CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's hard to hear Steve Smith Jr.'s name and not connotate him immediately with the Carolina Panthers. But this California-born-and-raised wide receiver admitted to WCNC Charlotte he didn't have much knowledge of East Coast sports growing up until he moved.
"I just remember UCLA, USC, Notre Dame, that's what I grew up watching, unless it was a big-time game," Smith admitted.
Laughing that there were only 13 channels back then, he does remember following ACC basketball, though. But everything ramped up when he moved to North Carolina.
"I just never experienced it until I moved here," Smith said chuckling.
"A lot of these schools I ended up going to for business, I ended up going to their team store, going in there, acquiring some of that stuff because I've never really been on campus," Smith shared. "I've never really been on the campus. I've never really seen some of these campuses until I have the opportunity to because I didn't go to school here, but I live here. And, so, just kind of exploring that has been fun and unique and has been cool."
During his North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame celebration on Friday at Johnson & Wales University, Smith was asked what one of his best games ever was.
"I think ... probably my rookie season when I took the opening kickoff," Smith recalled. "Because ... we played on Sunday but that Wednesday [before], my daughter was born."
Even with this honor and knowing a future NFL Hall of Fame nomination is on the horizon, Smith shared what it feels like when he hears he deserves those accolades.
"It's taken me a long time to sit here and really accept compliments," Smith shared. "A lot of times, when you're growing up, a lot of athletes, whether it's consciously or unconsciously, you build up that Teflon, you build up those calluses to be more aware of what you didn't hear, and sometimes you kind of get stuck in that."
Smith said he still has to try to be "OK in my own skin" sometimes because of that training growing up. He said he still struggles with realizing his fame, too.
"Sometimes, I'm in a grocery store ... and I'm not in a grocery store as Steve Smith, I'm in a grocery store looking for toilet paper," Smith joked. "I'm not in a grocery store looking for autographs, I'm in a grocery store looking for napkins. It's just a human element of it that I have to adjust and try to figure out, how do I respectfully acknowledge and respond appropriately, but at the same time, you know, when I'm where I'm at, I'm there for that task that I'm trying to do."
Smith said it's all about trying to find that balance between being human off the field and superhuman on the field. And a superhero he was, still holding multiple NFL records, including the highest punt return average in a single game and is one of only three players in NFL history to score touchdowns on two punt returns and catch a touchdown pass in the same game.
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