Panther RB Smith given leave of absence

Panther RB Smith given leave of absence
11/29/2002

Staff and wire reports


Carolina Panthers running back Lamar Smith will not come back to the team this season.

After meeting with Smith, head coach John Fox agreed that it was the best interest of the team and Smith to grant him a leave of absence for the remainder of the season.

The decision follows Smith's arrest on Thanksgiving on DWI and other charges, after he was stopped by a state trooper on U.S. Highway 29 in Mecklenburg County around 5 p.m. Thursday.

Coach Fox said Friday that he is embarrassed by Smith's arrest, the latest in a string of Carolina players to run into legal trouble this month.

Smith, 31, has been charged with DWI, speeding and reckless driving, according to a deputy with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Department. Smith was released from custody several hours after posting a $1,200 bond.

Smith's telephone number is not listed and he could not be reached for comment. It was unclear whether he had obtained a lawyer.

Smith, who signed a three-year, $4.3 million contract with the Panthers in March as an unrestricted free agent, started in all 11 games this season. He scored seven rushing touchdowns. Fox said Friday that Smith's replacement in the backfield will be a game time decision.

Smith has played in the NFL for nine seasons, including various roles for Seattle, New Orleans and Miami.

His arrest Thursday isn't Smith's first brush with off-field problems.



AP File
Smith is the latest in a string of Panthers upended by legal trouble this season.
On Dec. 1, 1994, Smith, then a rookie with the Seattle Seahawks, was driving with teammates Chris Warren and Mike Frier as passengers. Smith's vehicle hit a pole and he and Warren suffered minor injuries. Frier suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed below the waist.

A February 1996 trial for vehicular assault ended in a mistrial because police, who reportedly thought Warren was driving, failed to test Smith's blood-alcohol level.

Two months before another trial was scheduled to begin, Smith entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 120 days in a detention center, eventually serving 60 days in a work-release program; 240 hours of community service and a year's probation. Smith also was ordered to give 35 to 50 percent of his NFL earnings to Frier over a seven-year period.

Smith's charges are the latest in a series of problems for the Panthers.

Wide receiver Steve Smith, the team's leading receiver and an All-Pro kick returner as a rookie last season, returned this week after a one-week suspension for beating up practice squad player Anthony Bright in a team meeting on Nov. 20.

Bright, who was hospitalized two nights, filed criminal charges against him.

On the same day as Steve Smith's suspension, the team released offensive tackle Chris Terry for a series of off-field problems. The final straw with Terry was when he missed a court appearance on charges of assaulting his wife.

Julius Peppers is appealing a four-game suspension for violating the league's list of banned substances, and Brentson Buckner has already accepted the punishment for that same violation.

i gues now we need a RB

 

Dukey, you are a fake. Anybody who writes as poorly as you, wouldn't be spending the day checking the wires, then posting them as soon as they come down. I got that here at the station the minute you posted it.

 

no i am not fake i just like to rad the newpayper

 

So much for the first 1000 yard rusher since AJ.

HOLY LORD!

 

Good catch, dukey.

Don't listen to QCH. He hasn't had his Cracklin' Oat Bran today.

 

I have about had it...WITH EVERYTHING! This just gets more embarrassing as it goes. Starting to dislike my job, some of my friends...and now the Panthers! What a bunch of poop!
I am going into witness protection or something, I need to be someone else, if not for just a little while.
What is it going to take to get this team to stop drawing "NON-FOOTBALL" attention to themselves!

 

dukey...c'mon. i read you talking straight sometime back. stop it already! you can fake some of us out, but not all of us. i think q is right.

you are funny, tho. your pet pictures are the funniest of all. i like pando best.

 

i am not fakeing no know just ask larryd

 

oh yeah, larryd would know.

tell me, are you more that 10 years old?

so how do you explain that one time you were talking straight? i will go find that thread if i have to. i know i read you talking straight one time! i will bet you only saw pictures of israel and u have not even been to israel! c'mon dukey. u know you are found out!

ok, here is a test: who is the israeli president? dont look it up!

gotcha, dukey! hahahahaha...i knew it!

moshe katzav

 

Larry actually was on the phone with dukey when I was over there once. He also had just gotten a postcard from some angry asian girl.