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A good steve smith article

Discussion in 'Carolina Panthers' started by Bunky, Jan 19, 2006.

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Jan 19, 2006 at 7:10 PM #1

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/sports/football/19smith.html?pagewanted=all
Jan 19, 2006 at 7:13 PM #2

TimTam El Chupacabra

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Jan 19, 2006 at 7:22 PM #3

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Stevonne
Jan 19, 2006 at 7:37 PM #4

Collin soap and water

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Wow, that is good. Why couldn't our dumbass writers do something like that?
Jan 19, 2006 at 7:41 PM #5

The Brain Defiler of Cornflakes

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TimTam said:

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Click to expand...

.

Panthers' Smith: Fast Food to Fast Lane
By LEE JENKINS

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18 - When there are no cornerbacks to taunt him and no coaches to question him, Carolina receiver Steve Smith heads to the Taco Bell on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Bundy Drive, where an order of motivation is always served fast and hot.

During bye weeks and summer vacations, when Smith comes home to Los Angeles, the car seems to steer itself down Pico. He drives straight to the Taco Bell in West L.A., not for a chalupa, but for a reminder. He used to work that cash register. He used to sweep that parking lot. He used to scrub those floors.

"I just sit there and look at the place," Smith said Monday in a telephone interview from North Carolina. "I remember what it was like to be there. I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I was going to need a lot of determination and a lot of persistence to do something else."

To watch Smith run one of his routes - a 5-foot-9 receiver wrestling at the line of scrimmage, outracing a cornerback, outworking a safety - is to witness a demonstration of will. He wraps his arms around each ball as if it may explode if it hits the ground. The National Football League has tons of receivers taller than Smith and some faster, but as Carolina faces Seattle on Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake, no receiver is more relentless.

In Los Angeles, it is hard to find anybody who actually knows Steve Smith. People recognize him better as Stevonne, the name he used at University High School, at Santa Monica College, at Taco Bell. But his defining characteristics - the scowl, the urgency in his voice - remain the same. "My son has always been tenacious," said Florence Young, Smith's mother.

If a cornerback gets on his nerves, Smith is liable to slug him, then beat him deep. If a coach doubts his skills, Smith is liable to rip him, then prove him wrong. When directed, his ferocity is as much an asset as his hands. Those who know Smith say that something inside provides the extra inch on his vertical leap, the extra split-second on his 40-yard time, the extra push when the ball is in the air. "I look for every edge I can get," Smith said. "I'll do anything not to be a failure."

Many professional athletes have never worked a real job, taking the fastest route possible from high school stardom to Division I scholarships to draft-day parties. Smith, on the other hand, took the bus. He took it almost every day, from his junior year of high school to his junior year of college, a ride that started near his home in South Central Los Angeles and finished on Pico and Bundy.

There, he could make $5.75 an hour at Taco Bell. Smith never took the SAT. He never owned a car. After graduating from high school, he decided to enroll at the junior college only a few blocks down Pico. "When we got him, he was a really angry young man," Santa Monica College Coach Robert Taylor said.

The football field was a place to release his frustrations. One week, Smith fought three different teammates. Taylor called him into his office. "Who are you so angry at?" Taylor said.

"I don't know," Smith responded.

Taylor vowed that he would not let Smith play again until he had an answer. "Because of this, I may lose some games," Taylor recalls telling Smith. "But I don't want to lose you."

A week later, Smith ducked back into Taylor's office and begged for another chance. According to Taylor, Smith was never in trouble again.
When recruiters started showing up at Santa Monica, they were interested in two receivers. One was Chad Johnson, now of the Cincinnati Bengals, but he lacked the grades. The other was Smith, but he lacked the size. "I met Steve one day at the Taco Bell," said Fred Graves, who recruited him for the University of Utah. "I fell in love with him right there."
At times, the love had to be tough. During a practice at Utah, Graves ordered Smith off the field for talking back. Smith refused to go. He spent the remainder of practice standing in the end zone, wearing his helmet and crying into the face mask. "Most kids would have said, 'Forget it,' " Graves said. "But he needed football. He had nothing else."

Smith grew up in assorted apartments in South Central. His mother was a drug counselor, and on the days he went to work with her, he looked at all the addicts and promised himself that he would never turn out like them. "I prayed it would have some effect," Young said.

