J-Speaks: Two Great NFL Careers Conclude

On Sunday, the 2016 National Football League (NFL) season concluded. While 12 teams will be moving on to the playoffs, in hopes of winning a Super Bowl, 20 other teams saw their season conclude, with the thought of until next year. For a Third-Round pick in the 2001 draft out of Utah and a Fifth-Round Pick in 2003 out of Alabama A&M, Sunday was the final time of their spectacular careers.

The 27-10 loss that the Baltimore Ravens (8-8) sustained to their AFC North division rivals the Cincinnati Bengals (6-9-1) was not only their second straight loss to close this season and the third time in four seasons they failed to qualify for the postseason, it was also the last games of the 16-year NFL career of wide receiver Steve Smith, Sr., who went from a punter returner in the early stages of his career with the Carolina Panthers when he was drafted out of Utah to one of the most productive wideouts in the history of the league.

Thanks to a one-yard touchdown thrown by Indianapolis Colts’ (8-8) quarterback Andrew Luck to tight end Jack Doyle that capped a 75-yard game-winning drive in 1:24, the home team defeated their AFC South division rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-13) 24-120 to send retiring defensive end/linebacker Robert Mathis out with a victory in the final NFL game of his 14-year career.

In Smith’s final game, he had three receptions for 34 yards, finishing his final season with 70 catches for 799 yards and five touchdowns. He finished his career tied for fourth in NFL history in 100-yard receiving games with 51; seventh in receiving yards with 14,371; 12^th 1,031 receptions and tied for 25^th in touchdown receptions with 81.

Mathis in his final game had a strip-sack in the fourth quarter on Jaguars’ signal caller Blake Bortles at the 11:58 mark of the fourth quarter on third-and-eight, the 47^th of his career, which not only extended his NFL record, he passed Dwight Freeney (122.5) for most sacks in Colts history and moved him into 17^th on the NFL’s all-time list.

Smith, who left the door open to return for a 17^th season, put all of that to rest when he said that he is retiring from what he called the game of football his first love when he spoke to CBS Sports Jenny Dell after the game.

“Yeah This it,” the five-time Pro Bowler said. “A legacy is not what you give to people. It’s what you put inside people, but also what they put inside of me. There’s a lot of guy’s I respect. I’m going to miss them, but you know at some point it comes to an end.”

Dell also asked why this was the right time to step away, Smith, Sr. said that he has a beautiful wife at home Angie and their four kids Peyton, who is a sophomore in college; Baylee, who is in high school; a son Boston who is in middle school and a two-year old Steve Smith, Jr.

“I got a beautiful wife at home Angie and four kids that need their dad and I need my kids,” Smith said to Dell. “I’m going home to Charlotte [NC] to be with my family We got a new house we gonna build. I got a lot of catching up to do. This game has given me a lot, but at the same time I need to give my family more.”

“To be able to walk off the field healthy, great spirits with a traditional, typical great, ball win, you can’t ask for anything more,” Mathis, who was still in his uniform with a big smile on his face said after the game.

What makes Smith’s and Mathis’ great careers possible was that it did not come easy for either of them and they both had a lot to prove at the beginning and as their careers went on.

In Smith’s case, he was a not highly recruited out of University High Scholl in Los Angeles, CA. He went to Santa Monica College where he played football and he learned from his head coach Robert Taylor to play the game to earn a scholarship to a Division-I school to get a better education and not for fame and riches. Taylor also encouraged Smith to celebrate in the end zone after scoring a touchdown, or as Smith put it once, “they put the cuffs on us.”

Smith took that advice to heart though and excelled in the classroom, never missing a day and on the gridiron.

He would then transfer to the University of Utah. With the Utes, Smith set a record for yards per catch with 20.6 and twice played for the Mountain West Conference all-star team.

As mentioned earlier, Smith was chosen in the Third-Round by the Carolina Panthers, where he would play for 14 seasons, where in seven of those seasons he registered over 1,000 receiving yards. His best season came in 2005 where he had career-highs of 103 receptions, which also led the NFL; 1,563 receiving yards and a league leading 12 touchdown catches. The season in which the Panthers made it to Super Bowl XXXVIII where they lost to the New England Patriots 32-29 thanks to a game-winning 41-yard field goal by future Hall of Famer and current Colt Adam Vinatieri in the closing seconds, Smith had 88 catches for 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns.

He finished his Panthers career as their all-time leader in receiving yards (12,197); career receiving touchdowns (67) and career scores (75); career receptions (836); career yards from scrimmage (12,854); career All-Purpose yards (16,607) and career punt return returns (178), punt return yards (1,652) and punt return touchdowns (4).

After being released by the Panthers on Mar. 13, 2014, Smith signed with the Ravens one day later for three years at $11.5 million with a $3.5 million bonus.

