He’ll be raising a family here, and every day he’s reminded of it a little bit more. The other day, when it rained, my son was in Chapel Hill at Drake, where he was working in his role on NFL Network. I picked up the jacket.
This place is now part of him and his family.
“I mean, people around here in Charlotte see me, and sometimes I’m at the grocery store,” he joked. “I’m not in the supermarket as Steve Smith. I’m in the supermarket looking for toilet paper.”
Of course, Smith wiped away a tear during the conversation about coming here and how it has changed him.
In the offseason after the Panthers’ first Super Bowl appearance in 2003, Smith was on the cusp of becoming a major star with his heroic double-overtime game-winning walk-off touchdown in St. Louis. The news was at hand. They were negotiating his first contract extension, a sum that would insure his family for generations.
He and his wife were looking at homes in Los Angeles and stopped to visit his grandparents on East 126th Street. His late grandfather’s birthday was April 27, and the proximity of the day struck a chord with Smith Friday when he showed his grandson a photo of himself on the cover of the Sporting News. He recalled how proud he felt.
He paused to compose himself, then continued talking about being here now.
“Charlotte is where I live and it’s where my family calls home,” he said. But LA is where I’m from and that will never change. ”
They considered living on both coasts, but he put down roots here. So they decided to sell their West Coast property.