In Smith's final college season, when it became apparent he could reach the N.F.L., some of football's most noted agents tried to sign him. One night, a group surrounded him in a hotel lobby in San Diego before a game. As they took turns giving their pitch, Smith noticed an agent straggling outside the huddle. "How come you're not talking to me?" Smith said.
The agent, Derrick Fox, said he did not think it was worth the time. "You're getting wooed by the big shots," he said.

Smith, the ultimate little guy, could not stand to be with the big shots.

Today, Fox represents eight N.F.L. players, but Smith is his only brand name. Fox, who said he did not think of himself as an agent, is the closest thing the N.F.L. can get to a real-life Jerry Maguire.

"I'm not offended by that," said Fox, who has become accustomed to references to the 1996 movie in which Tom Cruise plays the title character, an agent representing one athlete: a brash receiver. "I'm living it. My shop is a boutique."

His top client can seem high maintenance, but he is also high reward. Since being drafted by Carolina in the third round in 2001, Smith punched a teammate, kicked an opposing player and criticized the organization publicly. But he is always worth another chance. The 26-year-old Smith has come back from a broken neck, a broken leg and a turn in anger management.

Five times this season Smith caught more than 10 passes in a game. Ten times he accounted for more than 100 yards receiving. Twice he accounted for more than 200 yards receiving. His 12-catch, 218-yard performance Sunday in Chicago prompted Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher to say, "He's the best offensive player in the league."

The way to defend Smith is with silence. Graves, who recruited Smith for Utah and is now the receivers coach for the Detroit Lions, approached Lions cornerback Dre' Bly with a warning before he lined up against Smith this season.

Graves remembers telling Bly: "Don't say anything to Steve. If you don't say anything, it kind of confuses him. Once you start talking trash, he will make it a point to embarrass you. He will torch you."

Smith's fire has become famous, but it does not always consume him. He has a wife and three children. He coaches a youth soccer team. He keeps in touch with Taylor, his coach at Santa Monica. Two years ago, when Taylor was in mourning after his wife died, Smith called to check on him. What made the call so startling was that Smith was on the Panthers' bus at the time, riding to Reliant Stadium in Houston for the Super Bowl.

Athletes generally maintain ties to their high schools or universities, but Smith is the rare player more often associated with his junior college. He founded the Posey Foundation, a charity named for Demetrius Posey, a former Santa Monica receiver and teammate who died in an auto accident. This season, he went to Santa Monica during the Panthers' bye week and delivered a pep talk at the 50-yard line. He told the players to go to class, to listen to their coaches, to stay out of fights.

That day, he probably could have taken 10 different roads back to campus. And yet, he took the same one he always did.

"I drive Pico," Smith said. "For a reason."
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Jan 19, 2006 at 8:57 PM #6

law1ng2b2 Full Access Member

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Collin said:

Wow, that is good. Why couldn't our dumbass writers do something like that?
Click to expand...

because they write for the Observer or Rock Hill Herald...not the NY Times.
Jan 19, 2006 at 10:32 PM #7

meatpile 7-9

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Anybody remember the draft day interview Panthers.com had on audio when smitty was drafted?

The questions were basically about Michael Bates, and how do you say 'Stevonne'.
Jan 20, 2006 at 12:35 AM #8

homer2k79 Fuckin' Chuck Norris

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Good article
Jan 20, 2006 at 12:52 AM #9

lde Teddy and Gabriel

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great article. thanks
Jan 20, 2006 at 4:49 AM #10

McFly41 Work Hard...PLAY HARDER!

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That's similar to the last feature article I ever wrote. I did a piece on a former Iowa LB named Melvin Foster, who was PUP'd by the Oilers and returned to the area to rehab and work with kids at the local Y. Your typical feel good piece, which was quickly questioned...not by my editor, but the owner of the paper.
Foster was from the inner city of Houston and by his own admission off record, he had a checkered past. But he kept his nose clean at the U of I and matured. The owner wanted dirty laundry, I didn't want to write that way...so I hung it up just a few weeks after that.
That article is what I call respectable journalism, what I was being asked to do is irresponsible journalism, IMO.

Props to Lee Jenkins!

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