After a solid first season with the Ravens where he had 79 catches for 1,065 yards and six scores, Smith tore his Achilles tendon in Week 8 of the 2015 season against the San Diego Chargers, which ended his season. He finished that season with 46 receptions for 670 yards and three touchdowns.

For Mathis, a native of Atlanta, GA, his journey to the NFL began at previously mentioned Alabama A&M right after he graduated from NcNair High School.

He set an NCAA I-AA record with 20 sacks in his senior season with the Bulldogs and established himself as one of the most dominant defensive players in the history of NCAA I-AA football. He graduated from the Alabama A&M with a degree in exercise science with a minor in physical education.

Back in 2003, then Colts’ general manager and team president Bill Polian, who now works as a NFL analyst for ESPN came to then head coach and now host of “Football Night in America (FNIA)” Tony Dungy with a highlight tape of Mathis, which he called on Sunday night the second-best highlight tape I’ve ever seen, other than Barry Sanders.

The Colts chose Mathis as previously mentioned in the Fifth-Round of the draft that year and Tony Dungy said on Sunday night’s edition of FNIA, “That was the best draft pick that we made. Congratulations on a great career.”

That career resume of the former Fifth-Round Pick, 138^th overall in 2003 consisted of a combined 527 tackles of solo and assisted; 123.0 career sacks, most in Colts history; sacked 62 different quarterbacks; had 52 force fumbles, recovering 17 of them, 15 passes defensed. While he did make six Pro Bowls, probably the most important statistics of Mathis careers is that he helped the Colts win 141 games in 210 career opportunities, nine AFC South Division titles and a 29-17 victory in Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears. Mathis endured just one losing season in his 14-year career, with 11 playoff appearances, playing in two Super Bowls and bridging the Peyton Manning Era and the Luck Era, which consisted of Lucas Oil Stadium that he, Manning, former wideout Reggie Wayne, Freeney and former center and ESPN NFL analyst Jeff Saturday.  

At the end of the game in the locker room after he put on a dance showed that was cheered on by his teammates, the locker room grew quiet and Mathis delivered the kind of speech that every young person should hear once in their life.

“You go to protect your dream,” Mathis urged his teammates. “I’m the only one who believed in my dream… even my momma admitted, ‘I didn’t believe it ‘till it happened.”

“It’s on you. If you want to be great, go get it. It can happen. You got one foot in the door-kick it in. It’s on you. What you gonna do?”  

The other factor that played a major role in the success of Smith and Mathis is the fact that they had great influences in their football careers.

Smith, Sr’s important influences, which he had written on his cleats before the game on Sunday, which consisted of former teammates with the Panthers in then quarterback Jake Delhomme and wide receiver, now the team’s wideout coach Ricky Proehl, the previous mentioned Taylor, his late friend Rob McBride, his mother and father, the University of Utah and his two best friends Jess and Peter.

“Just people that had an impact. Just guys that have been with me when it was just a hope and a dream,” Smith said of the people that had an impact on him.

For Mathis, it was Dungy and Polian, who took a chance on him, trading up in the Fifth-Round to select him. It was current head coach Chuck Pagano who helped convert him from a defensive end in the early part of his career to just a great of a pass rushing outside linebacker and the rest is history. Above all, it was his mother, who has passed who gave him the motivation to believe he could make a career of playing football, even when his mother did not.

“I remember the first ball I gave was to my mom,” Mathis said after the game. “She watching. She’s no longer here. So, I gave it to my wife”

On Sunday, the 2016-17 NFL season concluded and so did the careers of one of the most productive wide receivers and one of the best pass rushers the game has ever seen. We said goodbye to two men who earned their way into playing this game and made it their business to prove to everyone that was with them along this journey that when they got their chance, they were all in and the best was going to come. That happened and whether that lands these two in Canton, OH someday remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, they deserve to have their numbers retired. Steve Smith, Sr.’s No. 89 by the Carolina Panthers and Robert Mathis’ No. 98 by the Indianapolis Colts.  

“Information, Statistics and quotations are courtesy of 1/1/17 1 p.m. NFL on CBS contest between the Baltimore Ravens versus Cincinnati Bengals with Carter Blackburn, Chris Simms and Jenny Dell; 1/1/17 7 p.m. edition of NBC’s “Football Night in America,” with Mike Tirico, Chris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Mike Florio of www.profootballtalk.com; 1/1/17 www.indystar.com article “Insider: Robert Mathis Goes Out With A Bang,” by Zak Keefer;  www.espn.com/nfl/stats/_/2622/steve-smith-sr;  www.espn.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/4596/robert-mathis; www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameid=400874608; www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameide=400874639; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Smith_Sr.; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mathis; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Polian; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Proehl; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_NFL_season; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Colts.