Insider notebook Steve Smith sets the re

One of the two most well-known of all time wants to set the record straight about the other one. Steve Smith is tired of all the questions about . Over the past six years he has grown weary of a media narrative he never really tried to correct. And so in , Smith explains that he does not, and never did, harbor any animus toward Newton."I don't hate Cam. He is one of the most athletic quarterbacks I have ever played with," Smith said. "We had some good times and we had some bad times. When you're losing, those are bad times. I've heard somebody say, 'Man that was the best a s-whoppin we ever received!' That just doesn't happen."I got to listen to the episode before it dropped overnight Friday, and it's one that all Panthers fans should listen to. Smith presents a tick-tock -- from his side -- of how his unceremonious release from the Panthers went down with former GM Dave Gettleman in March 2014.I'll let listeners enjoy Smith's take, and knowing Gettleman, he will never respond publicly to NFL San Francisco 49Ers Jersey what Smith says. But where Smith shines is talking about Newton. I covered the Panthers for the from 2012 until the start of the 2016 season, so I was there for Smith's final two seasons in Carolina while Newton's star rose. I never thought the release had to do with "Cam versus Steve" so much as it did with management believing that a team with budding young players couldn't coalesce while Smith, a mercurial Richard Sherman Jersey Panthers legend, remained in the locker room.Still, narratives took hold over the years. People believed Smith didn't like Newton. Worse, some may have believed Newton participated in Smith's ouster. None of that is true, and on multiple occasions in the hour-long podcast, Smith i sues overdue apologies to Newton"Cam was caught in the middle. Cam didn't do anything," Smith said. "I don't hate Cam. I love the dude. He's a fantastic player. Now I'll say it now, I probably need to apologize because I was a d***, but I mean that's who I was." I have never witne sed a player who practiced harder than 89. And if you didn't try to meet his standard on the practice field, he didn't have much use for you. When all this is taking place, he was entering his mid-30s and in hot pursuit of a . He also was 10 years older than Newton. They simply didn't have much in common beyond a pa sion for winning, and no one close to that team would have confused them for friends.But still, when Smith was released, Newton sent him a handwritten letter. Smith put it in a keepsake drawer without opening it until 2019 when he remembered. Though he doesn't disclose the contents of the letter, he makes it known he appreciates what Newton did."I hate the black-on-black athlete crime," Smith said. "This guy is jealous of this guy or he hates him because he's taking his shine. I don't San Francisco 49Ers T Shirts know if y'all know but we all shine together. I don't see going over there tripping . "When Cam was on, he was on. If I was off, we were off. He was off, we were off. It's a collective. At the end of it, because of how I operated, whatever narrative the media had, I gave them that opportunity because of how I acted. If anything, I owe Cam more of an apology. Bro, I don't hate you. I don't look down on him. Hell, actually I look up. He's ballin'. A lot of people thought he wasn't going to be this. I'm shocked how well he's playing so early in a new system."Smith does the podcast with his friend Gerard Littlejohn, who also serves as the executive director of the Steve Smith Family Foundation. He also breaks some of his own news in the podcast: He was almost traded to the in 2013."Trent Baalke, then the 49ers general manager said you're our mi sing piece to winning the Super Bowl," Smith said. Remember, the Niners were coming off a close lo s to the in Super Bowl XLVII. The Panthers had started the season 1-3 and Smith was looking for a way out. Ultimately, Smith says the Niners wanted him to void out his contract guarantees to make the trade work, and he was unwilling to do that and the deal fell through.Overall it's a good listen for Panthers fans, and I think it's insightful for fans, too. Smith reveals a level of maturity from Newton in his early days that even I didn't know about. In his regular column for the NFLPA's website, center and for all to "proactively change all field surfaces to natural gra s." This, of course, comes in the wake of the Week 2 carnage around the league, most notably at MetLife Stadium, where there's artificial turf. Tretter makes the point that players are the most important investment for team owners and should thus be as protected as po sible, and Reuben Foster Jersey he says data supports the anecdotal player evidence that turf is harder on the body than gra s." P layers have a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries when playing on artificial turf," Tretter writes. "Of those non-contact injuries, players have a 32% higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf and a staggering 69% higher rate of non-contact foot/ankle injuries on turf compared to gra s."Tretter's call is not just for stadiums to convert to natural gra s but also for all practice fields to convert. He notes in his column that the , Browns and all have natural gra s stadium fields despite being in cold-weather cities. And that the and have natural gra s fields despite being in domes. Of course, those stadiums have state-of-the-art technology (and space outside the stadium) to roll the gra s outside to get natural light -- teams like the aren't as lucky there. After speaking with sources around the league, I don't think NFL teams are going to rush to fulfill Tretter's wish. As compelling a case as Tretter makes for player safety, there are the aforementioned logistical concerns and major money i sues as well.One source indicated this would probably have to be collectively bargained, and the union and league just agreed to 10 years of labor peace earlier this year. Asking teams with turf to change to gra s would raise team costs by (po sibly) millions of dollars a year.Almost every NFL team with natural gra s must re-sod its field once a year. That means that a field has a life of about five NFL games. A full re-sod can cost about $200,000, per sources. New York and Los Angeles teams would have to change their field four times a year, at minimum. And it would also hurt the team's non-football revenue. Concerts, college football games and other events held on the field at NFL stadiums would tear up the gra s and force more frequent re-sods. Team owners would have to decide Ronnie Lott Jersey if hosting a concert is financially worth it if it means dumping $200,000 into making sure the team has a safe surface on which to play later that week.All that said, it can be done. I spoke Thursday with Jimmy Simpson, president of the Sports Turf Managers A sociation, who told me Tretter's column got "right to the heart of player safety." Before our talk I had a sumed changing out fields would be impo sible for stadiums with high-volume events, but he correc