Steve Smith vs. His Teammates
Let's get this out of the way first: Steve Smith beat the crap out of three of his teammates. In 2002 he got in a fight with fellow receiver Guilian Gary. Later that same year, he broke the nose of another receiver, Anthony Bright, during a film session. He was charged with assault for that altercation. Five years later, he again broke a teammate's nose; this time it was cornerback Ken Lucas.
The account of the Bright fight is
pretty horrifying, with reports suggesting that Smith became enraged with Bright after the practice squad player
asked for a play to be shown again, and then jumped him after the lights were turned out during a film session ("all hell broke loose"). Bright wound up suing Smith in 2004, claiming that the fight ruined his NFL career.
Since I'm about to talk about what a badass Steve Smith is for the rest of this post, I feel like it's only right to point out that he has done some pretty deplorable things during his playing career. He knows this; if you want to see how much these incidents have worn on him, watch
the E:60 segment about his violent outbursts.
According to an
ESPN The Magazine feature on the incident, it sounds like Lucas and Smith had been going at each other in practices when Smith snapped. And the aftermath of that incident has been kind of fascinating. For as disturbing as the fight was, their public and private reconciliation served as a catalyst for the team that season, which the Panthers finished with a 12-4 record. When Smith caught his first touchdown that season, following the fight, he ran over to Lucas and presented him with the ball.
Lucas said after the game, "Since day one, since the moment it happened, he has done everything that a man could ever do from a forgiveness standpoint ... My hat is off to him. I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised."
Later, Smith would tell
ESPN The Magazine, "Yeah, we're friends ... We just didn't take the normal way of finding that out."
