news-record.com

CHARLOTTE -- Steve Smith's right about one thing. We really don't know him.

But he's wrong about basically everything else.

Smith was suspended for two regular-season games Saturday by the Carolina Panthers in response to their wide receiver slugging cornerback Ken Lucas while the two stood on the sidelines Friday morning during the Panthers' training camp practice at Wofford College.

The mercurial Smith tried to apologize to Lucas, and coach John Fox later tried to explain it away as a typical skirmish between two football players. A day later, he was saying something completely different.

"He'll be suspended for the first two games," Fox said. "What he did was wrong. We take it very serious, and he's being punished severely for it."

Fox said Smith's actions were inexcusable.

Lucas has a broken nose. Neither of the players participated in Saturday's annual Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium, but Lucas did come through the locker room before the practice. Players said he was treated as a returning hero as he walked through.

"A lesser player wouldn't have come," quarterback Jake Delhomme said.

Smith did not come. Only days after giving a lengthy interview with Panthers beat writers in Spartanburg in which the three-time Pro Bowl selection talked of maturing, he lost his temper on the sideline and hit Lucas. It was the third time in six years he'd attacked a teammate.

In 2002, Smith severely beat up receiver Anthony Bright while in a film session. Bright filed a civil suit against Smith, who'd been involved in a preseason practice fight with still another player that year. The suit was later settled out of court.

Smith was suspended for one game after the 2002 incidents and asked to take anger management courses and begin a long process of improving his demeanor as well as his image.

An interesting myth rose from the incident, one that included receiver Muhsin Muhammad becoming a mentor to Smith and helping him mature as a player and a person. At every opportunity, his teammates have mentioned that over the past six years, a fact that seemed to make Smith bristle at times during interviews.

"You spend two hours with somebody and now you know them? That's not the case," he said Monday.

Smith is the best player on the team, one of the best in the league, and that's what saved him this time. Football fights happen almost every day in practice with some teams. And anyone who's seen a Panthers practice in the past three seasons knows Smith and Lucas do not get along.

Fox wanted to make that point Friday afternoon when he was asked about the fight that left Lucas with ice packs over his face as he was carted away. But a day later, after he'd talked with team officials and, probably, team owner Jerry Richardson, the Panthers coach didn't hesitate to put the entire incident squarely on Smith. Asked if there would be a zero-tolerance policy from here on, Fox seemed to suggest there would.

"It's an internal matter," he said. "I'm not trying to be secretive. These are the kind of matters we'll keep in-house. We're doing it the right way. We're going to help him. He's still ours. Yet, he's going to have conditions. He knows what those are, and we're going to move forward."

Smith is the all-time franchise leader in touchdowns and is coming off a season in which he caught 87 passes for 1,002 yards and seven touchdowns in a 7-9 season. After the fighting incidents in 2002, the Panthers have built their offense around Smith and allowed the myth to grow that he's a changed man. This year, they brought back Muhammad and signed free agent receiver D.J. Hackett from Seattle to bolster the passing game.

Those two will presumably start the first two games of the season (at San Diego on Sept. 7 and at home against Chicago on Sept. 14). They were with the first-team offense Saturday in the scrimmage at Bank of America Stadium. Between now and then, Fox will have to pull his team together for a season that will determine the futures of coaches and players alike. They've been given fair warning. Win this year, or the team will be rebuilt.

A palpable tension exists between offensive and defensive players on most teams, and this one is no different. Fox actually had a team meeting in the moments after the incident Friday and told his players there would be no retaliation against Smith. That's hardly the kind of thing a coach normally has to tell a team in preseason practice. Saturday morning, he told them they would be without their best player for the first two games.

Smith will be allowed to practice with the team, however. Monday, they all come back together in hot and steamy Spartanburg. Asked if he thought Lucas and Smith can mend their relationship, Fox didn't seem convinced.

"Time will tell," he said. "I believe so, but like I said, time will tell."

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com