Baltimore Ravens veteran wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. has finally figures out that it wasn’t Pittsburgh Steelers safety Mike Mitchell who hit him in the back in the game two weeks ago that ultimately forced him from that contest. Even so, Smith isn’t taking Mitchell off of his “lifetime hit list” and he’s not adding the guilty person, linebacker Lawrence Timmons, to it.
“Timmons hit me, which I didn’t know,” Smith said on Friday, according to the team’s official website. “But Mike Mitchell, my former teammate, gets up and he’s talking, he’s kind of celebrating. He was in my face after I got up, when I was giving the ball to the ref, as if he hit me. Like a moron, I assumed that he actually did something.
“Then, when I went down because my back was hurting, he was yelling, ‘Yeah, how do you like that!’ and he said a few words.”
Smith played with Mitchell when the two were with the Carolina Panthers in 2013. He added on Friday that he’s mad at the actions two weeks ago of the Steelers safety because he had helped give Mitchell some contract advice before he left the Panthers.
“That’s what ticked me off,” Smith said. “On a personal level, you’re asking me questions, then you get out there and you kind of forget.”
As far as Timmons goes, Smith is now praising him for the hit.
“It was a good, solid hit by Timmons. He was knocking people all over the field,” said Smith.
Smith missed the Ravens Week 5 game against the Cleveland Browns because of microfractures in his back. He was listed as questionable on the Ravens Friday injury report.
There are no pictures of Smith yelling at any clouds this past week while being limited in practice. The always angry wide receiver has caught 29 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns so far this season.
The Steelers will play the Ravens again in Week 16.
