Torrey Smith Joins Steve And Ed In Studio To Discuss His Charity Basketball Game And His Offseason
Baltimore Ravens Wide Receiver and Superbowl XLVII Champion, Torrey Smith is one of the bright, young Wide Receivers in the NFL. Torrey joins Steve and Ed on the Norris and Davis show to talk about his Charity Basketball Game and his plans for the off-season.
March 29th Torrey is teaming up with Ryan Kerrigan of the Washington Redskins at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center for "The Battle of the Beltway" to benefit the Torrey Smith and Ryan Kerrigan Foundations, respectfully. You can go to TorreySmith.org for more information and to purchase tickets.
Ed asked Torrey what he's been up too in the off season. Torrey said he likes to relax and enjoy his time off by spending some time with his wife. Recovering from the season. Just enjoy the things he can't do during the season. He's counting down to the birth of his first child - Torrey Jeremiah Smith. His wife is about 6 weeks away from her due date.
Steve asked Torrey if he and Joe Flacco's plan to get together before the off-season workouts begin. Torrey says they are trying to get together very soon to work out together but in the mean time Joe is also spending time with his family and enjoying his time off but they will work out together very soon. He also defends Joe's work ethic and leadership.
"People get down on Joe like he's lazy. I mean he works hard. It's not the case. We had a rough year and that's everyone. Everyone included. We're not pointing out one person, so it's not all on him. When we all get together it's going to help our whole unit out and whatever new faces we add. It'll be big for us.
Ed brings up the topic of the N-word on the field and asks Torrey if it's possible to enforce this new rule.
"I mean you hear everything you can think of on the field so, man, I don't know, to isolate one word... I'm sure you can pinpoint someone, you can hear someone when they say something. But I mean, let's get the regular calls right before we start throwing flags for folks using words. I mean it's definitely a degrading word. I feel that way. I think even when it's used amongst our race it's a degrading word anyway. I don't think we should be using it but it is what it is. We're talking about the same league that has people coming at them about the Redskins logo so... I guess they're trying to clean everything up. If they think it makes the game cleaner, there's kids watching, it'll be fine but I think it's just too hard to try to... I mean can you imagine someone, when the game is on the line and someone calls someone a name and there's a 15-yard penalty?" Torrey also insists, "It's not going to change the way the game is played, one way or another."
When asked what he thinks about the word being used in general, Torrey agrees with Wally Williams, he doesn't like it.
"I know a lot of people who use it. I hear people say all the time that it is a way to 'take power of the word' and take away from its original meaning. To me, it's degrading all the same. We obviously have a long ways to go to get rid of it but because so many people like to blame the hip-hop community and things like that but it's been there long before that... that was kind of the way to take power away from the word but to me it's still offensive. People gave up their lives for it, fought and went to jail for it, for that word because of what it meant during the Civil Rights movement."
Torrey then talks a little more about some off-season training and the stigma attached to guys playing basketball with the potential for injury, after the Terrell Suggs injury before the 2012 season.
Torrey talks to the guys about the Ray Rice situation since he spoke to Ray recently.
"I look at Ray as a brother. He's down right now and I need to be there to help pick him up. His wife and Ray as well are both focused on growing forward and becoming better from it. I'm not going to sit there and judge him and all the sudden 'Oh, I'm not talking to Ray 'cause he did this.' This is a time when everyone's turning their back on him and if anything he needs myself and my wife to be there for him and Janay. Now more so than ever. We're going to do that for him. People are going to judge him, whatever... people say 'you should never hit a woman.' We understand that. That's a given but things happen and we've all had family members who have made mistakes that we're not proud of but do you just kick them to the curb? That's not the case. I look at him as a brother. He's not just someone I play football with."
The guys go on to talk to Torrey about his charity work and the Ravens organization They touch on the Michael Sam story briefly as well as Gary Kubiak and the new Ravens' offense.