Steve Smith Apologizes for Playing Flag Football, Getting Hurt

Steve Smith broke his arm playing in a weekend flag football league recently, although the most pain he's dealt with has come in the form of media and Panthers-related backlash.

Oh, and his wife: according to an interview with The Mac Attack on 610 The Fan in Charlotte (it's thirty minutes long, but it's fantastic), Smith is also in a little bit of trouble with his spouse, because the broken arm forced them to cancel a trip to Wimbledon, where they were scheduled to see Smith's good friend -- and newly minted multi-record holder -- Josh Isner play.

The interview, however, was primarily focused on Smith lamenting his choice to play in a non-team-sanctioned flag football game.

"Obviously, I put my team and myself in a bad situation by playing," Smith said. "But that wasn't my intention and wasn't what I thought the outcome was going to be."

[...]"I wish I could take it back," Smith said. "But I am a regular guy outside of football. I mow my grass, too. I can get my finger chopped off fixing my lawnmower. I could roll my ankle playing tag or slip-n-slide with my kids. In hindsight, yeah, I won't do it again. But I was just having fun, playing with some guys."

Of course, Smith wasn't entirely repenting about his actions; he pointed out (with the type of emotion that typifies him as a person and a player) that this wasn't his first time engaging in such activities:

"If you get out of your little shallow box, you would understand it's more than just money for me in this game," Smith said. "This is what I grew up playing, and it was my offseason. Until freaking Father's Day, nothing had happened."

Later on, Mac actually asked him about Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk fame (with whom Smith has had some -- ahem -- issues with in prior interviews) and Smith's reaction to that was also a pretty tactful one, instead of an answer that compared paychecks.

The point of that is that it's quite clear that Smith -- after dealing with the reaction of his team, his fans, the media and his family -- is sorry for the injury, sorry for playing football and probably ready to move on and get prepped for the Panthers season.

And for everyone involved, that's the best possible ending to a situation that could have become much more flammable than it actually did.