring your bell."

You may never find a more fitting microcosm for Smith, who stands 5-foot-9 but plays six inches taller and 40 pounds tougher and could crack every vertebra in his spine and still not override the titanic chip on his shoulder.

"He's an S.O.B. as a matchup," an NFC defensive backs coach said. "You better have a dependable safety because he'll kick your ass in press (coverage). Some small guys are hard (to press) because they'll out-quick a corner when he tries to get his hands on him. (But) Smith is twice the problem because he can out-quick most corners, and if they get their hands on him, he's just as liable to knock them down as he is to get (pushed) off his route.

"He's a 5-9 guy who makes room like he's a physical 6-3, and he comes off the line like he's a sprinter and a boxer rolled into one."

The Bears saw that problem firsthand, after watching Smith shed Charles Tillman on Carolina's second snap – leaving Tillman to do a face-plant – and then side-stepping strong safety Mike Brown for a 58-yard touchdown. Later, Smith used his 38-inch vertical leap and out-muscled Tillman and free safety Chris Harris for a 46-yard catch. Then in the third quarter, Smith left cornerback Chris Thompson eating dirt on a 39-yard touchdown catch.

"He's good – there's no other way for me to say it," Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme said. "He's strong, he's tough, he's quick, he's fast (and) he can catch. I know big receivers are nice, don't get me wrong. Drew Carter (who is 6-3) is a nice target to have out there when he runs a route, but there's room in there for someone who's 5-9. … You find a special player, and they are going to be good on any level. I don't care how big they are."

Undoubtedly, Smith has proven he can be special on any level despite his size. He dominated at Santa Monica College, then went to Utah where it wasn't long before Smith single-handedly won games by returning kicks and catching passes. In one memorable game his junior season, he scored three second-half touchdowns – two receiving and one returning a punt – in a 21-15 win over Air Force.

"There was another game where we beat San Diego State like 14-10," said Gross, "and both of the scores were like two 80-yard passes to Steve. Seeing him take over games is nothing new to me."

Even with all of his success in college, Smith was a tough sell as an elite NFL prospect. In a way, his scouting report was prophetic. Smith was branded as someone who "plays bigger than 5-9" and "can generate yardage and big plays after a catch." Yet, when his agent talked to many teams, he was frustrated to hear them minimize Smith's ability – even after Smith scored four touchdowns in three postseason bowl games for draft prospects and was named MVP of the East-West Shrine Game.

"Every guy that looked at him said, 'Yeah, he's going to be a good return guy,' " Fox said. "… When it comes to wide receiver, every team wants a 6-2, 205-pound guy that can run a 4.4 40-yard dash."

Smith wasn't that guy. And he wasn't helped by his broken neck suffered at the end of his junior season. At least one interested team – the St. Louis Rams – dropped Smith from their draft board altogether because of his neck injury in college. Smith has savored beating the Rams ever since, including a personal favorite moment when he knocked St. Louis out of the playoffs two years ago with a 69-yard touchdown catch in double overtime.

But while the Rams backed off for medical reasons, league sources indicated Smith got panned for a variety of reasons. If it was his neck or his size, a perceived attitude problem was the next red flag against him. Sometimes, it was a misperception – like the time ESPN cameras caught him jawing with the crowd during a game against Colorado State. What the cameras didn't bother to show was the end of the game (which Utah lost) when Smith went up to the Colorado State student section to shake hands with the fans he was trash-talking and give out his wristbands.

But at various times over Smith's career, his temper and emotion hasn't been all innocent.

During his two seasons at Utah, Smith was known to get into fights in practice, and that behavior was followed by several publicized incidents in the NFL. He was suspended once for punching a teammate during a film session, he got caught kicking an opponent and he had a contract squabble early in his career, along with a handful of run-ins with reporters.

And of course, there was this season's untimely ejection against the Dallas Cowboys when Smith was tossed for touching an official. That episode had a more sobering moment than the others. After Smith left the field, he ascended to the luxury box where his family was seated and explained to his daughter why he wasn't allowed on the field anymore.

As Carolina coach John Fox framed it: "Steve Smith is like most young people. He just needed to grow up some. Sometimes you have to have patience when you're doing that."

By most accounts, the coaches in Smith's life have been patient with him. Though he's had moments where it looked like the welcome mat was going to be pulled from the front porch, Smith has always found a way to straighten himself up and coax second chances. In turn, he has opened up more with the media and become more colorful, punctuated by his toe-to-toe rivalry with Johnson, his former junior-college teammate, whom he has gone back and forth with playful end-zone celebrations. Smith, however, continues to play with that angry edge that has seemingly pushed his temper to the brink since junior college.

All the while, he has never gotten specific about where that fury comes from. He grew up in a poor neighborhood in Los Angeles, and like most kids in that situation, he got into his fair share of trouble. Witnessing violence went along with it, whether it was drugs, murder, or both – like the time he saw someone get killed at a local bus stop over a case of mistaken identity.

Smith never showed a great deal of interest in his classes in high school and didn't take the SAT. By the time he landed at Santa Monica College, he was just as raw mentally as he was physically.

"Not long after he got here, I had to go to him and say, 'You've had three or four fights here in the last three or four weeks,' " said Taylor, his junior-college coach. "I had to ask him 'What's wrong?' He said, 'I don't know.' I asked him if he was mad at anybody, and he said he didn't know. I asked him why he was fighting with other players and he said he didn't know that, either.

"So I told him, 'Well, until you figure out why, I'm not going to let you play this weekend.' I needed him in that particular game, too. We had injuries and I needed him to be in there. But there comes a time when you've got to evaluate what's most important – a game or a life. So I told him, 'I'm probably going to lose this football game, but I'm not going to lose you. So you're out.'

"Then we went out and lost the game."

Smith returned to the team sheepishly the next week. "And I never had a problem with him again," Taylor said.

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I am Hubby Newbie

I am Hubby

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I thought that was normal???

If it ain't your fault, you may be single. My two favorite words are, Yes Dear. The wife tells me I'm right all the time. Of course that's after I agree with her. Small price to pay to not have to ... hell, I still do everything. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

I think that should signal bedtime. And GO CATS!!

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