Published: Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009 / Updated: Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009 09:03 AM

The softer, gentler side of Steve Smith

CHARLOTTE -- It's a little hard for Steve Smith to sell change, after so many failed attempts.

Maybe the difference this time is he's not selling it quite so hard, just letting go and not worrying so much about how he's perceived.

The 30-year-old Carolina Panthers wide receiver entered this season with a different attitude — or at least a softening of the old one — that's easy to see.

He laughs more, joking with the linebackers in the corner of the locker room far from his own. He sulks less, grudgingly accepting that if he gets asked to return punts today, he can't really refuse. He helps more, taking a keen interest in the development of second-year wideout Kenny Moore.

From the outside, it looks like he's in the legacy-building stage of his career, that he wants to be known as someone other than the guy who punches teammates. Then again, it's still Steve Smith, so you know the chip on the shoulder is still there. It always will be.

When it's suggested to Smith that he seems more at peace with himself this season, he recoils a bit, back into the defensive stance which has served him so dutifully over the years.

“At peace with what?” he shot back. “I've still got a little lean. I mean, unless your name is Richardson, nobody's really at peace around here. ... Well, until the last week, unless you were a Richardson nobody's really at peace around here.”

Smith cackled as he said the last part, realizing midstream what he was saying. Maybe he relishes the laughter a little more now.

As someone who lives his life on the balls of his feet, being able to rock back on his heels and laugh is a blessing whether you realize it or not.

Maybe now that he's turned 30 — and the age milestone coinciding with his relaxation hardly seems accidental — he's come to appreciate and understand his role in Charlotte a little better. There's a part of him that still wants to rage at not being properly used. But not even that's enough — at least not at this precise moment — to cause him to blow his stack.

He was the only player in the NFL last year to average more than 100 receiving yards per game. He did it for the team which threw the ball the fewest times.

“Some days, it's difficult,” Smith admitted. “But then there are days where I know at the end of the day, when all else fails, they've got to throw me the ball. I'm just trying to work the ebbs and flows, the up and down parts. It is tough, but it's just the system I'm in.”

There's a part of him that wants to be one of those guys, the receivers who are the focal points of entire systems. It used to be that way in Charlotte, back when old coordinator Dan Henning's “feed the stud” plan got it to Smith and helped make him rich(er). Even then, however, it wasn't enough. It was always the chase, the fight. If some was good, more must be better. Now, he's not as wound up about the numbers, at least not overtly.

He's asked if he ever thinks about what it's like for other receivers.

“You mean if I was somewhere else?” he asked back. “I could probably do that, but all you're going to do is frustrate yourself. Especially when you see a guy like (Denver's) Brandon Marshall who wants to be traded, and they threw him the ball 174 times. And he's mad.”

It's almost as if that number sticks with him for some reason.

“Seriously, 174 times,” he said, shaking his head in amazement.

Asked how many times he was the target, he laughed again.

“Not 174 times,” he replied. “But this is part of the system. This is where I'm at. This is where my family is, this is where I draw income. This is where my W-2s are filed. So this is it.”

Former Panthers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson might have never been the best teammate, but he was a keen judge of character (so long as it wasn't his own). In his first season with the Panthers, he studied Smith carefully, and while talking with reporters one day, twisted his face into a tight scowl and dubbed his young partner “Angry Man.”