Insightful Smitty Article on Yahoo Sports

[AntiBuc]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--wr-steve-smith-having--fun--again-after-turbulent-stretch-that-nearly-led-to-panther’s-departure-.html

Dives into the good and bad of the last few seasons and how he's now having fun again. Doesn't hold back when speaking of the prior coaching regime. Enjoy.

[run1stdownrun2nddown]

Legit ^^

[Razeyfingers]

Perfect article for CRA to read and digest. So glad someone wrote this, should explain a lot about him to those that were too quick to judge.

[Jackofalltrades]

Great read, thanks.

[DRSundrop]

Nice find and fun read.

[rayzor]

As the Panthers, owners of the NFL's lowest-rated passing offense, sputtered through a lifeless, 2-14 campaign, opposing players offered Smith condolences and made outright overtures for his services.

"I had guys telling me, 'Hey, come over to my team, we could use you over here,' " Smith recalled Tuesday from Wofford College, the Panthers' training camp home. "This was during games."

it's not surprising but it still hit me a little hard.

[rayzor]

ok...just read the whole thing and it was very enlightening.

fox leaving was almost as good a thing for the panthers as drafting newton. i'm more sure of that now than ever.

one of the coolest part of the article was this:

"In practice, there are no easy catches with Steve," Rivera says. "On the balls that you'd think would be right to him, he'll spin, or fall away from the ball and try to catch it back behind his body, or take a different angle and lunge at it. It took awhile, but I finally figured it out and told him, 'I'm onto you – you don't make the easy catch in practice; you're trying to make the hard catch.' I'm telling you, some of the catches in practice would make ESPN's Top 10."

that's one of the things that makes him one of the best in the league.

[JawnyBlaze]

I was just about to quote that very paragraph. Excellent insight into his ethic and passion for the game.

[Lumps]

Why does it say Fox was fired? JR was way too cheap to fire Fox, he must have missed the pie charts.

[Seltzer]

Very interesting article- probably the most insight I've seen into how the players felt in 2010.

That being said, not going to blame it all on Fox. The entire operation was out of whack, and everybody from Richardson on down contributed to the dysfunction.

Still, Fox leaving was so overdue and it's a shame it leaves a stain on his entire tenure. The first four years here were fantastic

[ed bell]

I loved this part:

"In practice, there are no easy catches with Steve," Rivera says. "On the balls that you'd think would be right to him, he'll spin, or fall away from the ball and try to catch it back behind his body, or take a different angle and lunge at it. It took awhile, but I finally figured it out and told him, 'I'm onto you – you don't make the easy catch in practice; you're trying to make the hard catch.' I'm telling you, some of the catches in practice would make ESPN's Top 10."

[rayzor]

Why does it say Fox was fired? JR was way too cheap to fire Fox, he must have missed the pie charts.

i wish we had fired him a year earlier, but then we probably wouldn't have had rivera, chud, and newton here now.