Lest you think Steve Smith is coming down the stretch of his NFL career as some kinder, gentler version of himself, he can still remind you he is still the same Agent 89.
According to Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com, the Ravens wide receiver showed his frustration with something by throwing his helmet and kicking a football during practice Thursday.
Smith had just been overthrown on consecutive deep passes by Joe Flacco when Smith yanked his helmet off and threw it toward the end zone, and then kicked some poor ball that was just sitting there minding its own business. He then walked to the corner of the indoor facility and sat by himself, while practice continued without him.
Smith used to joke with Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme (and Vinny Testaverdere and honestly probably all of them) that it was physically impossible for them to overthrow him. And helmet-tossing has always been a favorite move of his. Once when the Panthers were experimenting with Julius Peppers as a goal-line target and took Smith out of a scoring chance against the Patriots, Smith stomped to the sidelines and spiked his helmet so hard it bounced up and nearly took the head off a security guard standing nearby.
So as Smith outbursts go, it was probably a mild one. But it’s good to know that some things don’t change, and playing with a certain edge has helped Smith go from an unknown third-round pick from Utah to a possible shrine in Canton some day, so it would be wrong to do things differently now.
