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Steve Smith 'bumped heads' with young Newton in Carolina

Sam Sharpe / USA TODAY Sports

There are probably fewer players who haven't gotten along with Steve Smith during his career than ones that he's seen eye to eye with.

After two and half years away from his former team, the wide receiver admits that one of those strained relationships was with the Carolina Panthers then-future star Cam Newton. In an interview set to air on the NFL Network this Friday, Smith detailed the shaky relationship between himself and a young Newton.

"We bumped heads for the obvious reason. He’s the first overall pick and he was a star where he was,” Smith said, according to Bill Voth of the Black and Blue Review. "I was 31-years-old. I had three kids. So we were two people in two different phases of their life."

Former teammate and Panthers offensive tackle Jordan Gross says Smith had no time for Newton's development, coming in as the number one overall pick.

"That was a tough dynamic. It frustrated Steve being with such a young quarterback who maybe didn’t get all the terminology down right away, who would mess up his reads on a hot route, things like that," said Gross. "Steve had no patience for that.

"Honestly, I feel like that hurt Cam’s development a little bit because Steve was such an in-your-face character. He wanted to win now. Steve wasn’t a rookie. Steve was getting into double-digit seasons, and he didn’t want to wait to win for this young quarterback to develop."

In a surprise move to pretty much everyone outside the Panthers' front office, Smith moved on to the Baltimore Ravens in 2014, but reminded his former team they let a good one go in their first meeting. Smith put up 139 yards and two touchdowns as part of the 38-10 victory he dubbed the "blood and guts bowl."

- with h/t to NFL.com

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