Hotmail
Smith taking fight to opponents now
by Charles Chandler, Staff Writer , The News & Observer
The Panthers had already suspended Smith for the first two regular-season games, but he had not faced his teammates.
Coach John Fox knew the incident could divide his team -- offense vs. defense, friends of Smith vs. friends of Lucas. This could destroy us, he and others thought, or it could make us stronger. So when team leaders requested a players' meeting without coaches, Fox gave his blessing. He knew it could be volatile, but he trusted his players.
The emotional meeting lasted about 30 minutes. Players spoke to each other, especially to Smith, in ways they never had before.
Now, some players and coaches say it was the foundation for the Panthers' 12-4 regular season and a key reason they're hosting a home playoff game tonight against the Arizona Cardinals.
"If we didn't have it," linebacker Jon Beason said of the meeting, "we'd probably be 4-12."
A lifelong battle
Less than five months before the fight, in late March, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson flew with
It was a special moment for Smith. He and his wife Angie were announcing a $250,000 gift to his alma mater, the University of Utah, to establish a Football scholarship fund.
It was clear Richardson was proud of Smith, who had become one of the league's most explosive offensive threats and also appeared to have shed his team-bully reputation that he had battled since fights with teammates in 2002.
Richardson told reporters at the Utah press conference: "We are fortunate to have this young man. He is an outstanding person."
Smith grew up in inner city Los Angeles, near streets infested by drugs and guns. His mother was a drug counselor whose stories about cocaine addicts scared him away from even drinking alcohol.
He dreamed of playing pro Football, but later would say that strangers, family members and friends told him to get a more realistic dream.
The Panthers chose Smith in the third round of the 2001 draft. He scored a touchdown the first time he touched the ball, on a kickoff return. He didn't play much at wide receiver as a rookie, catching only 10 passes in 15 games.
Smith, 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, struggled to keep his explosiveness on the field and not aimed at players on his own team.
Sometimes he had argued and fought with his college teammates, a habit he tried to break but which resurfaced with the Panthers. In the 2002 training camp, he fought with receiver Guilian Gary; then, in November of '02, he fought with teammate Anthony Bright during a film session, resulting in a one-game suspension and a civil lawsuit he eventually settled.
After the Bright fight, which drew a stern fussing-out from Richardson, Smith was determined to change. He received anger-management counseling and prayed with Carolina team chaplain Mike Bunkley to receive Jesus Christ as his savior.
Smith developed into a superstar receiver, helping lead the Panthers to a Super Bowl in 2003 and the NFC championship game in 2005.
When Smith addressed the press conference in Utah last March, he could barely believe the path his life and career had taken.
"I never thought this day would come," he said.
Team in crisis
When training camp opened in late July, coaches and players sensed something special about the 2008-09 Panthers.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme was back from reconstructive elbow surgery. The team was high on its rookie class, including first-round draft picks Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah.
It's not unusual for skirmishes to break out in training camp, especially during a sweltering hot practice like the Panthers had on Friday morning, Aug. 1, at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. But Fox was shocked by what happened that day during a special-teams drill.
Smith and Lucas were on the sidelines continuing a disagreement that began moments earlier when Lucas guarded Smith. In their four previous years as teammates they had had heated arguments at practice, but never a fight.
Lucas was resting with one knee down when Smith, standing, punched him in the face. Other players and team officials rushed to break up the fight. Eventually, Smith was restrained. Lucas was taken to a tent, where a trainer placed an ice pack on his nose.
Suddenly, the Panthers were a team in crisis.
The Panthers later sent Smith home to Charlotte and suspended him for two regular-season games without pay. Lucas received medical treatment and eventually needed surgery for his broken nose.
Fox tried to curb potential team division by reminding players they were a family. He told his players that just like spouses argue without getting divorced and children do bad things without getting disowned, Smith was still one of them.
Sunday night, the players gathered in a meeting room at Wofford College in Spartanburg -- without the coaches.
Tough talk
Standing in front of about 80 players, Smith gave an emotional apology.
Lucas says he was next. He knew the rest of the team would take its cue from him.
"There were a lot of upset people," Lucas says now. "... But I knew we had something special this year and I didn't want to mess that up with a simple fight."
Lucas told the team what he would tell the media the next day: I forgive
"Who am I to judge him?" Lucas said this week. "I've made mistakes. I don't do everything right. That's why it's so important for me to forgive. I did what God would want me to do."
Some other players, though, were still angry. While players won't divulge specifically what anyone said that day, several players spoke out strongly to express their frustrations with Smith in a meeting that Lucas said lasted about 30 minutes.
Smith had been voted a team captain in 2007, showing he had won back respect after his fight with Bright in 2002. Now, some players were upset that Smith could attack a teammate again.
Smith declined this week to discuss the meeting, but Fred Graves, his close friend and former position coach at Utah, said Smith appreciated the straight talk.
"You can tell Steve something and he may not agree with it, and he might dislike it, but as long as it's the truth he'll definitely listen to you," said Graves, now the receivers coach for the Tennessee Titans.
"The way they talked to him, straightforward and honest, he took it to heart. Those are the things he respects and I think it really hit home the way they did it."
Some teammates were struck by how Smith took it all without getting defensive.
Safety Chris Harris said players generally followed Lucas' lead and forgave Smith. According to Lucas, some players told Smith: "How can I be mad at you if this guy you have harmed, or tried to hurt, is not mad at you?"
Comeback team
This might be
The edge with which he plays -- the chip on his shoulder -- remains as significant as ever. Despite his success, he still seems to constantly remind himself that he's the guy who was never going to make it to the NFL, or the third-round draft pick who was destined to be nothing more than a kick returner. And even though he's viewed as one of the league's premier players, he still is driven by taunts that perhaps only he can hear.
After a catch that set up a key touchdown in the 35-31 win over Green Bay on Nov. 30, Smith spotted an NFL Films camera behind the Panthers' bench.
He faced the camera and screamed: "You can tell me I'm short. You can tell me I'm slow. You can tell me I can't run. You can tell me I ain't gonna be nothing.
"But I'm wearing this jersey, baby. I'm wearing this jersey."
He's the player the team turns to in desperate late-game situations when the Panthers are behind and Delhomme lofts a pass far downfield, trusting Smith to go up high and make the catch. Smith did that twice in the win over Green Bay and his 39-yard reception in the final three minutes at New Orleans on Dec. 28 led to John Kasay's game-winning field goal.
"If he hadn't made those catches, we probably wouldn't be in the playoffs," Beason said.
Now, as the Panthers open the playoffs, they are marked by their strong team chemistry and their ability to come back.
They've rallied three times for victories after trailing by 10 or more points, including beating today's opponent, Arizona, 27-23 on Oct. 26 after being behind 17-3.
Lucas says the team is stronger for having dealt head-on with the training camp fight. He wouldn't have chosen the fight to happen, but says so much good has come from it that he wouldn't change it.
"There were plenty of games we were down, when teams were beating us by at least two scores, but we never gave up," says Lucas. "We felt like we had faced pretty much the worst adversity you could face in professional Football or [on] any sports team. If we made it through that, we felt like we could make it through anything."
| Copyright 2009 The News and Observer | |
|
Terms & Conditions Privacy
Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Add a comment
advertisement
