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Legacy: Scrutiny of Smith will be intense
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Steve Smith says he’s sorry for sucker-punching teammate Ken Lucas.
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Published: August 5, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Steve Smith is remorseful.
Of course he's remorseful.
How could he not be?
Smith committed one of the biggest indiscretions that a professional football player can commit on a playing field Friday when he attacked a teammate during a break in practice. He lit into cornerback Ken Lucas while Lucas was kneeling with his helmet off, and one of the punches broke Lucas' nose.
In any league, in any sport, when you sucker-punch a defenseless teammate, there is no defense for your actions. It can be 120 degrees in the shade in Spartanburg, and the heat-of-the-battle defense doesn't work. Especially when you have sucker-punched a teammate before, in a darkened room, as Smith did to Anthony Bright in 2002 during a film session.
So Smith, the Carolina Panthers' three-time Pro Bowl receiver, wasn't putting on an act or following somebody's orders when he looked into the television cameras and apologized yesterday -- much the same way he had apologized to Lucas and the rest of the team Sunday night.
This wasn't spin control. It was contrition from a guy with a history of letting his anger get out of control.
"I'm a fallen man," Smith said. "I'm a man that made a mistake. I plan to mend the bridges that I've burned and help rebuild the bridge if I need to all by myself. And not do it in a spiteful way, but do it with the labor and the sound mind that God gives me.
"I'm not going to get into who's right, who's wrong. I'm completely wrong. It was an asinine decision. And I'll move forward better than I probably have ever had to. It's the first time in my life that I haven't really forgiven myself."
Good enough. Apology accepted, as Lucas said yesterday.
But here's the deal.
We're all remorseful after we do something stupid.
And we're all really remorseful after we do something really stupid.
We're all really, really remorseful for a day or two, or a week or two, or until things get a little better and the mental anguish starts subsiding.
But the real test comes at that point. The real test comes when the heat is off, not when it's on.
So like it or not, Smith is going to be under intense scrutiny the rest of the season, and the rest of his career. He's going to have to continually stay on top of his emotions, and continually do the right thing. He's going to have to understand that he has forfeited the benefit of the doubt with this latest incident, that he will continually run into doubters who are waiting to see when his temper will get the best of him again and when he does the next thing that makes him really, really, really remorseful.
Sadly for him, some of those doubters are going to be his teammates, regardless of what they say publicly about supporting him. Some of those doubters are going to be in the media, and some of those doubters are going to be fans in the stands. People forgive, but they don't usually forget.
Dealing with that reality and keeping his emotions in check under those conditions is going to be every bit as challenging as going back to the Pro Bowl, or the Super Bowl, again.
For all the anger-management classes he took after punching Bright back in 2002, he's still got anger issues to deal with. That's not deep psychoanalysis, that's as clear as the broken nose on Lucas' face.
Yes, he has come a long way since 2002 and he has matured in many ways. But as he alluded to in an exclusive interview with Pro Football Weekly on Sunday night, much of the progress he has made in the past six years on that front was wiped out in six minutes last Friday. And from this perspective, he still had a long, long way to go even before this latest incident, because there are times when he acts humble and mature, but there are times when he has been a total jerk and everyone associated with the team has known it. And he has gotten away with it because ... because he's Steve Smith, Pro Bowl receiver.
If Smith does grow up a little more because of this incident, and does stay on his toes, and goes out and plays like he has even more to prove, then something good could come out of this for everyone. But if that remorse subsides and the humility fades away again and he doesn't keep working on the anger issues, the easiest prediction in football is that he will go ballistic again, eventually. Maybe not this season, maybe not next season, but eventually.
For now, he is intent on mending bridges, and that's commendable.
He's also on the record.
"I have a big responsibility to a lot of people and I know I disappointed a lot of people," Smith said. "But I will not allow this moment in the book of life to define me.... The issue that happened is going to be an opportunity for the Carolina Panthers and myself as an individual to show our true colors and be able to show the impact we can have and not allow this moment to define me or leave the legacy of who I am to my children, my teammates and who I am as a man....
"This is the moment I decided to put myself in by my actions. I'm going to take it like a man and take this opportunity to let God break me, humble me and continuously let me move forward and be the person I can truly be. I'm a God-fearing man, no matter what people may think or say. It's an opportunity for me to stand tall and take my punishment. I'm going to take it with God at my side and not me standing up trying to stand up being something that I'm not."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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