Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Ten years ago (and change), the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots played for the Super Bowl. It was the only time Steve Smith has gotten his team that far. The Panthers were leading, and then Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri ruined Carolina’s dreams.
It’s a tough subject to bring up to the Panthers' five-time Pro-Bowl wide receiver. “There’s always plays left out, whether win or lose. The best thing was playing with Jordan (Gross) and Kevin (Dyson). The most intriguing and best part about the Super Bowl in my career this far, there has only been two seasons that I have not had No. 69, Jordan Gross, in the huddle with me, and so that’s pretty special, that means a lot.
“We’ve been Super Bowl teammates, same huddle, and we’ve been at the Pro Bowl together, we’ve been to practices together. There’s no other guy that out of all my years playing at Utah and Carolina, that I’d want to be in the huddle with every day.”
It’s quite remarkable, really, that two players from the same university were drafted by the same franchise and both have played their entire careers there.
In 2009, Gross was injured in a game against the Vikings. While Gross was lying on the turf, Smith recalls: “I looked at him and was like, “hey” and he says, “I think I broke my ankle,” I looked at it and was like, “no it’s good, it’s good.” He said, “it hurts,” I’m like man, “it’s just a big sprain.” He was like, “you think so?” I say, “yeah!” They rolled him over and that thing was like that (dangling), I was like “oh, I lied to him.” That was the first thing when he got back, he was like “you lied to me” I was like, “I couldn’t tell you the truth.”
The Panthers duo continues to blaze new trails as teammates. Gross started a new podcast for the Carolina Panthers, and his first guest was Smith. They tried not to get too sentimental, but there is obvious respect. Here is the link to the podcast.
Smith was in town courtesy of the University of Utah Alumni Association and the Young Alumni Board. They honored him with the annual Par Excellence Award, given to a former student who attended the U. within the last 15 years, in recognition of his outstanding professional achievements and service to the community and the university. Smith gave a $150,000 gift in support of the Alumni Association's general scholarship fund.
