What made Steve Smith a fascinating player throughout his 16-year career with the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens was the All-Pro receiver’s frankness in speaking his mind.
Smith joined his NFL Network colleague Rich Eisen on his eponymous show Feb. 3 and revealed why he still has a grudge towards new Houston Texans coach David Culley, and also why he doesn’t believe he will succeed with the AFC South club.
“I’m just giving context of why. I’m just giving context of — it’s not a grudge. It’s one of the things I look at if — Rich, you’ve been doing this for a long time. If you weren’t very good at it, you wouldn’t be doing it this long. So, if all of a sudden you’re an analyst and you never hosted and you go out there and host, and then you stumble over yourself, that would kind of say you’re not a good host.”
“So, I was a rookie. I think this was the year the Rams lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. They didn’t come to the Pro Bowl. That was when the Pro Bowl was in Hawaii and after the Super Bowl. So, they didn’t come. So, John Harbaugh said, ‘Hey, they’re down a wide receiver. Go over there. You know how to catch punts.’ The punter, Todd Sauerbrun, wasn’t punctual at times. So, he said go over there. They need a body. So, he said, ‘Go over run over there. I know Jermaine Lewis will be running some plays for the AFC. So, go ahead.’
“Get over there and Culley says, ‘Hey, we’re about to meet and go ahead and go back with the special teams.’ I said, ‘Well, the special teams coach, Coach Harbaugh told me to come over here.’
‘Well, these are wide receivers.’ That’s what he said. And I walked back over there and he told me. So, after that, that just kind of tells me — so, the reason I say that is to this day Coach Culley will say, like you say ‘still holding that grudge,’ it’s not holding a grudge. It’s the fact I was a Pro Bowler. I was also — you were down a wide receiver, and the fact of the matter is you scooted me along because you didn’t believe I was a real wide receiver. So, that tells me your eye for athleticism and talent is as good as Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder’s eyes.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CKL_ZwYMZI
The incident was 19 years ago. If Culley hasn’t learned his lesson in almost two decades, then Houston has a problem. If Culley has grown since then, then Smith is the one who needs to open his eyes.